Christian Borch

Urban imitations : Tarde's sociology revisited

Although long forgotten, the sociology of Gabriel Tarde has suddenly re-emerged. This article backs up the renewed interest in Tarde in four ways. First, drawing upon the systems theory of Niklas Luhmann, it demonstrates that the usual critique of Tarde is false: Tarde’s theory of imitation is not trapped in any kind of psychologism but is, indeed, a pure sociology. Against this background, the second part of the article argues that the notion of imitation is closely tied to urbanity, which brings Tarde close to the spatial turn of social thought. While Tarde’s work thus seems compatible with contemporary sociological currents, it also transcends what is presently discussed. The third part of the article therefore examines Tarde’s analysis of urban crowds, as the crowd demonstrates the paradoxical nature of the social. Finally, drawing upon Henri Lefebvre, the article outlines the contours of a particular, contemporary Tardean analysis of imitations. More specifically, the suggestion is to add a more explicitly structural dimension to Tarde’s work, which, it is argued, may be accomplished by pursuing a rhythmanalysis. The rhythmanalysis enables one to bring together Tarde’s focus on imitation, urbanity and crowds.

Systemic power : Luhmann, foucault, and analytics of power

Niklas Luhmann’s theory of power is based on two fundamental pillars. First, he analyzes power functionally as a symbolically generalized medium of communication, which endows his conception of power with a strong evolutionary foundation. Second, he claims that power is constitutively tied to negative sanctions. Drawing upon Michel Foucault’s analytics of power, the article is a critical examination of Luhmann’s theory of power. In particular, Foucault’s critique of the so-called discourse of sovereignty is transformed into an immanent critique of the second pillar in Luhmann’s theory of power. The argument is that this pillar is converse to Luhmann’s evolutionary theoretical objectives, as it reinstalls an Old-European semantics of power. The article contends that systems theory would better redeem its historical goals if it focused primarily upon the functional dimension of power. It is argued that this conceptual revision endows systems theory with a more flexible perspective on power that is both attentive to historical transformations of how power is exercised, and which still carries a strong link to a general theory of society and its evolution. In the article, this openness is demonstrated through a systemic reconstruction of Foucault’s notion of subjectification which, in its Luhmannian version, is coined semantic intrusion.

Organizational Atmospheres: Foam, Affect and Architecture

This article discusses the contribution of Peter Sloterdijk’s theory of spheres to organization theory. Specifically, I apply Sloterdijk’s sphereological notion of foam to obtain a new perspective on organizations. It is argued that a foam-theoretical approach provides a simultaneous focus on organizational dynamics of affective imitation, on the spatial and architectural dimensions of organizations and, finally, on the politics of organizational atmospheres. The article opens with a brief introduction to Sloterdijk’s sphere theory and then proceeds by applying his notion of foam to organizations. This includes a comparison between the foam-theoretical angle and existing perspectives in organization theory. Next I discuss Sloterdijk’s analyses of the spatiality of foam. In the final part of the article, I argue for taking seriously the politics and management of organizational atmospheres.

The Exclusion of the Crowd The Destiny of a Sociological Figure of the Irrational

In the late 19th century, a comprehensive semantics of crowds emerged in European social theory, dominated in particular by Gustave Le Bon and Gabriel Tarde. This article extracts two essential, but widely neglected, sociological arguments from this semantics. First, the idea that irrationality is intrinsic to society and, second, the claim that individuality is plastic rather than constitutive. By following the destiny of this semantics in its American reception, the article demonstrates how American scholars soon transformed the conception of crowds. Most importantly, the theoretical cornerstone of the European semantics, the notion of suggestion, was severely challenged in the USA. It is argued that this rejection of the suggestion doctrine paved the way for a distinctive American approach to crowds and collective behaviour in which the early European emphasis on irrationality was ignored and crowds were analysed as rational entities. This may have relieved the discomfort of irrationality but it is also entirely disposed of what were in fact crucial sociological insights. The article recalls the semantics of crowds in order to evoke an early branch of social theory that still contains a provocative gesture.

Body to Body: On the Political Anatomy of Crowds*:

This article challenges the negative image that, since the late 19th century, has been associated with crowds, and it does so by focusing on a number of bodily-anatomic aspects of crowd behavior. I first demonstrate that the work of one of the leading crowd psychologists, Gustave Le Bon, instigated a racist body politics. As a contrast to Le Bons political program, I examine Walt Whitmans poetry and argue that the crowd may embody a democratic vision that emphasizes the social and political import of sexuality and body-to-body contact. Further, I dispute classical crowd theorys idea of an antagonistic relationship between crowds and individuality. Following Elias Canetti, I claim instead that the bodily compression of crowds in fact liberates individuals and creates a democratic transformation. The analysis results in a rehabilitation of crowds and briefly suggests how a reinterpretation of crowd behavior may inform current debates in social theory.

Crowds and economic life: bringing an old figure back in

Abstract This article revitalizes the notion of crowds and emphasizes its value for economic sociology. The relationship between crowds and economic life is examined both semantically and theoretically. From a semantic point of view, there is a long history of conceiving financial speculation and financial markets in crowd terminology. Even current analyses in sociology and economics suggest that financial markets are characterized by a crowd syndrome. While economic theory asserts that this crowd syndrome is mainly to be identified in fluctuating markets, the article contends that a reinterpretation of the basic assumption in early crowd theory, the idea of suggestion, improves our understanding also of everyday economic processes. Specifically, it argues that suggestion refers to a semiconscious state, a state between purposive and affective action. This notion of the semiconscious is contrasted with the embeddedness approach in recent economic sociology.

Training response of adolescent Kenyan town and village boys to endurance running

To investigate the response to endurance training on physiological characteristics, 10 Nandi town boys and 14 Nandi village boys 16.5 and 16.6 years of age, respectively, from western Kenya performed 12 weeks of running training. The study was performed at altitude (∼2000 m.a.s.l. ∼595 mm Hg). Training heart rate and speed were registered during every training session throughout the entire training period. While town and village boys trained at similar heart rates (172.1 vs. 172.5 beats min−1), the training speed of the town boys was 9% lower compared with the village boys (12.4 vs. 13.6 km h−1, P<0.001). Significant increases in VO2max were observed in the town boys (from 50.3 to 55.6 mL kg−1 min−1, P<0.001) and in village boys (from 56.0 to 59.1 mL kg−1 min−1, P<0.002). Significant decreases in submaximal heart rate (from 172.4 to 160.3 beats min−1 (P<0.005)), blood lactate (from 2.7 to 1.4 mmol L−1 (P<0.005)) and ammonia concentration (from 102.0 to 71.4 μmol L−1 (P<0.01)) at 9.9 km h−1 were observed in the town boys, while similar decreases in heart rate (from 170.2 to 159.2 beats min−1 (P<0.001)), blood lactate (from 2.4 to 1.4 mmol L−1 (P<0.001)) and ammonia concentration (from 102.5 to 72.7 lmol L−1 (P<0.001)) at 10.9 km h−1 were observed in the village boys. The oxygen cost of running was decreased from 221.5 to 211.5 mL kg−1 km−1 (P<0.03) in the town boys and from 220.1 to 207.2 mL kg−1 km−1 (P<0.01) in the village boys. The 5000 m performance time of the town boys was significantly greater than that of the village boys (20.25 vs. 18.42 min (P=0.01)). It is concluded that no difference was observed in trainability with respect to VO2max, running economy, submaximal heart rate, and submaximal blood lactate and ammonia concentration between Kenyan Nandi town and village boys. The higher performance level of the village boys was likely due to a higher VO2max of these boys.

Foam architecture: managing co-isolated associations

Abstract This article analyses Peter Sloterdijks grand trilogy on spheres which re-conceptualizes our being-together and its spatial conditions. After a brief outline of the main objectives of sphereology, I analyse the notion of foam which, Sloterdijk argues, should replace the concept of society. I here explore the sociological theories that form the backdrop to Sloterdijks idea of foam sociality, in particular Gabriel Tardes monadological sociology of imitation but also the vitalist impulse that is central to the immunology of the foam theory, and which Sloterdijk inherits from Hermann Broch. The following section examines one of the important contributions of the foam theory, namely, its explicit engagement with architecture. In the final part, I offer a foam-theoretical interpretation of environmental crime prevention. This case study brings together foam theory, immunology and the focus on architecture.

Crime Prevention as Totalitarian Biopolitics

The article examines a number of prescriptions from The Danish Crime Prevention Council and argues that in the name of prevention, ever‐new social and materiel technologies are invented to regulate the life of ordinary citizens. The article contends that this may be interpreted as a comprehensive attempt to exercise power, that is, to structure the possible field of actions of others. But what is more, the rationality of crime prevention amounts to an almost totalitarian biopolitical strategy, as it focuses on virtually all dimensions of life: our health, the way we live, our identities, how we play, the way we move, our relations to neighbours, etc. This biopolitical rationality of crime prevention is closely associated with a more general focus on risk and responsibility.

Crowd Theory and the Management of Crowds: A Controversial Relationship

Sociologists of policing and collective protest have made a plea for eradicating from police literature and training programmes which aim to provide guidelines for crowd management any references to classical crowd theory where crowds are depicted as irrational entities. Instead, these scholars suggest, rational conceptions of crowds should inform contemporary crowd management. This article questions this plea on two grounds. First, it demonstrates that there is no unidirectional connection between sociological crowd theory (whatever its content) and practical strategies for governing crowds. The tactical polyvalence of crowd theory is illustrated by showing how the irrational conception of crowds has given rise to very different strategies for the management of crowds (urban reform programmes in the Progressive Era and Hitler’s mobilization strategies, respectively). Second, the article argues that, in spite of its current scholarly popularity, there is no guarantee that the call for a practical employment of the rational notion of crowds will necessarily be successful. This is demonstrated by stressing, on the one hand, that irrational notions of crowds continue to thrive, thereby rendering a turn towards rational approaches difficult, and, on the other hand, that the rational approaches in their ignorance of collective emotional arousal present an inadequate picture of crowds and consequently have limited scope as guidelines for crowd management strategies.