[ecrea] NEW BOOK: Imagining the Internet

Imagining the Internet: Communication, Innovation, and Governance, by 
Robin Mansell, Oxford University Press, 320 pages, 978-0-19-969705-2 | 
Paperback | 12 July 2012, at 
http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199697052.do#.UBklTUKfOgE [If you 
email (r.e.mansell /at/ lse.ac.uk), I can send you a 20% discount flyer, good 
until October]. Publisher's blurb:

Critical synthesis of key challenges in the Internet Age; Tackles 
challenging issues for policy and regulation; Interdisciplinary approach 
to the paradoxes of life online in the twenty-first century; Theoretical 
perspectives from social sciences, systems theory, science and 
technology policy, and media and communications.

This book is an impressive survey of our collective and cumulative 
understanding of the evolution of digital communication systems and the 
Internet. Whilst the information societies of the twenty-first century 
will develop ever more sophisticated technologies, the Internet is now a 
familiar and pervasive part of the world in which we live, work, and 
communicate. As such it is important to take stock of some fundamental 
questions - whether, for example, it contributes to progress, social 
cohesion, democracy, and growth - and at the same time to review the 
rich and varied theories and perspectives developed by thinkers in a 
range of disciplines over the last fifty years or more.

In this remarkably comprehensive but concise and useful book, Robin 
Mansell summarizes key debates, and reviews the contributions of major 
thinkers in communication systems, economics, politics, sociology, 
psychology, and systems theory - from Norbert Wiener to Brian Arthur and 
Manuel Castells, and from Gregory Bateson to William Davidow and Sherry 
Turkle. This is an interdisciplinary and critical analysis of the way we 
experience the Internet in front of the screen, and of the developments 
behind the screen, all of which have implications for privacy ,security, 
intellectual property rights, and the overall governance of the Internet.

The author presents fairly the ideas of the celebrants and the sceptics, 
and reminds us of the continuing need for careful, critical, and 
informed analysis of the paradoxes and challenges of the Internet, 
offering her own views on how we might move to greater empowerment, and 
suggesting policy measures and governance approaches that go beyond 
those commonly debated.

This concise book will be essential reading for anyone who wants to 
understand the challenges the Internet presents in the twenty-first 
century, and the debates and research that can inform that understanding.

Table of Contents:
1: Introduction
2: Fast Forwarding through the Information Society
3: Social Imaginaries of the Information Society
4: Communication, Complexity, and Paradox
5: Communication Systems in Everyday Life
6: Emergence and Communication Systems
7: Political Firestorms in Communication Policy
8: Conclusion

Readership: Academics, researchers, and graduate students across the 
social sciences, including Communication Studies, Internet Studies, 
Innovation, Science and Technology Studies, Sociology; policy makers in 
ICT, media, and internet governance fields


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