Our colleagues at Demos have published an interesting pamphlet that recently caught our eye. Network Citizens: Power and Responsibility at Work addresses many of the themes that influence of our work at MASS LBP.

What is the role of social networks in the workplace? How are they changing the dynamics between individuals and organizations and how can organizations harness the opportunities that new social networks have to offer?

In the 21st century, social networking has created a new world in which individuals interact. Demos wanted to find out how organizations were responding to the increasing importance and visibility of social networks at work. They state that network ecologies can have profoundly progressive implications but cannot be simply assumed. Networks can be as powerful—and perhaps more powerful—than the formal structures of an organization. It is a new landscape of great promise but one that also brings some more troubling implications in to view.

Network Citizens explores the relationship between social networks and formal organizational structures and examines some of the fault-lines within network ‘ecologies.’

According to the report, “networks can build meritocracy, openness and democracy—but then can also exclude and discriminate. They can help to diffuse power away from hierarchical structures—but they can hoard power for themselves, too.” In a flattening world, individuals are increasingly empowered by more sophisticated means of interaction and communication. But this heightened empowerment may also yield new inequalities.

Network Citizens asks, where might the new contours of power and inequality lie that will shape the network world?

The problem is indeed a significant one. “Without a better eye of these undercurrents, the hidden dynamics can cause sclerosis, denying the very gains in innovation, efficient and workplace values they were hoping an understanding of social networks would bring about.”

Download the report