Dupuy's view on economism
11 Nov. 2013

Petrus Simons email@example.com
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Dupuy's view on economism
11 Nov. 2013F800BBCFC224D32CF7A879A69D6A07B810.4102/koers.v78i1.2110Received: 18 Apr. 2013 Accepted: 19 July 2013
This article is an extended review of Jean-Pierre Dupuy's (2012) book: L'avenir de l'economie; sortir de l'econo-mystification.

Introduction

Jean-Pierre Dupuy (born 1941) is professor emeritus of the French École Polytechnique and professor at the University of Stanford.After a career spanning 30 years as an economist, he turned to philosophy.During the 1970s he collaborated with the philosopher, Ivan Illich , on issues of health.Dupuy's (2012) view of the world has been influenced by the French philosopher, René Girard (born 1923), who is known for considering human culture as a realm of violence, marked by, amongst other things, envy, leading to mimesis, or attempts at rivalry.Given that Girard contrasts our violent human culture with the Kingdom of God, Dupuy's analysis of the financial crisis which erupted in the United States of America (USA) and swept around the world in 2008 and the following years should deeply interest adherents of reformational philosophy.

In the light of this philosophy's emphasis on 'sphere sovereignty', or the differentiation of culture into distinct spheres subject to their own specific norms, but yet forming an interdependent society (known as 'sphere universality'), Dupuy's view that the State (politics) has become subservient to financial markets (legio), whilst the matters economic (i.e. the whole sphere of business, finance and money) have far too large a place in our lives, should have our immediate sympathy.

Dupuy denounces the view that it is right for economics to have the upper hand because it stands for what is rational and efficient, whereas politics is full of irrational influences.By bowing to the Page 1 of 7

Dupuy se siening van ekonomisme.Die Franse ekonoom en filosoof Jean-Pierre Dupuy het die aandag gevestig op finansiële en handelsmagte se dominering van die samelewing.Hy het ook aangetoon hoe ekonomiese rasionalisme 'n dominerende rol in die samelewing speel, spesifiek deur die metodologie vir die maksimering van wins, nut, verhuring, geluk en die verskaffing van geskikte insentiewe.Finansiële markte is grootliks irrasioneel in hulle beweging van grootskaalse oplewings en plotselinge prysstygings tot bankrotskap en bevorder 'n spekulatiewe mentaliteit regdeur die samelewing.Die samelewing self word vergelyk met 'n supermark waarin ons 'n keuse maak uit 'n wye reeks van nou-verwante alternatiewe sonder om 'n idee te hê van wat die ongunstige gevolge inhou.Dit is 'n vorm van fatalisme.Die bedreiging wat grootskaalse katastrofes inhou word onderspeel.Sodanige katastrofes sluit in 'n atoom-ontbranding, klimaatsverandering en morele ineenstortings, veral individualisme wat gestimuleer word deur begeerte as 'n kernmotiveerder van oneindige ekonomiese groei.Die outeur se voorstel van verligte katastrofisme word bespreek en 'n alternatief in die vorm van 'n verligte omverwerping word voorgestel.So 'n alternatief is geïnspireer deur bewegings wat die vermoë van gesinne en diegene wie verantwoordelik is vir die bestuur van besighede, onderwys en gesondheid versterk om hulle eie roepings in gemeenskaplike diens uit te leef.

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demands of the economic without questioning them, we are turning it into a religion and this endangers our future -and, indeed, our politics -because we have no way of limiting its scope.This is what the author understands by economystification, but which I would prefer to call 'economism', because it involves an absolutisation of what is meant to be no more than a mode of being: the responsible stewardship of resources given to us, alongside many others that are equally important.Dupuy (2012) has written a conceptual pamphlet to demonstrate how modern society has become subservient to economics and its rationality and, therefore, cannot be regulated from the outside any more.Economics rules by the ethics of ruthless competition.A summary of seven key points of the analysis is provided below.

Overview of Dupuy's essay

The dominance of financial markets

Governments reacted in panic to the financial crisis which erupted in 2007 and 2008.Their leaders have made many compromises and unheard-of efforts to balance their budgets so as to pacify the markets.Journalists have referred to the crisis as a tsunami, a blind natural force.Yet it was a moral crisis.Sacrifices have been made to placate the markets at the expense of employment, the environment, education and other vital services.Sacrifices used to be made only to what was considered sacred.Over the past four centuries, the world has become disenchanted and desacralised.Commerce and economics have taken the place of the sacred as a remedy for being ruled by our passions.Friedrich A. von Hayek argued that incentives should play no role in economic life, because that would subject people to the arbitrary will of another human being.If the economic system were to work without human interference, it would provide an abstract, impersonal rule, similar to a law of nature, so that passions such as envy and resentment would cease to have any impact.

Analyses of the financial crisis often make false distinctions -for instance, by contrasting the real economy, which produces goods and services, and the speculative economy.We speculate by buying what we do not need in the belief that somebody else will desire to have it and be prepared to pay a higher price for it at a future date.However, desires also play a strong role in the 'real' economy.Financial operators have been speculating on future rising values of food and rare raw materials, even by buying or constructing warehouses.

By casting doubt on the ability of states to repay their debts, the financial markets have forced central banks to create massive amounts of liquidity to keep the financial markets operating.Such panic reactions indicate that the economic or financial system is unable to limit or regulate itself.This is also borne out by the enormous swings in the financial markets from booms to busts.During the 1990s a speculative boom developed around the Internet (dot.com).It collapsed not long after the turn of the century.When speculators turned from shares to real estate (based on sub-prime mortgages issued in the USA), another major boom occurred.Its collapse is the cause of the current crisis.

When a boom is in full swing, the participants believe that it will go on forever.Benoit B. Mandelbrot (1924-2010), a complexity theorist, illustrates this with the story of the captain of a ship that is sailing across a lake in thick fog and who does not know where the opposite bank is.The longer he sails, the more he thinks that the water is very wide and that the bank will be a long way off yet.But he may hit that bank sooner than he thinks!Nobody believes that globalisation, and capitalism as its core element, will come to an end: it will end, it is thought, only as a result of a major catastrophe.Yet, we are moving between the destruction of nature caused by the operation of our technical-economic system, on the one hand, and, on the other, extreme human violence, especially in the form of a general nuclear conflict.Financial investors put this reality far out of their minds.

The excessive place of economics in life today

By so closing their eyes to the destructive tendencies of the technical-economic system, the financial investors prove to be followers of 'homo economicus'.As long as expected profits appear to exceed costs, all expressed in monetary terms, investments should proceed.Such calculations are now made by most modern citizens, as documented by Schirrmacher (2013).Everything is for sale, even politicians (through funding of their election campaigns in exchange for promises).The only norm that counts nowadays is efficiency, which works by a rational or economic calculation of costs and benefits.As soon as costs exceed benefits, one should terminate a service, a car or even the life of a human being.Dupuy (2012) refers to the 'statistical fact' that we incur most of the costs of medical care during the last year of our life.By that time the monetary benefits we contribute to society will have declined to almost zero.Utilitarians are inclined to use this statistic to question why we spend such large amounts of money on the last year of life when it could have been spent on our younger years.

Take the scenario where a certain sum of money could be spent on (1) cancer research and/or (2) the elimination of black spots on roads.Here one maximises the number of lives saved by comparing marginal revenues and marginal costs for each activity.If the number of lives saved could be increased by switching money from road improvements to cancer research or vice versa, one finds the point where such switches would not save any more lives.At this optimal point the value of a human life is determined.When costs exceed this value, no more effort to save lives should be expended.Similarly, one can calculate the maximum number of patients who can be treated cost-effectively.By means of such calculations the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ([IPCC] international panel of scientists who study climate change for the United Nations) has worked out that a life lost because of climate change in Mexico is much more valuable than one lost in Bangladesh.In other words, a human being is valued only as a sum of money.

Violence

When economics, with its maximisation of 'utility', becomes the dominating religion of our time, it ceases to be able to limit itself.No limits are imposed upon it from the outside.Government cannot do this because it has become part of the economic system.This implies that all barriers to violence have been removed; climate warming cannot be stopped; as nuclear weapons are being miniaturised, they become like 'normal' weapons and this may lead to a general nuclear conflict.In the light of real and potential disasters, the protection of nuclear power stations may not be as strong as required, as was shown by Fukushima in 2011.

The only regulation that applies to economics is a form of self-transcendence.Under conditions of perfect competition, individual firms and consumers take prices as a given.Yet, through their buying and selling, they collectively set prices.In contrast, since no monetary values are set for restoring the natural environment or the climate, such regulation is unable to prevent pollution, climate warming and armed conflicts over scarce resources.Dupuy (2012) relates an enlightening fable.An inventor visits the president of a large country that is suffering a severe business downturn and tells him that he has an invention that would accelerate growth and return the country to its former prosperity.However, there is a price to pay: he should accept an annual death toll of 20 000 people.The president shudders and decides not to proceed.He has just rejected the invention of the motor car.In actual fact, worldwide, 1.2 million people are killed every year in car accidents, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The general issue raised here is this: How many innocent victims are we prepared to sacrifice on the altar of the common good?The moral issue of deaths on the roads is easily turned into a natural phenomenon by saying that the deaths result from car traffic flows which are subject to hydro-dynamic laws and statistical regularities.

Time and prophecy

Why is it that we so easily accept such large numbers of fatalities?Is it possible to say that our failure in this regard results from a lack of faith in the future?This would be the more surprising, given that the economic system presupposes that there will be a future and that people will honour the promises they make.One makes and sells something only if one believes that the buyer will pay for it.Capital investment in new technologies or new products assumes that once they are ready, they will have a market.Indeed, the (silent) assumption is that we have an indefinite future.Were we to know, for instance, that the future will end in 20 or 30 years' time, no long-term capital investment would take place.All structures with a long-term value would become worthless.This would effectively also reduce the values of shorter-term assets.As a result, the whole economic system would seize.

The current financial crisis is based on doubts as to whether creditor states will repay the loans they have contracted themselves into or underwritten.As a result, such states find it very difficult to keep borrowing, if only to refinance their borrowings.Consequently, interest rates rise and add to everyone's debt burdens.

Given the crucial nature of the future, forecasts are important.Some forecasters have such a high reputation that people act on their views, with the result that the forecast future tends to be realised (self-fulfilling prophecies).

Economic rationalism and the future

Since the outcome of our investing and financing lies in the future, the theory of rational choice says not only that 'rational people respond to incentives' but also that 'they will also consider the future consequences of present choices' (Harford 2008:9).Dupuy (2012) casts doubt on this last statement.In supermarkets we may choose one brand of washing powder from 30 available; but would we consider any future consequences of the choices we make there?Max Weber ([1930] 1992) held that the belief of the Puritan Calvinists in predestination, as well as the Lutheran emphasis on our God-given calling to work, explains their work ethic and the spirit of capitalism.Up to this day, key capitalist centres tend to be Protestant rather than Catholic.

Especially with reference to Puritans such as Baxter in New England (in the 17th century), Weber believed that Calvinists sought a guarantee for their election to eternal life by working hard in their earthly callings.If they experienced success, then this indicated a blessing from God and a sign that he had truly elected them.

From the standpoint of economic rationalism, this is very strange, because they should have chosen a dominant strategy or 'sure thing principle' of doing little, given that their eternal destiny was beyond their control.Clearly, the Calvinists rejected such a dominant strategy, although they might have admitted that they could have opted for it.Dupuy (2012) believes that this strange way of believing simultaneously in predestination and in free will may be similar to existentialism.He quotes Jean-Paul Sartre: 'I believe that my friend Pierre is friendly to me i.e.I decide to believe it and I conduct myself as if I were certain about it.'In rational choice theory such a position is known as evidentialist.It is a story we tell ourselves, a fiction.We can also apply this to Weber's ([1930] 1992) thesis: the Calvinists know that they have been predestined and that by refusing the choice of fatalism and choosing to work assiduously, with such works being the effect of their predestination, they 'choose' their predestination counter-factually.From this point of view the actual choice of the Calvinists springs from a 'logic' that is different from, perhaps even superior to, that of rational choice theory.

In this regard, Dupuy (2012) refers to a paradox suggested by William Newcomb.Suppose there are two boxes.One is closed and one is transparent.The latter contains R10 000; the other may contain R1 million, if and only if a predictor foresees that the person will choose this box only.So, one may choose the closed box or both boxes.Rational people are inclined to take the two boxes and end up with ten thousand rand.This is also the choice of fatalists.Those who do not follow this logic and take only the closed box end up with R1m.

Calvinists are like those who take the closed box only.They work very hard because they want to convince themselves that they are elected forever.Dupuy (2012) sees a similarity in the story of his daughter, who travelled from Rio de Janeiro to Paris one day before a plane crashed on the same route at the same time.He told his daughter that if she had left a day later, she would have been killed.'But papa,' she said, 'if I had booked that flight, it would not have crashed.'He characterises such a belief as follows: the future determines the past counter-factually, although the past determines the future causally.This may involve either 'bad faith' or 'good faith'.

Competing individuals

Our author illustrates 'bad faith' on the basis of Camus's (1942) novel The outsider.The protagonist, Meursault, tends to look at himself, his relationships and the world at large, as it were, from the outside.He kills an Arab involuntarily.At the end of the story, when he is facing execution, he makes a confession to a priest.As a sulk he believes that he wants to be alone and that it is society that is envious of him as somebody who is different and it is society which, therefore, persecutes him.Compared to the 'self-election' of the Calvinist, Meursault self-excludes himself.Moreover, he needs others (god for him) so that they might know that he does not need them.Dupuy calls this a feature of modern individualism.As such, individualism is a lie, but a collective lie to itself.It requires a strange and negative co-operation with others.We need others to compete with, to surpass, if not to eliminate.This is similar to the dialogue in Adam Smith's 'Theory of moral sentiments' between the man within the breast, who is subject to passions and desires, and the rational impartial spectator.All desires converge on material wealth, because it attracts the admiring regards of others.Compared to the immutability of God, the value of what others think is very fickle.It is this desire for admiration (self-conceit) that is the basis of our desire for indefinite economic growth.Dupuy's (2012) preference is for 'good faith' in the form of the time of a project.Before I acted, I could have done something different; but once I have acted, it will always be true that I could not have acted differently.This metaphysics is shared by most of the world's rural populations.One should always act in such a way that the action would be causally possible if foreseen by an omniscient predictor.One should therefore not make promises that cannot be kept.

No to fatalism

However, in contrast to such 'good faith', 'bad faith', or the fatalism of economic rationalists, prevails today.Fatalists adopt a dominant strategy, that is, taking the two boxes in Newcomb's problem and finding the closed one empty or leading a life of idleness as we cannot change our eternal destiny.A society which believes that it is led by rationalism does not believe that the future can be forecast, because it is formed by human will.This is exactly the fatalism of the dominant strategy rejected by Weber's ([1930] 1992) Calvinists.

If we think of our society as a supermarket, then we all have myriad ways in which we can go.We choose the best.So we believe.Since, as individualists, we do not trust anybody else, economic transactions are hardly possible (will a buyer pay his bill?).Ethics has to come into play as a deus ex machina [an unexpected power or event saving a hopeless situation], often in the form of state law, to prevent chaos and violence.General mistrust, as evidenced in the current financial crisis, closes the temporal horizon as people and organisations turn in on themselves.Economic rationalists are those who will find Newcomb's closed box empty.

Rejecting this approach, Dupuy (2012) opts for a version of project time which he dubs 'enlightened catastrophism', which is the (unknown) time that separates us from the occurrence of surmised tragedies.We should let ourselves be guided by the future we have projected.Although we possess all the information needed to surmise major moral, natural, industrial or technical catastrophes, those threatened by them refuse to believe that they are imminent.Their knowledge is not translated into faith.In contrast, enlightened catastrophism acts as if the worst will come to pass and then assumes that we are free to refuse that destiny.By positing the worst as a fatality sure to happen, all powers of intelligence, imagination and determination are called upon to prevent it.

Politics should have a prophetic content such that prophesied adverse futures will not occur.This is impossible when financial markets use politicians as their servants.By suffering this econo-mystification we allow financial markets to be the masters of our destiny.It means that they become a blob, a very dangerous animal ready to devour nations and individuals, without any malicious intent, of course.Dupuy's (2012) analysis sheds light on some important problems we are faced with today.Those who are of 'green' persuasion and are alarmed by the on-going pollution and destruction of the world's ecology as well as by the now certain warming of the climate as a result of greenhouse emissions have in fact been relegated to the function of an ecological conscience, or a deus ex machina that should put a stop to the destruction perpetrated by the current economic system.

Strong points

His concept of enlightened catastrophism would call on all members of society to accept that nuclear power and nuclear armed conflicts as well as climate change are likely to generate major disasters within the foreseeable future.The precondition for such acceptance is that politicians are prepared to break with their sycophancy towards financial markets.There are historical precedents which show that this is possible.In 1953, for instance, a conference was held in London to deal with the enormous financial problems facing West Germany (Tsipras 2013).Effective government action then forestalled the types of problem now faced by Greece and other highly indebted European states.

Dupuy's suggestion that the state should not be ruled by financial markets and capitalist corporations is very important indeed.In the United States it would be necessary for Congress to kick out the lobbyists and govern on the basis of public justice rather than being beholden to corporate financiers.Moreover, electorates should cease to connive with business influence in the realm of politics.

Dupuy's metaphor of modern society as a supermarket is very apt.It is a system in which individuals -all of uscompete for the best portions of material wealth, regardless of how such wealth is produced and what catastrophes might result from it.Our behaviour is indeed a form of fatalism, inasmuch as we keep doing things that we know have adverse consequences.

In this regard, his analysis of economic rationality in conjunction with neo-classical economics as it is applied to areas such as medical care is worth noting.It shows in fact that the supermarket model applies also to hospitals and care for the dying as if there were no qualitative difference between medical care and the running of a fleet of jeeps by the army (an analogy used by Dupuy).

Despite the lack of faith in the future (given the fatalism of economic rationality in the competitive model of the supermarket) our society, not to mention the politicians, becomes upset when there is either little economic growth or no growth at all.Unless our material prosperity keeps growing indefinitely, we believe that we are somehow in trouble.In this respect, Dupuy makes a point that is rarely made: capital investment takes time and if, for whatever reason, there were to be a final point in time, all such investment would be worthless and also all current assets would lose their value.In this light, the insistence of financial markets that states should repay their debts and that any doubt about this leads to major problems becomes understandable.

Weaknesses

It is difficult to see how Dupuy (2012) would tackle the dominance of financial markets over politics and politicians.Would these markets, including their speculative activities run by means of supercomputers, be willing to play their part in tackling major threats as identified under enlightened catastrophism?No, along with other powerful interest groups, the financial markets would do their very best to downplay the severity of acute disasters.

So, how should the financial markets be constrained to play a servant role in society rather than that of a demanding taskmaster?

One of the problems is that each of the disasters referred to by Dupuy involves a long process over time, and that each produces incidents, events out of the ordinary, which may or may not foreshadow major calamities.Dupuy's response would be the story told by Mandelbrot above to the effect that if we have not yet experienced the potential calamity such as a financial collapse or a nuclear conflagration, we might still be very close to it.

Moral disasters

Economism, driven by self-interests, blinds people to moral issues.In the USA, there has been a series of mass shootings which has caused the second Obama administration to work towards gun control.Barack Obama, however, has yet to persuade a majority of USA citizens of the need for such control.Similarly, the intertwinement of corporate business and government is well known -documented, as it has been, by Hauter (2012).But such unhealthy intertwinement fails to arouse the indignation of the electorate.

The growing inequality between rich and poor, exacerbated by financial speculation, is another moral consequence of economism.

Climate warming

Discussions on climate warming focus on issues such as: by how much will sea levels and average world temperatures rise by 2100 and by when will the warming trend be irreversible?Meanwhile, weather events which are much more violent or frequent than in the past serve as warning signals, but without triggering determined attempts to reduce the volumes of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere.Activists have suggested that the world should attempt to reduce carbon dioxide from the present 390 ppm (and rising) to no more than 350 ppm if the worst of climate warming is to be avoided.James Hansen, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) climate scientist, together with other scientists, wrote in 2008:

If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest CO 2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm.If the present overshoot of this target of CO 2 is not brief, there is a possibility of seeding irreversible catastrophic effects.(Weir 2009:32)

Nuclear disasters

Recent nuclear disasters, such as the explosions at Chernobyl in 1986 and Fukushima in 2011, were part of a series of accidents and near misses since the first nuclear bombs were exploded in August 1945.Dupuy (2012) rightly calls attention to the dangers of nuclear weapons losing their special status as a result of miniaturisation.However, decisions taken after the Fukushima disaster to cancel or delay the construction of new nuclear power stations are already being questioned.

Technicism ignored

The main reason why Dupuy's (2012) proposal of enlightened catastrophism is unlikely to stand a great chance of success is that he has ignored the fundamental motive of our culture to control the future by means of scientific technology or technicism.Schuurman ([1972Schuurman ([ ] 1980:252-254:252-254) analysed approaches to the future of positivist thinkers who would seek to control it by means of science and technology, including planning and cybernetics, and by those critical of modern technology (transcendentalists) who would bet on creative disorder or permanent revolution.Schuurman's ([1972] 1980) own view of futurology is based on an analogy from technological development, especially its two traits of continuity and discontinuity.By drawing this analogy, he demonstrates that technical development is always both continuous, based on what is already known and available, and discontinuous: 'Invention, as the expression of human freedom, creativity and ingenuity, prevents such petrification' (Schuurman [1972(Schuurman [ ] 1980:252):252).In addition, smaller changes are made regularly.Without recognising this combination, we are in danger of absolutising either technological-scientific control of the future or freedom and the new.The chaos brought about by freedom would call forth technical or scientific control, and extreme order would issue in a call for freedom.

Dupuy sees disasters looming that have their origin in the positivist attempt to create a better future by means of scientific technology.His own enlightened catastrophism runs the danger that it would be applied from a technicistic perspective.One might opt for geo-engineering, for example, to reduce the volume of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but run the danger of unexpected adverse consequences.

If enlightened catastrophism were accompanied by a general repentance of the ways of technicism and economism, it might well work through major changes in the 'supermarket', because motor cars and aeroplanes would be used only as a last resort, ships equipped with sails, biofuels phased out and the land so freed restored by biological methods.This is, of course, easier said than done.A general repentance or renewal movement involves a deep conversion, which is wrought ultimately by the Holy Spirit working through the Word of God.

The road ahead

A world dominated by technology and finance is unable to ban violence.On the contrary, it increases it.This appears to fit in with René Girard's views.In March 2005, he said in an interview with Thomas Assheuer that Christianity is the only religion that has broken with anarchic religions in which the sacrifice or scapegoat is always guilty.Because Christ died as the innocent Lamb of God, taking away all our sins, we are unable to kill innocent 'sacrifices'.The West has colonised and exploited Islamic countries on the basis of its technical superiority.In this respect, the war in Algeria was a prophetic situation: we are now confronted with the sudden arrival of a violent Islamic movement on the world stage.Girard compares this with the Soviet Union, which turned politics into religion, but hopes that this is a corruption of Islam rather than its essence.When Christianity refers to things eschatological, then it does not talk so much about God destroying this world but rather about people destroying the world themselves.Christianity is a non-violent religion inasmuch as it localises violence in ourselves.It does away with the guilty scapegoat of primitive religions (Assheuer 2005:49).

One would therefore expect Christians to be in the vanguard of peace movements, including the movement for nuclear disarmament, and against police brutality, the destruction of the world's ecology and climate warming.

The dominance of finance over the State and the rest of society is strongly at variance with the so-called principle of sphere sovereignty, a view which says that there are spheres in society that are intrinsically different from one another, each subject to God's sovereignty and called as such to serve one another, but not for one or more to supplant the others.Abraham Kuyper called on this principle to defend the establishment of a free Christian university in 1880, that is to say, free from State governance but called to serve society in its own specific scholarly way.As he expounded this principle, Kuyper emphasised the crucial task the State has to be on the lookout for those who would try to rule over other institutions for their own benefit and that it nip in the bud all attempts of other spheres to lord it over others (Kuyper [1880(Kuyper [ ] 1956:51):51).

In this way of thinking, the State should call the sphere of finance and economics to order and take measures to ensure that they serve rather than dominate others.The problem Dupuy ( 2012) is wrestling with is that the State has become subservient to financial or economic powers and, consequently, is unable to do its job properly.This implies that it is effectively powerless to contain the violence involved in the powers' increasing dominance over society.Financial speculation based on foodstuffs may trigger food riots in various countries, as it did in 2008.Since business corporations rely on the power of scientific technology to outwit competitors and seduce customers into buying whatever they produce, no matter what the effects are on the environment and employment, there is no chance that we will be able to constrain the trajectory of economic life to a truly sustainable one which will allow current and future generations to live in true peace and freedom.

When education and medical care must adhere to competitive business models, using economic tools such as operations research and rational choice, their provision becomes dominated by the need to maintain a balance of income and expenditure.This cannot be good for such vital public services.

The problems posed by a globalised system of financial dominance have deep historical roots.The economic system, shaped by Western technology, has always sought to extend itself by colonisation.Many non-Western cultures have been affected by this or split between westernising elites and those adhering to their now marginalised religion and culture.The current trend towards an increasing gap between rich and poor, both within Western countries and between Western countries and the many so-called developing countries, has increased violence.

Enlightened subversion

If we cannot rely on the State to liberate us from the oppressive rule of financial markets, and if for the same reason Dupuy's (2012) proposal of enlightened catastrophism offers little chance of success, what, then, can be done?Dupuy's emphasis on time should assist us.If we were to change our very short-term focus to much longerterm thinking, pressures would abate.His analysis of the interrelationship between travel and work might point the way.Many people experience frustration in driving to work by car as a result of traffic jams or by being tortured at work by monotony and stress.Many others are frustrated as a consequence of becoming and being unemployed.Some manage to find compensation in leisure activities.But would it not be possible to create a different lifestyle by enhancing the world beyond the sphere of jobs?Recent initiatives -such as transitional towns, permaculture, developing communal gardens, collecting chickens from battery poultry farms that otherwise would be destroyed as being too old and having them around family homes, tending beehives and vegetable gardens on top of office buildings -could be extended and organised as part of new, sustainably organised communities.They all have a longer-term focus than conventional approaches.Unemployed people could be taught how to set up gardens and grow quality vegetables on plots of urban land without using chemical fertilisers and pesticides, and the produce could be sold to schools as an input to school lunches or supplied to hospital kitchens, soup kitchens and food banks.Skilled tutors would be provided by social welfare organisations, city governments, and so forth.Gradually, new communities would develop and start to displace modern supermarkets and their suppliers.

Essential to success along these lines is that we reinstate the importance of the commons, areas that are publicly owned and managed.A feature of modernity is that private property has expanded to such an extent that the commons have virtually disappeared, or are about to be privatised.Yet, well-run commons are an important means of strengthening sphere sovereignty, as they provide families, schools and churches with scope for interaction and development that is not available within the private spheres of business and finance.

Since the financially powerful would strongly resist bringing the commons back (land, clean rivers, health, local currencies, railways, roads, raw materials, the radio spectrum, etc.), such a development should be adopted and advocated by politicians.Dupuy's (2012) book should stimulate all who adhere to a reformational view of the world to ponder how far our modern society has moved way from what Kuyper ([1880] 1956) called 'sphere sovereignty'.It should also cause them to consider how this move might be subverted peacefully, for example by raising people's awareness of desire as a key motivator of economic growth, by fostering the development of new commons and by encouraging long-term rather than short-term thinking.Should these come to pass, it would amount to an enlightened subversion of the current economic or financial power structures.

Conclusion
 AcknowledgementsCompeting interestThe author declares that he has no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article.
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A network society, social media, migration and mission

C J P Niemandt email@example.com
Prof Cornelius J.P

Department of Science of Religion and Missiology
University of Pretoria

75 Elveram Street0081Lynnwood Glen, PretoriaSouth Africa

A network society, social media, migration and mission
6A7ECCE217FB6152F93A5C4476264BD2MigrationMobile communicationSocial mediaGoogle cultureNetwork societyContextualisationInculturationTheology of dialogue
Human mobility and migration are closely associated with and reciprocally influenced by globalisation.Add the relentless connectivity facilitated by the proliferation of mobile communication and the emergence of social media to this mixture, and an emerging new 'glocal' culture is evident.People are not only migrating to new localities and territories, but simultaneously into a new culture.We are witnessing the greatest mass migration in the history of humanity -from the real to the virtual world.It is a shift from shared space to shared interest.The metaphor of a river in flood has been used to describe the fact that migrant communities are a point of convergence of some of the biggest challenges facing the church and society at large: globalisation, hyperdiversity, interconnectedness, a Google culture and postmodern tribalism.Culture flows like a river and the church functions as a bridge connecting humans striving to make sense of life and Scripture as well as the tradition transmitted over the centuries.Some of the missional challenges will be to incarnate the gospel in this emerging culture.This study was positioned at the convergence of two important processes -the rise of the network society (especially social media) and migration.It took up two of the challenges posed at Edinburgh 2010, namely to "fruitfully" integrate the role of media in modern society into overall missiological thinking, and to think about the "call for a structural reform of the church" to grapple with the challenges of migration.The network society represents a profound social transformation.New technologies deliver connectedness in the palms of our hands and social media serve as an expression of the passion for connection, community and knowing others and being known by others.This research is a theoretical and missiological reflection on the role and importance of social media such as Facebook in migrant communities.It investigated issues such as:

Introduction

We are the first generation to live in a new world, a global cosmopolitan society, shaped by globalisation.Anthony Giddens (2002:19) says that "globalisation is not incidental to our lives today.It is a shift in our very life circumstances.It is the way we now live."Globalisation is a complex set of processes that flow together and are creating and shaping a new world.We need to shape new institutions, or reconstruct the ones we have, including the church and its understanding of mission, to face up to the challenges posed by this new world.We thus need a globalising theology that takes these challenges seriously and in which Christian communities throughout the world participate (Netland 2006:30).

This new era has been constituted by much more than just globalisation: human mobility and migration are closely associated with, and reciprocally influenced by, globalisation.The world's population is experiencing rapid growth and people are constantly on the move.Mobility and migration are becoming defining characteristics of this era are among the great global realities of this new order.In 1998 more than 120 million people lived in countries other than those in which they were born.More than 175 million people are on the move worldwide (Balia and Kim 2010:43).This represents a shift from rural to urban, from poor countries to rich cities and from one nation to another (Miranda-Feliciano 2009:240).It is a present-day global diaspora.

When we reflect on human migration, we must take cognisance of the fact that migration takes place mostly to cities -"The world is in the cities.The cities are the world" (Miranda-Feliciano 2009:240).Christianity has always made its presence felt in cities, and the close relationship between human migration and urbanisation focuses on the importance of cities as a legitimate context for authentic religious experiences.Edinburgh 2010 acknowledged the importance of urban contexts for the future of the church (Balia and Kim 2010:43;Kim and Anderson 2011:168).

Globalisation, human mobility and migration are already building up to form a perfect storm that will leave nothing unchanged.Add the "relentless connectivity" (Castells et al. 2007:loc.4894)facilitated by the proliferation of mobile communication and the emergence of social media, and it becomes evident that a new 'glocal' culture is emerging.Glocal signifies the dynamic interrelatedness of the global and local (See also Van Engen 2006:157.).Individualisation and personalisation are proceeding apace with globalisation.People are not only migrating to new localities and territories, but simultaneously into a new culture where even the experience of time and space is being transcended -a change from a Gutenberg to a Google culture (Sweet 2012:3).Marshall McLuhan in his book The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962) famously described the end of the events spawned by the invention of the printing press as the end of the "Gutenberg era".He Niemandt showed how communication technology affected cognitive organisation and thus social organisation (1962:41).Gutenberg culture flowed into Google culture.This terminology refers to more than people using the Google website to search other websites.The term alludes to the digitised, globalised and connected world and the multitude of relational networks enabled by social media."Googlers have rewritten the rules of forming networks, connections, and relationships.In the hands of Googlers, technology has been bent to the purposes of core human longings: knowing, being known, belonging, perception" (Sweet 2011(Sweet :loc.1284(Sweet -1286)).Jonathan Gottschall (2012:194-195) makes the point that we are witnessing the greatest mass migration in the history of humanity.People are moving en masse from the real to the virtual world, and although bodies will always be marooned on earth, human attention is gradually draining into the virtual world.

If culture is defined as the more or less integrated system of ideas, feelings and values and their associated patterns of behavior and products shared by a group of people who organise and regulate what they think, feel and do (Tennent 2010(Tennent :loc.1849-50)-50), it is evident that the new Google culture will play an important role in understanding the inculturation of the Christian faith in individual and communal identities.

This digital, global, connected culture represents a new paradigm within which people are defining themselves and understanding themselves in completely new ways; it affects the way we see, what we hear, how we interact with the world around us and how we communicate with others (Challies 2011:loc.87,91).The digital revolution is global, reaching to the farthest corners of the earth.It is a paradigm shift that is consciously and subconsciously transforming commonly accepted habits, notions and patterns of thought in its wake (Balia and Kim 2010:67).

Perhaps a metaphor might help us to grasp the relentless nature of the changes facing the church in its mission and of the pivotal role of migrant communities to assist us in discerning where the Spirit is working, so that the church can join in with God's mission.The metaphor of a river in flood comes to mind: migrant communities are a point of convergence of some of the biggest challenges facing the church and society at large such as globalisation, hyperdiversity, interconnectedness, a Google culture and postmodern tribalism.Thomas Friedman (2005:200) uses the term "triple convergence" in his influential The world is flat to describe the converging influences that are creating a new flat, globalised world, while Rex Miller speaks of a massive convergence of infrastructures (Miller 2004:6).I propose that migrant communities can be described as points of "multiple convergence."The metaphor can be expanded to enhance our understanding of the role of the church and our understanding of mission.Culture flows like a river and the church functions as a bridge connecting, on the one riverbank the humans striving to make sense of life and, on the other bank, http://missionalia.journals.ac.zaDOI: http://dx.doi.org/10/7832/41-1-19

Scripture and the traditions transmitted over the centuries (Dingemans 2005:241).Some of the primary missional challenges will be to incarnate the gospel in this creative, participatory and relational culture (Pagitt 2010:loc.416)and extend hospitality to migrants.This study is thus positioned at the convergence of two particularly important processes -the rise of the network society (especially social media) and migration.This takes up at least two of the challenges posed at Edinburgh 2010 (Balia and Kim 2010:139), namely to "fruitfully" integrate the role of media in modern society into overall missiological thinking, and to think about the "call for a structural reform of the church" to grapple with the challenges of migration (Balia and Kim 2010:135).

The African context reflects the global context.The mass displacement of peoples, globalisation and its ambiguities, human mobility and migration together with its interface with mission, unjust economic systems as part of the shadow sides of globalisation taking their toll on the poorest of the poor on the face of the earth -these global characteristics are all too evident in Africa (Unchem 2009:1).In the pilot case study, it will be shown that this cultural flood has also shifted context and paradigms in South Africa, changing the cultural face of the country.The use of digital social media particularly underlines the role of new technologies in the inculturation of the gospel in this convergence.

The network society

One of the characteristics of the new global culture is the network society.Networks as such are not new -they are a well-known form of social organisation.What is new are the microelectronics-based networking technologies that provide an old form of social organisation with new capabilities.Thus, the "new" network society is described by the eminent sociologist Manuel Castells (Castells et al. 2007) as a society whose social structure and social practices are organised around microelectronics-based networks of information and communication.The network society represents a profound social transformation because of the different phenomena related to the social, political, economic and cultural changes caused by the spread of networked, digital information and communications technologies.New technologies, and especially mobile telephony, deliver connectedness in the palms of our hands and social media serve as an expression of the passion for connection, community and knowing others, and being known by others.

One of the most important characteristics of the network society is the fact that mobile telephony has moved from being the technology of a privileged few to mainstream technology (Castells et al. 2007:loc.214).Globally, there has been an explosion of wireless communication and especially mobile phones, to such an extent that the presence and social influence of these technologies have given birth to the network society -a society where social structures have been enhanced and radically influenced by these technologies."The fact that most of the world's population is entering the electronic communication age in a wireless mode has social and cultural consequences, the importance of which we are only beginning to perceive" (Castells et al. 2007:loc.835).

One of the fundamental changes in this emergence of new social structures is that the importance of "place" is secondary to the importance of "flows".It is the flows of information, images and capital that increasingly shape society.Locality, place and territory are still significant, but only as another layer of the complex shape of society.

"The Internet is both an example of network society and a metaphor for understanding it.From one perspective the Internet has no centre.There is no one 'place' where choices are controlled.Everywhere is linked to everywhere else.Each person chooses his or her own route, with a search engine as the only pilot.Networks of relationships are formed in chat rooms around mutual interests.Friendships are maintained electronically."(Archbishops' Council 2004:5) In this new world order technology has been utilised to serve the purposes of core human longings: knowing, being known and belonging (Sweet 2011(Sweet :loc.1284(Sweet -1286)).Since shared interests rather than shared space now define community (Challies 2011(Challies :loc.1781(Challies -1782)), the role of social media in a network society and the formation of community must be understood and appreciated.What is different about this situation is that digital communities bring people together apart from their bodies -"We now consider community what was previously mere communication" (Challies 2011(Challies :loc.1768(Challies -1769)).It is a world of hyperconnectivity and multimodal communication from anywhere to anywhere (Castells et al. 2007:loc.99).

The network society is a hyper-social society, not a society of isolation.

There are different opinions on the issue of face-to-face interaction and the impact of the network society.Some are skeptical about the ability of the network society to create meaningful connection, others are much more positive.It is significant to note that some observers claim that internet users are more social and have more friends, and are more socially active than non-users.Penn and Zalesne (2007:253-256) state that the social uses of technology far outstrips the antisocial, individualistic purposes technology used to serve.In the words of Sweet (2012:93): "Google Search doesn't just bring facts faster; it brings friends closer."The case study seems to vindicate these observations.The Atlas of Global Christianity (1910Christianity ( -2010) ) recognises the fact that global Christianity exists within a social and economic context and acknowledges the human need for connection and belonging, and it accepts http://missionalia.journals.ac.zaDOI: http://dx.doi.org/10/7832/41-1-19 the contribution of the internet in achieving this (Johnson and Ross 2009:2).Social researchers also note that religion has found a place for mobile communication technology (Castells et al. 2007(Castells et al. :loc.1554).

Contextualisation and inculturation in a Google culture

Human context is always cultural."To be human is to be cultural" (Koyama 2010:46).The new globalised, hyper-diverse, interconnected Google world is creating a new culture, changing macro systems such as the world financial order, but also influencing personal aspects of humanity and religion.The digital world alters the very texture of our lives."Technology, as it is practiced, is society, and it embodies society" (Castells et al. 2007(Castells et al. :loc.1589).We are witnessing the birth of a Google generation -a digitised, globalised group that spends much of its life getting to know one another in a virtual world (Sweet 2012:3).The Google culture does what all cultural changes doit shapes our behavior and how we express our beliefs.

Andrew Walls (2009:49) states that the theological agenda is culturally induced; culture necessarily sets new tasks for theology.One can not engage with the gospel independent of culture (Shenk 2006:9).The convergence of globalisation, migration, the emergence of a network society and a Google culture pose profound questions on concepts such as inculturation and contextualisation.Tennent's definition is very helpful: "formulating, presenting and practicing the Christian faith in such a way that is relevant to the cultural context of the target group in terms of conceptualization, expression and application; yet maintaining theological coherence, biblical integrity and theoretical consistency" (Tennent 2010:loc.3898-3900).The important and defining role of communication in global Google culture highlights the fact that contextualisation is about effectively communicating the gospel, not simply effective communication in some generic sense.Inculturation and contextualisation are an integral part of communicating the gospel.

How can the Gospel be contextualised and inculturated in a Google culture?What creative response can assist the church in mission to respond to this changing context?A theology of dialogue, described by Bevans and Schroeder (2011:21-22) as dialogue that leads to communication, and attitude of friendship and respect and a practice of openness, may be the clue.The term dialogue is used to indicate an attitude of respect and friendship, which permeates all those activities constituting the evangelising mission of the church.Dialogue is "a style of living in relationship with neighbors" (Bevans and Schroeder 2011:22).It proceeds with the expectation of meeting God who has preceded us and has been relating to people.The proliferation of social networks such as Twitter and Facebook underscores the predisposition towards dialogue of this culture.The foundational role of communication and relationships in both a network Niemandt society as well as in migrant culture makes this dialogical approach to contextualisation and inculturation even more relevant.

The foundational role of relationships in a network society and migrant culture

Margaret Wheatly, in her book on leadership and the new science, acknowledged the primacy of relationships in physic and said that we are beginning to rethink our major issues, including societal issues, in more relational terms (1999:14).Contextualisation and inculturation in this new culture occur in the context of relationships.Relationships are the embodiment of the gospel in communities.The term used in the Edinburgh 2010 study process is especially useful -diapraxis (Balia and Kim 2010:47).Diapraxis entails bringing together dialogue and praxis.It is dialogue that develops relationships across the barriers of faith, race, gender and culture.Diapraxis has a strong focus on joining in with the Spirit by joining in with others.Sweet states that relationships have become the most valuable and important form of cultural capital in our globalised world: "The social-networking generation is sold out to relationships" (Sweet 2011:loc.811-812).

Relationships are one of the defining characteristics of the new culture.Digital technology provided the means to organise and develop cohesive communities across, between and around current organisations (Miller 2004:83).It allows the re-emergence of intentional communities that reconstruct the components of an extended family -including the church.In terms of migrant communities representing a new kind of convergence, the same predisposition towards relationships can be identified -the very nature of being a minority in a situation of liminality enhances the foundational role of relationships.(The pilot study conducted as part of this research affirmed the importance of relationships in the particular community.)

Edinburgh 2010 describes the situation of many immigrant Christian congregations as "vulnerable", and that vulnerability can also be experienced by Christians in minority situations (Balia and Kim 2010:194).Migrant culture can be described as a community in liminality.The anthropologist Victor Turner studied the structure of rites of passage and expanded on theories on the liminal phase.Turner describes liminality as the transitional state between two phases or stages in life, when individuals no longer belong to the society that they were previously a part of and are not yet reincorporated into the new or prospective society.Liminality is an in-between, marginal state in relation to the surrounding society, an ambiguous period characterised by humility, seclusion, tests, sexual ambiguity and communitas (see Burger 1995:25, Hirsch 2006:220).Liminal individuals are "neither here nor there; they are betwixt and between the http://missionalia.journals.ac.zaDOI: http://dx.doi.org/10/7832/41-1-19positions assigned and arrayed by law, custom, convention, and ceremony" (Turner 1969: 95).

For Turner, liminality is one of the three cultural manifestations of communitas -it is one of the most visible expressions of anti-structure in society.Yet even as it is the antithesis of structure, dissolving structure and being perceived as dangerous by those in charge of maintaining structure, it is also the source of structure.Just as chaos is the source of order, liminality represents the unlimited possibilities from which social structure emerges.While in the liminal state, human beings are stripped of anything that might differentiate them from their fellow human beings -they are in between the social structure, temporarily fallen through the cracks, so to speak, and it is in these cracks, in the interstices of social structure, that they are most aware of themselves (La Shure 2005).

The liminal period creates a rudimentarily structured society, a communitas.Communitas differs from societas.Societas represents a stage where a society is well structured, where the participants share feelings of wellbeing, security and growth.Communitas arises in situations where individuals are driven to find each other through the common experience of ordeal, humbling, transition and marginalisation.Communitas is characterised by uncertainty, transition and a lack of structure.Turner (1967:93) describes it as anti-structure.It involves intense feelings of social togetherness and belonging, adventure and movement, and constitutes a unique experience of togetherness.Communitas is an intense community spirit, the feeling of great social equality, solidarity and togetherness.It is a time filled with significance, meaning and relationships (Burger 1995:26).

Liminality, being part and parcel of displaced migrant communities, combined with the ability of a network society to organise social structures and practices around microelectronics-based networks of communication, creates a powerful convergence that is significant in migrant communities.Castells et al. (2007Castells et al. ( :loc.1574) say that mobile telephony is a critical tool for immigrant populations.

Contextualisation and inculturation, understood from the perspective of diapraxis, acknowledge and build on the importance of relationships in migrant communities and embrace the opportunity presented by the relational nature of the network society.Relationships, communion and dialogue are the ultimate goal of all existence (Bevans and Schroeder 2011:26).

The ability of social media to facilitate connection to the multiple cultural and religious belongings of migrants

One of the characteristics of the network society is the emergence and growing influence of social media.Social media refers to many forms of interactive digital communication.Kaplan and Haenlein (2010:59)  as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content."It is a form of horizontal communication where content is created and commented on by "amateurs, by the crowds of users rather than a few professionals" (Challies 2011(Challies :loc.1117).Social media are a form of self-directed mass communication that allows people to communicate with each other without going through the channels set up by the institutions of society for socialised communication.

"Social media encompasses a broad range of activities, platforms, and technologies all with a common theme: the ability to rapidly publish to the Web and to communicate with an audience.These tools and audiences take many different forms, ranging from short, 140-character Tweets on Twitter, video blogs and audio podcasts, to Internet forums, Facebook Groups and Pages, review sites and photosharing services.When you create, comment, converse, rate, review or publish, you're participating in social media."(Brown 2011:loc.16)"Social media is a term that means 'community'" (Sweet 2012:146).Social media, such as Facebook, have changed our social universe.A few brief facts illustrate the reach, power and influence of social networks:

• One in every nine people on earth is on Facebook;

• People spend 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook;

• Each Facebook user spends on average 15 hours and 33 minutes a month on the site; • More than 250 million people access Facebook through their mobile devices; • More than 2.5 million websites have integrated with Facebook; • 30 billion pieces of content are shared on Facebook each month.(Bullas 2011) No wonder enthusiastic observers describe the rise of social media as a seismic event that is changing everything.Eric Harr (2012) says: "Social media is everywhere in the news.It pervades every area of our lives… Social media hasn't changed one thing.It has changed everything."The role of digital media, especially social media, as an agent of change amounts to nothing less than a social revolution.From this brief discussion, it is clear that social media fit the description of advanced electronic media formulated in the Edinburgh 2010 study process http://missionalia.journals.ac.zaDOI: http://dx.doi.org/10/7832/41-1-19(Balia and Kim 2010:44) as new forms of "co-presence and interaction", and thus a new challenge and opportunity for mission.Many observers doubt the ability of digital media and the virtual world to create significant community.Challies (2011Challies ( :loc.1897Challies ( -1898)), to mention but one, says that the online church is a concession in the face of unavoidable circumstances.It is never a replacement for the real thing.Yet Gottschall (2012:196) is convinced that the virtual world is in important ways more authentically human than the real world: "It gives us back community, a feeling of competence, and a sense of being an important person whom people depend on".

Digital culture facilitates the emergence of the convergence church (Miller 2004:76).Social media can facilitate connection to the multiple cultural and religious belongings of migrants and can assist in the inculturation process of diapraxis.The co-presence and interaction made possible by social media seem to be very well suited to the process of "othering" -the risky, demanding, dynamic process of relating to one who is not us (Balia and Kim 2010:46).In the case study conducted as part of this research, social media played a surprisingly important role in relationships and community building.

I have already referred to the importance of communitas in migrant communities.This leads to a renewed appreciation of the "other", a new equality and openness towards each other.Social media enhance this equality and openness.It is a form of horizontal communication where everybody is equal.Sweet remarks that "the Google revolution is democratizing religion by taking it out of the hands of the gatekeepers and enabling more open-source, self-organizing connections with God" (Sweet 2012:111).The case study underlined the fact that there is an openness to the "other", enhanced by the availability of social media.

The role of social media in helping migrants to find meaning through shared, self-generated experiences

The issue of migration is central to the church's missionary activity (Bevans and Schroeder 2011:136).Social media facilitate multiple connections for migrant communities that strengthen cultural and religious belongings and identity.All identity comes from relationship.Social media can play an important role in creating identity and meaning through shared experiences and by enabling relationships and connectedness.Friedman (2005:478) observes that digital media enable uploading.Uploading is the realisation of the collaborative power of individuals and communities (Friedman 2005:95) to create content around their own self-generated experiences and to be producers of culture.This ability to upload and create one's own content is a very powerful force for the preservation and enhancement of cultural autonomy and particularity.It enables the globalisation of the local.Social media are participatory and relational by their very design, and thus enhance the ability of communities to find meaning and identity."Online relationships may be a different kind of real, but they can be as veritable and valuable in their own way as off-screen, on-site relationships" (Sweet 2012:166).Miller (2004:106) says that the digital era allows individuals to design separate identities for themselves for different roles and contexts.In a digital culture identity comes from the multitude of interactions around the globe, allowing people to be members of numerous communities.

It comes as no surprise that the observations of Castells et al. (2007Castells et al. ( :loc.1574) ) showed that the technology of the network society has enabled migrant and displaced populations to stay close to their cultural origins.The cases study underlined the important role of social media in migrant communities in this regard.

The role of social media in facilitating hospitality to the stranger

The importance of dialogue and especially diapraxis as a way to contextualise the gospel in the convergence of Google culture and migrant communities has been noted, as well as the potential of social networks to create and enhance community and an appreciation for the "other".Social media open up exciting possibilities to express one of the most basic missional expressions of "othering"-hospitality or welcoming the stranger (Keifert 1992:7).As Amy Oden (2008:11) says, gospel hospitality has always been at the heart of Christian life.A missionary church is characterised by welcoming the stranger and hospitality (Archbishops' Council 2004:82).The practice of inclusion is at the heart of the kingdom and an ultimate expression of missional dialogue.It is a readiness to welcome, to enter another's world and also to be vulnerable.Edinburgh 2010 called on Christians in nations which have immigrant communities to bear counter-cultural witness to the love of Christ in deed and word, by obeying the extensive biblical commands to love the stranger (Kim and Anderson 2011:454).Social media, with its focus on creating community and ability to assist people to share life, pain and joy, present a wonderful opportunity to extend hospitality.It can connect strangers and serve as an entry point to make face-to-face interaction possible.

Diapraxis, facilitated by social networks, can help to form community-orientated dialogue that assists the process where strangers meet, where people in liminality can connect to each other and create community.Social media helps the church to navigate in a society where the importance of place and locality becomes secondary to the importance of "flows" -the flows and connections of information, images and capital that increasingly shape society.These "flows" create interesting opportunities to meet strangers and to connect to each other, and social http://missionalia.journals.ac.zaDOI: http://dx.doi.org/10/7832/41-1-19media seem to present an opportunity to facilitate new forms of hospitality to the stranger.

Case study

A pilot case study has been conducted in Pretoria in South Africa (in May 2012) amongst four French-speaking migrant churches to serve as a source of information and reflection on the use and role of social media. 2The results were used to interpret and evaluate the theoretical and missiological reflections presented above.

Some information on the use of social media in South Africa in 2012 might serve as valuable background:

• There are 4 841 380 Facebook users (9% of the population, but 91,35% of the online population), with the largest age group 18-24.

The average Facebook user spends 700 minutes a month on Facebook.50% of Facebook users access it via mobile phones; • There are 1 100 000 Twitter users and about 470 000 Tweets per month.Karanja (2012) found that this increased to 5 000 000 in three months in 2011; • Mxit is the largest network in South Africa and has 10 000 000 users and is "teenage dominated"; • There are 31 million internet-capable phones in South Africa and by 2020 South Africa will have 20 million internet users.

(Chatterbox 2012) The results of the case study might serve as a valuable tool and as a source of information and reflection on the use of social media to be able to interpret the theoretical and missiological reflections presented above.

Background on the respondents

All of the respondents have a mobile phone and 86% have access to the internet.Although the sample (19 qualitative interviews) may be small, these figures indicate a significant variation -and much higher internet access -in terms of the broad South African population, and indicates a predisposition of members of migrant churches to use the internet -perhaps because it is such a valuable tool to keep contact with their countries of origin.As far as the age distribution is concerned, it corresponds with the higher usage of the internet and social media among younger generations in South Africa.Karanja (2012) noted that in Africa the adoption of social media has been driven by a younger audience, with 60% of those participating in her research and posting messages in their twenties.A very high percentage of the respondents who have access to the internet use social media, and this is also much higher than the use of social media among the wider South African population.Although the sample may be small, this indicates a significant variation -and much higher use of social media -than the broad South African population.Many of the respondents replied that they use social media to keep in contact with family and friends from the country of origin, which explains why these digital media are so popular in migrant communities.The pilot group seems to be part and parcel of the Google culture.

Level of education

Social media

Respondents indicated that they use social media for the following (the responses have been clustered in themes):

(1) Relationships and community building "To connect with friends", "to keep in touch with friends", "to keep in touch with friends and meet new people", "to communicate with my friends", "chatting", "to keep in touch with friends, family".

(2) Communication in the community and with family and friends from the country of origin "To communicate with other Brothers and Sisters in the church", "to communicate and share the Word of God", "to communicate with my friends and family".

86% indicated that they use social media to communicate with people from their country of origin, and 59% use it to communicate with people from South Africa.These responses indicate the fact that these particular migrant communities are participating in the Google-culture in general, but the way in which they embraced new digital technologies and social networks in particular, indicates that they are already inculturating the gospel in the sense that the network society and technologies are part and parcel of their faith experience and utilised to facilitate relationships, share the gospel and support each other.

Conclusion

Migrant communities find themselves in the midst of the convergence of at least three significant present-day processes: (1) the rise of the network society, enhanced by digital social networks, (2) globalisation and (3) global migration.This convergence results in people not only migrating to new localities and territories, but simultaneously into a new culture -a change from a Gutenberg to a Google-culture.The challenge is to fruitfully integrate these processes into overall missiological reflection to incarnate the gospel in this emerging culture.This paper described the missional challenge of this emerging culture in terms of the following:

• The rise of a hyper-social network society, a new Google culture.

• A proposal that contextualisation and inculturation in this culture can best be served by a theology of dialogue-an attitude of respect and friendship and a style of living in relationship with neighbors.

It proceeds with the expectation of meeting God who has preceded us and has been relating to people -also in the globalised Google-culture.The foundational role of communication and relationships in both a network society as well as in migrant culture makes this dialogical approach to contextualisation and inculturation especially relevant.

• Contextualisation and inculturation, understood from a strong focus on diapraxis, recognise and build on the importance of relationships in migrant communities and embrace the opportunity presented by the relational nature of the network society.

• The growth in social media in the network society presents unique opportunities in this regard, because of the ability of social media to facilitate connection to, and create identity in, the multiple cultural and religious belongings of migrant communities.

• Hospitality has always been at the heart of Christian life.Social media present unique opportunities to facilitate new forms of hospitality to the stranger.

A pilot study amongst French-speaking diaspora communities indicated that these challenges, as well as the proposal to approach contextualisation and inculturation from the perspective of a theology of dialogue, can indeed be very well addressed by social media.The respondents are participating in the growth of a network society and show significant usage of social media, especially Facebook.The use of Facebook and other social media plays a role in facilitating connection and the formation of identity in these communities, and the respondents clearly indicated that it plays an important role in church life and the inculturation of the gospel.

define it http://missionalia.journals.ac.zaDOI: http://dx.doi.org/10/7832/41-1-19

All of the respondents have a high level of education, perhaps a peculiarity of the specific French-speaking community in Pretoria.
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http://missionalia.journals.ac.za DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10/7832/41-1-19
The interviews were conducted in French by the Rev. Athas Mpinga from UNISA and the results were also translated by him.http://missionalia.journals.ac.za DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10/7832/41-1-19
(3) News and information "news", "Communication".(4) Meeting new people "Meeting new people".(5) Share the gospel 41% indicated that they use social networks to share the Word.68% thought that social media can play a role in the church, while 14% answered that they "do not know".Social media in church lifeIt is perhaps more important to take notice of the reasons provided by the 68% who responded that social media can play a role in the church.The following reasons were given in the interviews (I have clustered the responses in themes):(1) Communication and relationships "It can play a role to communicate", "For evangelism, for keeping all the member in touch, for communication", "Spreading the Word of God, keeping in touch with churches".(2) Proclamation and evangelisation " In evangelisation", "to share the Word of God", "It's the quickest, cheapest to reach a vast number of people with the Word", "It can be used as a tool to preach the Gospel as a means to invite someone to church", "To bring people in church and save them from the world", "By exhorting and by sharing the word of God and also by making people aware of the world and what is happening", "By Sharing the Word of God", "For evangelism, for keeping all the members in touch, for communication", "By evangelism and exhort people to bring them back to Jesus and to show theme that there's no life without Jesus by the Word of God."(3) Building up the community of faith "The media play a big role in the church in our days to keep our faith in this life""Gospel and Life", "The Church can build the youth of today in teaching them through social media", "To Inspire".(4) Information "To Inform".http://missionalia.journals.ac.zaDOI: http://dx.doi.org/10/7832/41-1-19
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