Social intermediaries and the location of agency: a conceptual reconfiguration of social network sites

Abstract

Over recent years significant changes in the nature of online communication have taken place, not the least because of the emergence of Web 2.0 and the subsequent proliferation of Social Network Sites (SNS). These changes illuminate the need for having a precise conceptual apparatus that can grasp the complexity of contemporary online phenomena and their social dynamics. Exploring various accounts of SNS as part of the wider Web 2.0 realm, this paper approaches the widespread assumption that SNS bring forth a number of changes in the social as well as institutional arrangements surrounding their being used. Distinguishing between an instrumental and an institutional approach towards SNS, this paper suggests that contemporary research on SNS is roughly divided into two broad streams, one that focuses on how SNS are brought into service by users, and the other on how SNS bring users into service. The difference between these approaches is framed by suggesting a conceptual separation between individual-oriented and system-oriented agency. In order to overcome the difficulties attached to understanding the social dynamics of SNS as a distinct application within the Web 2.0 realm, it is argued that the term ‘social intermediaries’ offers a way to conceptualise SNS with respect to their functional position in the social realm, thus providing an important alternative to contemporary instrumental and institutional accounts.

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation (Riksbankens Jubileumsfond). The author is grateful to the editor of the journal and the anonymous referees for constructive comments and suggestions.

Notes

The concept of social intermediaries has been used elsewhere, most notably by Kahn (2010) for whom the term indicates various web-based tools for enabling portable identities across websites. In contrast, this paper suggests that the concepts of social intermediaries can be used as an alternative to SNS that allows for an understanding of the functional position that such intermediate agents assume.

The term front-end refers to the visible parts of Web 2.0 applications (i.e. the user interface) through which various kinds of informational input is made possible. In contrast, the term back-end is used to describe the invisible underlying mechanisms by which the same informational input is stored in databases and processed in order to provide a basis for the structuring of front-end experiences.

At the time of writing this paper (June 15, 2011), the web page to which Scholtz refers does not include O'Reilly's comment. A similar comment from the same author is however to be found at http://radar.oreilly.com/2007/10/todays-web-30-nonsense-blogsto.html (accessed 15 June 2011).