Dipping a toe in academia today.  This thanks to an article – and above all an idea – by Professor Bill Dutton of Oxford University’s “Oxford Internet Institute“ encountered in the University magazine “Oxford Today”.

Not everyone who sees this may be familiar with the notion of “estates” in society – this may be an Anglo-Saxon thing, I’m not sure (though it also exists in Italian, as the illustration shows). Originally, in the feudal world, the three estates were the clergy, the nobility and the commons. You can see the remnants of this concept in the British parliamentary system. Professor Dutton points out that the idea morphed into the US notion of the legislative, executive and judicial branches. The essential point here however is that the press and media have long been identified as the “Fourth Estate” (the idea goes back to Edmund Burke, it seems) which have become a de facto fourth centre of power in the land, an essential part of the system of governance.

It is the capacity of individuals to network and, crucially, thereby to become collectively actors in the political process and the system of governance, which allows the creation of the Fifth Estate.

Prof Dutton’s thesis is that contemporary society is seeing the emergence of a “Fifth Estate”, enabled by the internet and, to a lesser extent, other information and communications technology (e.g. mobile phones). In this vision, it is the capacity of individuals to network and, crucially, thereby to become collectively actors in the political process and the system of governance, which allows the creation of the Fifth Estate. This is more than just saying that the internet allows for new forms of political communication and mobilisation – à la Obama – and more too than pointing to the emergence of what has been called “citizen jounalism”. Both of these ideas are encompassed in the notion of the Fifth Estate, but, as I understand it, the idea is that networked individuals operate as new power centres in society, able to challenge and hold to account the other “estates” in society. In his words:

“Networked individuals can move across, undermine and go beyond the boundaries of existing institutions, thereby opening new ways of increasing the accountability of politicians, press, experts and other centres of power and influence.”

Quarto Potere (Fourth Estate) - Citizen Kane film poster from cliff1066 on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/people/nostri-imago/

He goes on to use the interesting example of how the authority and expertise of medical doctors is being undermined by individuals being in possession of inforamation about their conditions gained from the internet and online support groups.  So it’s not just politics in the restricted sense, but expertise, authority and power more widely:

“What distinguishes the Fifth from the Fourth Estate is the ability of the Internet to enable networked individuals to hold other estates to account, creating a relatively independent base from which to challenge the media, politicians, government officials, business leaders, educators, physicians, researchers and the conventional wisdom of the crowd.”

What is so appealing about this thesis? For me, the interest derives from its mixture of feet-on-the-ground reasonableness (this is not utopian geekery) and extremely radical implications. Ultimately it is not really about the technology, but the actually quite ordinary uses to which it is put.  It is about human beings doing what human beings do.

What I also like is the concept that the Fifth Estate is precisely that – the fifth. Reports of the death of the media are much exaggerated. The Fifth does not replace the Fourth Estate, though it may challenge it, hold it to account and eat into its territory, but provides a new factor in our political and social systems. It seems to me that this is one of the crucial lessons that members of the other estates will have to learn, especially politicians. The lesson goes well beyond absorbing the immediate Obama experience about internet networking as political communication and mobilisation, this is about long term governance and the relation between institutions, electorate and society. European Parliament take note.

All this begs a question, of course: who holds the Fifth Estate to account? Or is the Fifth Estate somehow the end of the line, an expression of society itself? Hmmm.

Meanwhile, where does all the power come from and where is it going in the world? This very clever and possibly very scary video caught our eye in the office this week. Worth a watch.

By the way, a longer exposition of Professor Dutton’s ideas here.