Mimesis, network theory and digital social networks

Abstract

We analyse the formal theory of networks and the new digital media from the perspective of mimetic theory. It is emphasised that the spatial form of the new media is characterised by distribution functions that are power laws. We  show that this spatial form can be derived from the presence of mimetic desire in digital social networks. Finally, we show that network theory allows the representation of the scapegoat mechanism as it was analysed by René Girard.