Network figures: Reconfigurations of the Internet as a refiguration of spaces Netzwerkfiguren: Rekonfigurationen des Internets als Refiguration von Räumen
Steets S, Tuma R (2025)
Publication Type: Journal article
Publication year: 2025
Journal
DOI: 10.1007/s11609-025-00550-x
Abstract
Following discourses on the increasing fragmentation and centralization of the Internet, this article suggests a spatial and figuration-theoretical perspective on digital infrastructures. The thesis is that the current changes in the Internet can best be described as an infrastructural reconfiguration of its network figure and as a change of the associated imaginaries, which in turn can be traced back to the tensions between different logics of spatialization. Based on a discussion of the role of the network as a leitmotif of recent social analyses and the development of a concept of infrastructure based on the sociology of knowledge, the paper analyzes two recent empirical developments: the proliferation of content delivery networks (CDNs) and Google’s implementation of the Internet protocol QUIC. The article concludes, that the current changes in the Internet infrastructure—its fragmentation and centralization—can be better described using concepts from the theory of refiguration, as they highlight overlapping tensions and conflicts at different layers of the stack.
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Germany (DE)How to cite
APA:
Steets, S., & Tuma, R. (2025). Network figures: Reconfigurations of the Internet as a refiguration of spaces Netzwerkfiguren: Rekonfigurationen des Internets als Refiguration von Räumen. Berliner Journal für Soziologie. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11609-025-00550-x
MLA:
Steets, Silke, and René Tuma. "Network figures: Reconfigurations of the Internet as a refiguration of spaces Netzwerkfiguren: Rekonfigurationen des Internets als Refiguration von Räumen." Berliner Journal für Soziologie (2025).
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