This article is part of a reflexive effort directed to discuss the consequences of the use of approaches strongly influenced by entrepreneurial logics as lenses to understand social movements oriented by the opposition to such logic. In this text this preoccupation is directed to the network approach. The point of departure is a critical appropriation of representative authors and formulations of such approach. In this review it was impossible to avoid the hybridization between social capital and social network. A relevant part of this review was the separation of Pierre Bourdieu's formulations from the common place they had been thrown by readings which classify him as an author of social capital and network analysis. Following, the article reviews the predominant use of network approaches in the study of social movements. Finally, it shows the distinction between metaphor and model. From such distinction it is possible to state the potential of the metaphor discursive strategy as a means to open space for the recognition of the new, of what is being constructed, of what is-not-yet. Besides that, it would be coherent with the raison d'être of the study subject. In that sense, three metaphors are present -fluids, webs and rhizomes - to illustrate the potentialities contained in the use of such resource in the study of social movements.
social movements; networks; models; metaphors
