Philippa, Just in case it's of any help, I've recently finished a piece on the same subject (i.e. the relation between new technologies and the construction of national identities). It's due to come out shortly as 'WikiNation: On Peace and Conflict in the Middle East', Cultural Politics, Volume 5, Issue 1, 2008, pp.5-26. I've provided an abstract for you below. But a wikified, open access, open editing and free content version of the whole essay is available at: http://hyper-cyprus.pbwiki.com/Hyper-Cyprus Gary *Abstract* This article begins by analysing critically the usefulness of the recent political philosophy of Chantal Mouffe for reconceptualising ideas of peace and conflict. It takes as its focus for doing so the situation of the Middle East. It proceeds to show how Mouffe’s radical democratic politics is actually just another form of the liberalism of Habermas and Rawls she positions her theory against. The essay then explores the potential digital media hold for making affirmative, affective, hyper-political interventions in specific contents and singular situations. In particular, it advocates using the wiki medium to experiment with new ways of organising institutions, cultures, communities and countries which do not uncritically repeat the reductive adherence to democracy, hegemony and Western, bourgeois, liberal humanism identified in Mouffe, but which can also be located in the institution of academic criticism more widely. -- Gary Hall Professor of Media and Performing Arts School of Art and Design, Coventry University Director of the Cultural Studies Open Access Archive http://www.culturemachine.net/csearch Co-founder of the Open Humanities Press http://www.openhumanitiespress.org My website http://www.garyhall.info New book: Digitize This Book! http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/H/hall_digitize.html Pirate Philosophy - Steal This! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YkXDTQ7iFs