The direction of social movements and social and cultural mobilizations in contemporaneity point out the weakening of the old theoretical positivist markers who subordinated the constitution of identity practices to certain reductionist criteria, such as economic utilitarianism and progress ideology. However, recent changes produced by the processes of disterritorialization and reterritorialization in complex societies require new types of actors, conflicts and mediation, and networks are an examplary social form of such changes. But the networks are not automatically imposed as a new interpretative marker. It is important to explain that they are the object of struggle in the intellectual field and can meet various readings, both utilitarian and anti-utilitarian.
social networks; social movements; utilitarianism; sociological theory