Dear all, Those interested might find at the URL: http://www.math.upatras.gr/~mboudour/articles/nfc.pdf a first draft of my paper on Networks, Fluids and Chaos that I intend to present to the Spacing & Timing Conference to take place in Palermo (Italy) next month. I guess this topic is not exactly among the interests of the list but since recently we had a discussion about ANT in here, you might find in my paper some of the more recent developments of the Latourians (plus Bauman). The abstarct follows. Cheers, --Moses Boudourides http://www.math.upatras.gr/~mboudour Abstract: Our aim in this essay is to talk about three forms of social spatiality: networks, fluids and chaos. These forms are being inscribed into various theories and are being mobilized into multiple translations (metaphors) as states in which things exist or as processes through which things are transformed. According to Latour, two are the essential characteristics of processes producing what is specific to our modern scientific culture that one has to follow if determined to avoid both 'mentalist' and 'materialist' explanations: mobility and mutability. Mobility refers to easiness in translations, displacements and movements towards various directions. Mutability is the degree to which something can change, be transformed and mutate. Combinations of mobility/mutability and their opposites produce the following four spatialities: immutable immobiles, immutable mobiles, mutable mobiles and mutable immobiles. We would like to see these spatialies along what we call the 'cycle of mobility/immutability,' which consists of the following processes: inscription, geometric purification, description and hybridization. When modern information and communication technologies mediate these spatialities, the outcome emerges through processes such as digital inscriptions, algorithmic purification, morphing, simulation. Furthermore, we discuss certain sociological and cultural aspects of the social spatialities of networks, fluids and chaos.