David and all others,
despite some obvious surface difficulties, war is good for the economy.
and, more to the point of my original post, is war good for academia?
in terms of research as put forward here by some posters it seems to be good for academia, at least the money is coming in and the funding is on some quite cutting edge stuff... in technological terms
as the field of internet studies works towards academic legitimacy, especially within the US, what does it mean when this process of legitimacy takes place within a national economy run by war, threats of terrorism, and homeland security. put another way, where will the money for US-based academic internet studies come from and should this be something we consider as the field matures?
i cannot see your qustion David, .. of course this should be condered for the future of Internet studies... which leads to the point to ask in which direction you (and others) want Internet studiies to go... technology or critical studies on techno-social issues (for lack of a better phrase) or what else... I, as a European am worried about the current focus and funding policy of the military and would urge scientists and cholars to think twice about such money, or at least reflect on this in their work and the impact this work might have ... what it might be used to.... To take a look to where the money for research is coming from might be part of the political economy of Internet studies and should be an integral part of it anyway, wether it be .com .mil or other... best wishes from Germany nilz -- Dr. Nils Zurawski Universität Hamburg Inst. für kriminologische Sozialforschung Allendeplatz 1 20146 Hamburg Germany tel. +49 (0) 40 42838 6185 fax. +49 (0) 40 42838 2328 Projekt zu Videoüberwachung: http://www.uni-muenster.de/PeaCon/zurawski/ueberwachung