Theorizing the Web 2012

A special issue of Future Internet (ISSN 1999-5903).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 August 2012) | Viewed by 34875

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 216 Lenoir Drive, CB #3360, 100 Manning Hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3360, USA
Interests: Social Theory, Social Media, Technology

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Guest Editor
University of Maryland, 2112 Art-Sociology Building, College Park, MD 20742, USA

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Guest Editor
University of Maryland, 2112 Art-Sociology Building, College Park, MD 20742, USA

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Technology has always been social and society has always been technological. This fact has become increasingly difficult to ignore following the recent explosion of collaborative and user-generated content—what is now generally referred to as “social media” or “Web 2.0.” The social Web has the potential to change and/or reinforce some of our most fundamental social relationships, including those with others, ourselves, our bodies and our experience with reality itself. Given the increasing importance of the social Web that is now enmeshed with virtually every aspect of our lives, there is a growing need for theoretical concepts to help us explain the implication of the Web for our everyday lives. This special issue is a companion piece to the Theorizing the Web conference, April 14th, 2012. Like the conference, the goal of the special issue is to generate conversation between researchers from a range of disciplines, including sociology, communications, philosophy, anthropology, economics, English, history, political science, information science, the arts, and more.

Mr. Nathan Jurgenson
Mr. PJ Rey
Dr. Zeynep Tufekci
Guest Editors

Keywords

  • augmented reality
  • code
  • cyborgs
  • design
  • documentation
  • digital dualism
  • identity
  • the Internet
  • privacy
  • publicity
  • social media
  • social movements
  • surveillance
  • technology
  • theory
  • visibility
  • web 2.0

Published Papers (3 papers)

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198 KiB  
Article
Processes of Inclusion and Exclusion in the Sphere of Prosumerism
by Roberta Paltrinieri and Piergiorgio Degli Esposti
Future Internet 2013, 5(1), 21-33; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi5010021 - 10 Jan 2013
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 7781
Abstract
The term prosumer, first introduced by Toffler in the 1980s, has been developed by sociologists in response to Web 2.0 (the set of technologies that has transformed a predominantly static web into the collaborative medium initially envisaged by Tim Berners-Lee). The phenomena [...] Read more.
The term prosumer, first introduced by Toffler in the 1980s, has been developed by sociologists in response to Web 2.0 (the set of technologies that has transformed a predominantly static web into the collaborative medium initially envisaged by Tim Berners-Lee). The phenomena is now understood as a process involving the creation of meanings on the part of the consumer, who re-appropriates spaces that were dominated by institutionalized production, and this extends to the exploitation of consumer creativity on the production side. Recent consumption literature can be re-interpreted through the prosumer lens in order to understand whether prosumers are more creative or alienated in their activities. The peculiar typology of prosumption introduced by Web 2.0 leads us to analyze social capital as a key element in value creation, and to investigate its different online and offline forms. Our analysis then discusses the digital divide and critical consumerism as forms of empowerment impairment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Theorizing the Web 2012)
204 KiB  
Article
Social Media and Experiential Ambivalence
by Jenny L. Davis
Future Internet 2012, 4(4), 955-970; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi4040955 - 26 Oct 2012
Cited by 20 | Viewed by 14639
Abstract
At once fearful and dependent, hopeful and distrustful, our contemporary relationship with technology is highly ambivalent. Using experiential accounts from an ongoing Facebook-based qualitative study (N = 231), I both diagnose and articulate this ambivalence. I argue that technological ambivalence is rooted primarily [...] Read more.
At once fearful and dependent, hopeful and distrustful, our contemporary relationship with technology is highly ambivalent. Using experiential accounts from an ongoing Facebook-based qualitative study (N = 231), I both diagnose and articulate this ambivalence. I argue that technological ambivalence is rooted primarily in the deeply embedded moral prescription to lead a meaningful life, and a related uncertainty about the role of new technologies in the accomplishment of this task. On the one hand, technology offers the potential to augment or even enhance personal and public life. On the other hand, technology looms with the potential to supplant or replace real experience. I examine these polemic potentialities in the context of personal experiences, interpersonal relationships, and political activism. I conclude by arguing that the pervasive integration and non-optionality of technical systems amplifies utopian hopes, dystopian fears, and ambivalent concerns in the contemporary era. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Theorizing the Web 2012)

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185 KiB  
Essay
Textual Dualism and Augmented Reality in the Russian Empire
by Jeremy Antley
Future Internet 2012, 4(4), 1037-1048; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi4041037 - 10 Dec 2012
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 12076
Abstract
While the current focus on how digital technology alters our conception of the self and its place in the broader perceived reality yields fascinating insight into modern issues, there is much to be gained by analyzing the presence of dualist and augmented reality [...] Read more.
While the current focus on how digital technology alters our conception of the self and its place in the broader perceived reality yields fascinating insight into modern issues, there is much to be gained by analyzing the presence of dualist and augmented reality discourses in a pre-digital era. This essay will examine the ontological interplay of textual dualist norms in the Russian and Soviet states of the 19th and early 20th centuries and how those norms were challenged by augmented claims embodied in rumors, refrains, and the spelling of names. By utilizing the informational concepts of mobility and asynchronicity, three Russian historical vignettes—the Emancipation of the Serfs in 1861, the documentation of Jews in Imperial Russia, and the attempts by Trotsky to realize Soviet symchka—demonstrate that not only are dualist discourses prevalent in periods outside of the contemporary, but also that the way in which those conflicts framed themselves in the past directly influences their deployment in today’s digital world. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Theorizing the Web 2012)
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