Gentrification of the Internet How to Reclaim Our Digital Freedom
Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Jessa Lingel is Associate Professor at the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. In Philadelphia, she works with the Creative Resilience Collective and the Workers Solidarity Network.Gentrification of the Internet How to Reclaim Our Digital Freedom
<p>“<i>The Gentrification of the Internet</i> presents an accurate and accessible description of the current power imbalances taking place online. It pushes activists and users alike to start acting now and provides realistic examples and suggestions moving forward.”</p>
Information & Culture
"In a moment of increasing nihilism about the role of the internet and the ability of regular people to resist a descent into a technology-driven dystopia, <i>The Gentrification of the Internet</i> offers a starting point for action, grounded in the reality of gentrification activism with proven results."
Lateral: Journal of the Cultural Studies Association
"As Lingel describes, gentrification is about power, displacement, and legal and financial systems, and this book applies it convincingly as a framework for understanding how shifting dynamics in our online spaces and relationships—as well as the infrastructures that support the Internet—have long been steered by the hypercommercialized interests of corporations as opposed to the needs and desires of users."
International Journal of Communication
The internet has become a battleground. Although it was unlikely to live up to the hype and hopes of the 1990s, only the most skeptical cynics could have predicted the World Wide Web as we know it today: commercial, isolating, and full of, even fueled by, bias. This was not inevitable. The Gentrification of the Internet argues that much like our cities, the internet has become gentrified, dominated by the interests of business and capital rather than the interests of the people who use it. Jessa Lingel uses the politics and debates of gentrification to diagnose the massive, systemic problems blighting our contemporary internet: erosions of privacy and individual ownership, small businesses wiped out by wealthy corporations, the ubiquitous paywall. But there are still steps we can take to reclaim the heady possibilities of the early internet. Lingel outlines actions that internet activists and everyday users can take to defend and secure more protections for the individual and to carve out more spaces of freedom for the people—not businesses—online.
1. Gentrification Online and Off
2. The People and Platforms Facebook Left Behind
3. The Big Problems of Big Tech
4. The Fight for Fiber
5. Resistance
List of Resources
Glossary
Sources and Further Reading
Index
"The Gentrification of the Internet deftly dismantles romanticized notions of Big Tech, helping readers understand the internet as a site of increasing isolation, commodification, surveillance, and displacement. This readable and accessible book will definitely be required reading for all my courses." ––Clemencia Rodríguez, Professor of Media Studies, Temple University
"Jessa Lingel’s book persuasively demonstrates that gentrification and its consequences in terms of displacement, isolation and commercialization has migrated from the realm of the urban economy to the internet. A revealing account of the way the digital world has transitioned from a space for DIY countercultures to a playground for the corporate oligarchy."––Paolo Gerbaudo, Director of the Centre for Digital Culture at King’s College London
<p>“<i>The Gentrification of the Internet</i> presents an accurate and accessible description of the current power imbalances taking place online. It pushes activists and users alike to start acting now and provides realistic examples and suggestions moving forward.”</p>
Information & Culture
"In a moment of increasing nihilism about the role of the internet and the ability of regular people to resist a descent into a technology-driven dystopia, <i>The Gentrification of the Internet</i> offers a starting point for action, grounded in the reality of gentrification activism with proven results."
Lateral: Journal of the Cultural Studies Association
"As Lingel describes, gentrification is about power, displacement, and legal and financial systems, and this book applies it convincingly as a framework for understanding how shifting dynamics in our online spaces and relationships—as well as the infrastructures that support the Internet—have long been steered by the hypercommercialized interests of corporations as opposed to the needs and desires of users."
International Journal of Communication
The internet has become a battleground. Although it was unlikely to live up to the hype and hopes of the 1990s, only the most skeptical cynics could have predicted the World Wide Web as we know it today: commercial, isolating, and full of, even fueled by, bias. This was not inevitable. The Gentrification of the Internet argues that much like our cities, the internet has become gentrified, dominated by the interests of business and capital rather than the interests of the people who use it. Jessa Lingel uses the politics and debates of gentrification to diagnose the massive, systemic problems blighting our contemporary internet: erosions of privacy and individual ownership, small businesses wiped out by wealthy corporations, the ubiquitous paywall. But there are still steps we can take to reclaim the heady possibilities of the early internet. Lingel outlines actions that internet activists and everyday users can take to defend and secure more protections for the individual and to carve out more spaces of freedom for the people—not businesses—online.
1. Gentrification Online and Off
2. The People and Platforms Facebook Left Behind
3. The Big Problems of Big Tech
4. The Fight for Fiber
5. Resistance
List of Resources
Glossary
Sources and Further Reading
Index
"The Gentrification of the Internet deftly dismantles romanticized notions of Big Tech, helping readers understand the internet as a site of increasing isolation, commodification, surveillance, and displacement. This readable and accessible book will definitely be required reading for all my courses." ––Clemencia Rodríguez, Professor of Media Studies, Temple University
"Jessa Lingel’s book persuasively demonstrates that gentrification and its consequences in terms of displacement, isolation and commercialization has migrated from the realm of the urban economy to the internet. A revealing account of the way the digital world has transitioned from a space for DIY countercultures to a playground for the corporate oligarchy."––Paolo Gerbaudo, Director of the Centre for Digital Culture at King’s College London