I network. Modelli e processi di comunicazione, socialità e produzione delle conoscenze

Mariella Berra’s work, “Sociologia delle reti telematiche”, presents an original and comprehensive perspective which involves the complex relation between communication networks and the global economy processes, the transformation of work organization, and the new forms of socialization on line. A central focus in Berra’s reflection is the idea of the networks as complex socio-technical systems: they’re not only the “infrastructures of contemporaneity” but tend to become “sense” and “content” of our present social relations, cognitive processes and production practices. According to this perspective Berra’s work can be placed among the socio-technical analysis of Patrice Flichy and Luciano Gallino, even though her book emphasises some central nodes peculiar to the communication networks: the increasing value of knowledge as a common good, the emerging role of cooperative production processes compared to traditional models based on competition and the importance of on line communication as a new mean of access and democratization of institutional policies.