Meanings of mass and multitude in modernity and contemporaneity

Abstract

This article is part of a larger, ongoing research, based on the evolving praxis of social movements, regarding the appropriation of information and communication technologies. Firstly, we observe the incursion of network movements toward a disseminated structure that subverts previous logic, based on hierarchy and bureaucracy, in which the notion of mass remains implied. Secondly, we observe how the concept of multitude, coined by Baruch Spinoza and actualized by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, helps how to understand the current manifestation of that global class, which joins in its hard core Communication Studies, cooperative and collaborative work. Our proposal is to address the categories of mass and multitude based on work of Elias Canetti, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri.