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Article:
Andere Kanäle. Insektengesellschaften und die Suche nach den Medien des Sozialen

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Abstract

The article attends to a conceptual exchange process within the early history of French sociology, exemplified here by readings of Alfred Espinas and Gabriel Tarde. It will be demonstrated that in addition to the «crowd» insect societies also became relevant models in the emergence of the modern concept of society. The two theories share the question, how social collectives emerge from the psychic exchanges between physically separated, at first solitary individuals. The answers condense in two key concepts: social imitation and mental action at a distance. Sociality appears to be the result of social mediality. The last part traces how these likewise physiological and social concepts of transmission and mediality were shifted to a notion of media in the now customary narrower sense.

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Johach, Eva: Andere Kanäle. Insektengesellschaften und die Suche nach den Medien des Sozialen. In: Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft, Jg. 3 (2011), Nr. 1, S. 71-82.10.25969/mediarep/2544
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The item has been published with the following license: Unter Urheberrechtsschutz