It is in the first place important to understand how networks organize themselves from the inside out and expand, join together and rearrange themselves - whether they are neurological networks in our brains, evolutionary networks in ecosystems, computer networks or economic networks. With the help of such "thinking-in-the-network," then using concrete examples we can investigate how people live in networks, and how possibilities are created, opportunities seized and escape routes chosen. The first question is scientific in nature: How do networks work? The second is political: How are the networks made manageable at the concrete, everyday level?

The term "network" has replaced the term "system." If a system is an entity whose coherence is preserved through interaction among its parts, networks are pluralities that shoot off in all directions and can lose their coherence without perishing. Despite this distinction, we see local systems arising again and again in networks: these are not kept together by any outside force, but rather consist of spontaneously developing relationships that arise from interaction among the horizontally organized participants rather than the influence of a leader or "editor" (from blogs to neighborhoods). To find form or to see form arise, seek the systems in the network.