This article proposes that economic geography
would benefit from a closer consideration of the
topological multiplicities of power, that is, the multiple
contending configurations of networks that
make power a precarious accomplishment through
creating constant overflows. It develops this argument
by tracing how the circulation of knowledge in
the preparation for the Olympic Games establishes
sociomaterial networks that are meant to allow the
International Olympic Committee to coordinate the
organization of the event. On the basis of Bruno
Latour’s concept of the oligopticon, the article develops
a sociomaterial notion of power to govern at a
distance that emerges through the triple movement of
collecting and mobilizing information, casting it into
stable intermediaries, and recirculating knowledge.
At the same time, a parallel narrative considers how
this power and its spatial reach remain always partial
and are transformed by overflows as elements move
in and out of networks and how forces outside the
network bear on it, creating “absent presences.”
Giving adequate attention to these topological multiplicities
of sociomaterial networks offers an important
counterweight to the dominant notion of stable
social networks in economic geography and is particularly
useful when analyzing the governance of
projects and various other forms of ephemeral, distributed
organizing.