Sociology in the Age of the Internet

by Cavanagh, Allison

• ISBN13: 9780335217250
• ISBN10: 0335217257
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-04-01
• Publisher: Open University Press

Summary

In recent years there has been a large and diverse body of writing from scholars in the social sciences who have been studying changes brought about by new communication technologies in general and the Internet in particular. The question of how people behave, interact and organize themselves in relation to this form of communication has been given added prominence by developments within new social theory, especially in relation to the novelty of contemporary social formations and the importance of mass communications to this changed order.For the student new to the study of technology and society, there are a bewildering array of claims and counter claims, representing a spectrum of theoretical, methodological and critical sensibilities in relation to the Internet. In this new book Allison Cavanagh evaluates the work in this area by: Investigating the novelty of the Internet and setting the Internet in the context of communication histories Evaluating the extent and rate of change through a synthesis of the available empirical literature Providing a key to understanding the changes identified through an evaluation of the utility of new social theory Sociology in the Age of the Internetis essential reading for academics and students with an interest in the relationship between the internet and society.

Author Biography

Dr Allison Cavanagh is a lecturer in Communications Studies at the University of Leeds. She completed her PhD at the University of Manchester on panic narratives in journalists representations of the internet. Her research concerns risk and social transformation in relation to new communications technologies and information circulation between media.

Table of Contents

Series editor's preface	p. vi
Acknowledgements	p. viii
Introduction	p. 1
The rise of the network metaphor
Approaches to networks	p. 23
Network methodologies	p. 27
The network society	p. 38
The internet as a network	p. 48
The internet as a medium
Introduction to Part Two
Elements of a public sphere	p. 64
Interactivity: it's got to be jelly 'cos jam don't shake like that	p. 81
The global public sphere and forms of power	p. 92
The internet as a social space
Introduction to Part Three
Community	p. 102
Online identity	p. 120
Conclusion to Part Three	p. 132
The internet as a technology
Introduction to Part Four
Sociologies of technology	p. 139
The sociology of technology and the internet: emergent perspectives	p. 151
References	p. 164
Index	p. 00
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