(Re)Inventing the Internet

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

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2. Code and Communication

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. Introduction

      • Andrew Feenberg

      Pages 3-17

3. Play and School Online

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 19-19

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   2. Rationalizing play

      • M. Grimes, Andrew Feenberg

      Pages 21-41

   3. Alternative Rationalisations and Ambivalent Futures

      • Edward Hamiltonss, Andrew Feenberg

      Pages 43-70

4. The Civic Internet

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 71-71

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   2. Experiencing Surveillance

      • Norm Friesen, Andrew Feenberg, Grace Smith, Shannon Lowe

      Pages 73-84

   3. Subactivism

      • Maria Bakardjieva

      Pages 85-108

   4. Hacking for Social Justice

      • Kate Milberry

      Pages 109-130

5. Back Matter

   Pages 131-135

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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.

• Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada

  Andrew Feenberg

• Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, Canada

  Norm Friesen

Policies and ethics