Alexia Maddoxfind me on twitter @alexiamadd

SerendipitySocial mobility, submerged networks and the structural pathways of unintended consequences

Overview

❖ The aim, the argument and the definition

❖ Technology, social networks & social mobility

❖ Serendipity, the flip-side of risk

❖ Serendipity & submerged networks

❖ Serendipity & social mobility

❖ Concluding reflections

The case studyThe literature

the aim

This paper aims to bring dispersed knowledge about serendipity into sharp focus and explore how the combination of an internet saturated society has forged lateral pathways for social mobility into a structural characteristic.

the argument

An often unacknowledged impact of the internet upon patterns of social organisation has been to routinise alternative pathways through which unpredictable connections generated within submerged networks produce social leverage.

the definition

Serendipity is a result of the extension of lateral social ties through self-directed networking, to form structural pathways where social interaction resonates through the dense networks of a digital community to produce unintended consequences.

Technology, social networks and social mobility

❖ The rise of open social structures.

❖ Foci of activity groups as increasing the density of social capital.

❖ Social networks as ‘made small’, searchable and facilitating navigation.

❖ Social mobility across social diversity.

❖ The pivotal role of weak ties and digital networked technologies.

❖ The power of submerged networks.

The case study community❖ Mixed methods study: participant

observation, in-person interviewing, online survey.

❖ People with interests in reptiles and amphibians.

❖ Marginalised community.❖ Occupants of the digital frontier.

Maddox, A. (2015) Research methods and global online communities: A case study, London, Ashgate.

image courtesy of @aerosynlex

Serendipity, the flip side of risk

Social networks as a function for search, navigation and connectivity.

“The community has a lot of nodes, and each person in that community is like a spider with sort of eight legs linking up to other nodes. But you have to hit the right node because there’s a lot of empty space between the nodes, and you cannot…you just don’t make the right links if you don’t know the right people. And it can take a lot of time to find the right contact.”

Daniel, a scientist on a mission to source crocodile embryos.

Serendipity & submerged networks

Submerged networks, online connections and ‘the wildest five years of my life’.

“To honest, it hadn’t even really crossed my mind until I had an overseas reptile keeper stay with me. He brought with him videos of his collections and animals back home. And he put this video on telly and my jaw hit the ground. The video starts, he walks into this room and flips the lid up on this box. A big black and white cobra rears up on her clutch of eggs. She’s hoodin’ out and there’s rattlesnakes going off and I just thought, “This stuff is amazing.”

Dave, amateur professional keeper.

Serendipity & social mobilitySelf-directed networking, prior actions (symbolic) and the leverage of weak ties.

“I got interested in lizards because a professor that I really admired [emotional tremor] when I was an undergrad, was into lizards. And then it was also a sort of natural inclination. When I was in Thailand as a teenager, I got a lizard tattoo. It wasn't a big thing for me. I’ve several tattoos and it wasn’t a big deal. But when I was speaking to this professor...we were discussing things and he said about lizards and I said, “Oh, I really like lizards,” [starts to speak faster and excitedly] and I showed him this tattoo and he immediately went, [intake of breath] “OK, you can work for me!”

Jill, postgraduate student studying lizards

Concluding reflections

❖ More thinking needs to be done about the structural affordances of serendipity within digital community.

❖ Further exploration of the personal ‘risk’ biography, self-directed networking and its relationship to social mobility.

❖ Consolidating view of submerged networks as structural pathways for unintended consequences.

Acknowledgements

❖ I am grateful for the support and engagement of the Herper community in this research.

❖ This research was funded through a Deakin University PhD scholarship and has continued to take shape based upon the data collected during this period.

❖ The field of researchers surrounding digital sociology have been influential, challenging and ground breaking. This has been an inspirational field to work within.