Information Technology, Society & Cyberculture, Social Aspects of Technology, Communications Industries, Telecommunications Technology, Information Technology

Managing the Infosphere: Governance, Technology, and Cultural Practice in Motion

Name: Managing the Infosphere: Governance, Technology, and Cultural Practice in Motion
Author: Stephen D. McDowell
ISBN: 9781439900987

by Stephen D. McDowell, Philip E. Steinberg, Tami K. Tomasello

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Overview

Managing the Infosphere examines the global world of communications as a mobile space that overlaps uneasily with the world of sovereign, territorial nation-states. Drawing on their expertise in geography, political science, international relations, and communication studies, the authors investigate specific policy problems encountered when international organizations, corporations, and individual users try to "manage" a space that simultaneously contradicts and supports existing institutions and systems of governance, identity, and technology.

The authors argue that the roles of these systems in cyberspace cannot be fully understood unless they are seen as mutually constituting each other in specific historical structures, institutions, and practices. With vision and insight, the authors look beyond the Internet to examine the entire networked world, from cell phones and satellites to global tourism and business travel.

Synopsis

Managing the Infosphere examines the global world of communications as a mobile space that overlaps uneasily with the world of sovereign, territorial nation-states. Drawing on their expertise in geography, political science, international relations, and communication studies, the authors investigate specific policy problems encountered when international organizations, corporations, and individual users try to "manage" a space that simultaneously contradicts and supports existing institutions and systems of governance, identity, and technology. The authors argue that the roles of these systems in cyberspace cannot be fully understood unless they are seen as mutually constituting each other in specific historical structures, institutions, and practices. With vision and insight, the authors look beyond the Internet to examine the entire networked world, from cell phones and satellites to global tourism and business travel.

About the Author, Stephen D. McDowell

Stephen D. McDowell is John H. Phipps Professor of Communication and Chair of the Department of Communication at Florida State University. He is the author of Globalization, Liberalization, and Policy Change: A Political Economy of India's Communications Sector.

Philip E. Steinberg is an Associate Professor of Geography at Florida State University. He is the author of The Social Construction of the Ocean and co-editor (with Rob Shields) of The Urban After Katrina: Place, Community, Connections, and Memory.

Tami K. Tomasello is an Assistant Professor in the School of Communication, East Carolina University.