Talk: The issue of scale in anarchy: an information perspective

Anarchist collectives are self-organized, non-hierarchical and anti-authoritarian. It is often argued that the scope of such collectives is limited, as they cannot grow in size or complexity without requiring some form of delegation or centralized hierarchical control. More generally, the emergence of control hierarchies in societies is viewed as unavoidable by mainstream historians, anthropologists, and theorists of “social complexity”. However, many anarchist collectives operate through networks that can be vast in scale and scope and may provide the blueprint for alternative social configurations. From an information perspective, these groups operate in a decentralized way, exchanging information locally and distributing decision-making across multiple nodes. This research aims to use agent-based modelling (ABM) as a tool for utopia-building. In the first stage, interviews with members of collectives in the neighbourhood of Vallcarca (Barcelona), are used to shape an ABM that abstracts the main information characteristics of their decision-making configurations, building on the theory of multi-scale systems. In the second stage, the model will be used to explore alternative futures and configurations with the same collectives, up-scaling current practices as a means to discuss possible realities outside of the dominant one. Questions of interest include how to deal with global issues (e.g., climate change) without deferring to delegation, how to include randomness in decision-making as a way to dilute power, and how to maintain consensus-based approaches in large-scale collectives.

Bio

Louisa Jane Di Felice is a post-doctoral researcher in the Autonomous Critical and Embedded Systems (ACES) group at Télécom Paris, part of the Computer Science and Networks Department, and in the Political Ecology Lab at the University of Barcelona, in the Department of Economic History and Institutions. She holds a PhD from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA) of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, where she studied the implications of complexity for energy models at the science-policy interface. Her main research interests include hierarchy theory and theories of multi-scale systems, complexity, sustainability and environmental justice.