Networks, Society, and Polis: Epistemological Approaches on Mediatization

José Luiz Braga 242 Correlatively, in the academic approach, there is a ten- dency to emphasize these same perspectives in studies that claim to be comprehensive. However, we need to add a fourth angle of transversal relevance: the communicational dimension. My research gives prevalence to the communicational process- es that are evident in all the referred diversity – even though they are shaped by the different social fields of its occurrence and the diverse theoretical ambits activated in the investiga- tion. These modalizations – economic, technological, political, cultural... – should not be forgotten or considered secondary in our communicational perspective. But what I want to observe is how , in these diverse structures, communication takes place . Better yet, to reflect on the communicational issue that may be related to this particular situation of diversity and dispersion. This corresponds to saying that one of our theoretical concerns is to understand the general logics that underlie diversification. And, here, we believe that a strictly communicational perspec- tive may offer good hints. It is not a matter of proposing a communicational ex- planation that opposes the others or aims to surpass them. It is rather to understand, in articulation with those social dynamics, some directly communicative processes in action. And based on that, to pose some general questions that favor analytical input. To do so, we need to draw attention to some preliminary fea- tures of the processes that lead to interactional arrangements and that may suggest some dimensions of variation (or “lines of variation,” as Deleuze [1989, p. 193] would say). IV – System of relations Social networks have always existed, ensuring their in- teractional processes according to the availability of the histori- cal moment. Society is an overlay of interactional networks at distinct levels, with different powers and ranges. Networks cannot be defined by the simple fact that dif - ferent people and groups can express themselves or produce broadcasts aiming at all other participants. Before, they get char- acterized by the systems of relations which develop among these