Anarchist Cybernetics: Control and Communication in Radical Politics (Organizations and Activism)

Through a focus on control (self-organisation) and communication (alternative social media platforms), Anarchist Cybernetics explores the structures and functions of radically participatory and democratic organisation. Discussing some of the structures that organisations can build that allow their members to directly control how the organisation behaves, the book takes inspiration from an often-misunderstood concept: cybernetics. Building of the work of cybernetician Stafford Beer and providing a radical reading of his Viable System Model, Anarchist Cybernetics makes a unique and timely contribution both to academic debates around anarchist organisation and radical politics more generally and to broader public debates about how organisations can be democratised to allow for more participation by their members. With continuing discussions around the world about popular sovereignty and ‘taking back control’, the book outlines a clear set of proposals for how organisations can function effectively in radically democratic ways. While other contributions to these discussions often priorities one side of the communication-organisation relationship over the other, Anarchist Cybernetics addresses both and show how they are interrelated and that effective organisation demands a consideration of both. Front Cover Series page Anarchist Cybernetics: Control and Communication in Radical Politics Copyright information Table of contents About the Author Acknowledgements Preface: Organizations and Activism 1 2011: The Year Everything Nothing Changed The movement of the squares Anarchist cybernetics Discovering cybernetics Overview of the book 2 Radical Left Organisation and Networks of Communication Anarchism as a theory of organisation Self-organisation and democracy Intersectional anarchism Social media, communication and networks Many-to-many communication Conclusion 3 Anarchism and Cybernetics: A Missed Opportunity Revisited One possible history of cybernetics Stafford Beer and the radicalisation of cybernetics The Viable System Model System One – Primary activities System Two – Coordination System Three – Self-regulation System Four – Awareness System Five – Identity Requisite variety, control and self-organisation Second-order cybernetics Anarchism and cybernetics Functional hierarchy An anarchist VSM? Conclusion 4 Control (Part I): Tactics, Strategy and Grand Strategy System and metasystem in the VSM Tactics and strategy in anarchist politics Prefiguration Strategy and participation Experimentation, flexibility and adaptation Grand strategy Conclusion 5 Control (Part II): Effective Freedom and Collective Autonomy Autonomy in organisational cybernetics Functional autonomy Anarchism and autonomy Collective autonomy Consensus decision making Exclusion Conclusion 6 Communication (Part I): Information and Noise in the Age of Social Media Cybernetics, information theory and communication Theorising noise in communication Thinking critically about noise Gordon Pask’s conversation theory Pink noise Organising noise and communication Conclusion 7 Communication (Part II): Building Alternative Social Media Alternative media Four critiques of social media Building alternative social media Design Form Existing alternatives Conclusion 8 Organising Radical Left Populism Radical politics since 2011 and the electoral turn Anarchism and radical left populism Coexistence and hybridity A strategic anarchism References Index Back Cover From Occupy, to the Indignados and the Arab Spring, the uprisings that marked the last decade ignited a re-emergence of participatory democracy as a political ideal within organizations. This pioneering book introduces cybernetic thinking to politics and organizational studies to explore the continuing development of this radical idea. With a focus on communication and how alternative social media platforms present new challenges and opportunities for radical organising, it sheds new light on the concepts of self-organization, consensus decision making, individual autonomy and collective identity. Revolutionising the way in which anarchist activists and theorists think about organizations, this unprecedented investigation makes a major contribution to the larger discussion of direct democracy. -- Provided by publisher Igniting a new field of scholarly inquiry, this pioneering book introduces cybernetic thinking to politics and organizational studies to explore the continuing development of the radical idea of participatory democracy within organizations.