A new book by doctoral candidate Gianluca Miscione, is available at http://www.kszm.org/dadalo/ Below is a summary in English by the author MY WORK draws an analytical trajectory through some of the main topics related to the Internet. The guiding line of the work is discursive, but not speculative. Indeed the relation with empirical reality is based on theoretical sampling (all main positions are supported by addressing cases). The overall sensibility for this matter is rooted in readings of French post-structuralists, in research activities in sociology of communication, in a work as a journalist, and in a "culture" lived personally. Being skeptical about the reclaimed autonomy/independence of the 'cyberspace', I focused my attention on its relations with existing communicative, social and power relations. My aim was to highlight how infosphere is mutually interweaved with 'offline' world. In order to do that, each chapter is focused on a specific aspect and related boundaries are addressed. HOW THE WORK IS ORGANIZED Chapter 1 Technocratic reductionism is criticized for the impossibility to create a perfect language to represent reality or to communicate universally. The irrationality of any language does not permit to automate it, and then embed it into technologies. Chapter 2 Semiotics show that signs do not mirror reality but construct it on the social level, characterized by own rules (different from physical ones). Then, the discussion of net.art (§ 2.1.1), hypertexts (§ 2.2.1), intertextuality (§ 2.2.2), interfaces (§ 2.2.3) and 'cybergeographies' (§ 2.3) is relevant to describe main characteristics of this space made up of signs. Chapter 3 Paying attention to real uses of the Internet allows to reflect on the fact that many projects and ideas theoretically possible failed because of unexpected social inertia (misleading perceptions, divergent routines, lack of trust). Scarce success of city-networks (§ 3.1) and Semantic Web (§ 3.2) are two examples of the risk to assume a rational conception of ICT implementations, forgetting social construction of reality. Based on those three chapters, the second part arguments the centralità of social aspects in understanding communication and power on the Internet. Chapter 4 How is a place where communication is content and place of social relations? How is experience organized there? Why are those social phenomena rather than produced by an aggregation of individuals? Assuming that if people believe something is real, it will be real in its consequences (Thomas' theorem, § 4.4), it is possible (and actual) to construct imagined and shared places. Intersubjectivity of meanings and weak context in CMC, emphasize the social construction of virtual spaces, of any kind. The need of constructed and shared social contexts brings together constructivism and pragmatism (§ 4.4.3). Chapter 5 On the political level, are we in a distributed situation in which nobody and nothing is fundamental for the system to work? Does the lack of political frontiers -that bond people to political decisions- pulverize a legitimated debate and decision place? Contemporary social fragmentation is represented and supported by the Internet. Indeed many issues arisen from the Internet go towards wider individual independence and group autonomy. Consequently, the Internet is more like an arena than an agora. Chapter 6 The conclusion is that the Internet is an extension of reality -not a representation- with particular rules and dynamics. Exclusion from it has the paradoxical effect to produce silence, usually unperceived. MAIN POINTS About power and policies on the Internet, I accept a relational conception of power which is based on the attention to how actions are affected, not only commanded (§ 5). Indeed the ease to create groups and to escare national boundaries, and laws (§ 5.1) do not allow to apply power categories which rely on a sovereign power (Locke, § 5.4). Autonomy and privacy claims deal with that reality (§ 5.1). On the other hand, fluidity of social phenomena on the Internet does not mean that power is not applicable: servers, data organizations, controls embedded into technologies, laws that only expert users can go around are ways to control users. Public sphere (§ 5.1.1), free speech (§ 5.1.2.), and copyright (§ 5.2) have to deal with the described reality, which does not fit with usual dichotomy private/public. More generally autonomy claims tend to weaken a public and homogeneous public sphere. Democracy is interpreted more as liberty than as distribution of power (§ 5.3). Another relevant dualism is nomos/techné. Since Industrial Revolution laws and technology prospect diverse futures: (in continental philosophy) laws are expression and support for politics as "volonté générale", technologies promote social automation and technocracy. About this particular intersection, it is proposed an analysis of the hackers' phenomenon (§ 5.3.2. this part has been published on a academic journal). Opensources and freesoftware (§ 5.2.2.1) cases are addressed for their relevance in circulation of information on the Internet (or in the digital age). Those movements, which generated similar activities for contents in general (§ 5.2.2.2 <http://5.2.2.2>), propose a conception of knowledge which can be produce profit without reducing its public utility. WITH THIS WORK I WANT TO highlight the boundaries of information society, as far as it assumes the autonomy of cyberspace without dealing with existing social and power relations. I find this understanding needed to analyze further and design future activities and policies about the infosphere. Finally this trajectory explains my interest and perspective on development issues, where basic and common assumption about knowledge society cannot be taken for granted -- ================================================================= Dr. Michel J. Menou Consultant in ICT policies and Knowledge & Information Management Adviser of Somos@Telecentros board http://www.tele-centros.org Member of the funding steering committee of Telecenters of the Americas Partnership http://www.tele-centers.net/ B.P. 15 49350 Les Rosiers sur Loire, France Email: Michel.Menou@wanadoo.fr Phone: +33 (0)2 41518165 Fax: +33 (0)2 41511043 http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ciber/peoplemenou.php ================================================================== -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.323 / Virus Database: 267.9.2/54 - Release Date: 21/07/2005