The Network Turn
Changing Perspectives in the Humanities

Networks are a category of study that cuts across traditional academic barriers, uniting diverse disciplines.

Ruth Ahnert (Author), Sebastian E. Ahnert (Author), Catherine Nicole Coleman (Author), Scott B. Weingart (Author)

9781108791908, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 21 January 2021

75 pages
17.8 x 12.1 x 0.7 cm, 0.14 kg

We live in a networked world. Online social networking platforms and the World Wide Web have changed how society thinks about connectivity. Because of the technological nature of such networks, their study has predominantly taken place within the domains of computer science and related scientific fields. But arts and humanities scholars are increasingly using the same kinds of visual and quantitative analysis to shed light on aspects of culture and society hitherto concealed. This Element contends that networks are a category of study that cuts across traditional academic barriers, uniting diverse disciplines through a shared understanding of complexity in our world. Moreover, we are at a moment in time when it is crucial that arts and humanities scholars join the critique of how large-scale network data and advanced network analysis are being harnessed for the purposes of power, surveillance, and commercial gain. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Introduction
Part I. Frameworks: 1. Networks are always metaphorical
2. Historical threads
Part II Cultural Networks: 3. Culture is data
4. Visual networks
Part III Manoeuvres: 5. Quantifying culture
6. Networking the 'Divided Kingdom'.

Subject Areas: Literary reference works [DSR], Literary studies: general [DSB], Literary theory [DSA]