Early Modern Social Networks, 1500-1800

The Early Modern Center of the University of California at Santa Barbara is hosting its eleventh annual conference, “Early Modern Social Networks, 1500-1800.” The conference will take place on March 16-17, 2012 at UCSB and will feature keynote speakers Ann Blair (Harvard University), Elizabeth Eger (King’s College London), and James Raven (University of Essex).

The word “network” is more likely to call to mind computer connection than the “glittering net-work” of a spider-web (E. Darwin, The Botanic Garden, 1781) or a “Mantle of blacke silke” (Book of Robes, 1600). What is the link between such “curious Piece[s] of network” (Addison, Spectator 275, 1712) and contemporary social networking? These older uses of network illuminate the development of early modern techniques of loose connection. By contrast with a chain-of-being model, networks are versatile, allowing for manifold modes of association. This conference will explore early modern networks of both human and nonhuman actors in areas such as knowledge production, religious practice, international trade, infrastructure development, and others. In the area of knowledge production, for example, one might ask: what social practices were developed to manage the early modern “explosion” of knowledge? How were the ownership claims of the producers of knowledge and users of knowledge negotiated? We speculate that social networking, in the broad sense that we are using it, lies behind many of the transformations of the three centuries after 1500.

This interdisciplinary two-day conference will consist of keynote talks and panel discussions that will encourage all participants to engage the issues raised throughout the conference.