(Re)inventing the Internet : : critical case studies / / edited by Andrew Feenberg, Norm Friesen.

• TeilnehmendeR: Feenberg, Andrew.; Friesen, Norm.
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Edition: 1st ed. 2012.
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (140 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

Although it has been in existence for over three decades, the Internet remains a contested technology. Its governance and role in civic life, education, and entertainment are all still openly disputed and debated. The issues include censorship and network control, privacy and surveillance, the political impact of activist blogging, peer to peer file sharing, the effects of video games on children, and many others. Media conglomerates, governments and users all contribute to shaping the forms and functions of the Internet as the limits and potentialities of the technologies are tested and extended. What is most surprising about the Internet is the proliferation of controversies and conflicts in which the creativity of ordinary users plays a central role. The title, (Re)Inventing the Internet, refers to this extraordinary flowering of agency in a society that tends to reduce its members to passive spectators. This collection presents a series of critical case studies that examine specific sites of change and contestation. These cover a range of phenomena including computer gaming cultures, online education, surveillance, and the mutual shaping of digital technologies and civic life.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material / Andrew Feenberg and Norm Friesen -- Introduction / Andrew Feenberg -- Rationalizing Play / M. Grimes and Andrew Feenberg -- Alternative Rationalisations and Ambivalent Futures / Edward Hamilton and Andrew Feenberg -- Experiencing Surveillance / Norm Friesen , Andrew Feenberg , Grace Smith and Shannon Lowe -- Subactivism / Maria Bakardjieva -- Hacking for Social Justice / Kate Milberry -- Index / Andrew Feenberg and Norm Friesen.