Lecture 9/10: Geographies of cyberspace

Question 1

What is Cyberspace?

Answer 1

A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions […] A graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding.
(Gibson 1984:51)

Question 2

An expanded idea of cyberspace?

Answer 2

How old is the network?
“We have been wired for a long time” (Kitchin)
The first transatlantic cable was laid in 1958

Question 3

The material of the digital

Answer 3

“Globalising agents are still dependent on real-world spatial fixity” (Kitchin)
The digital relies on the material
Transatlantic cables

Question 4

Network Society?

Answer 4

Network society (Castells 1996) networks the basic unit of society – more important than places
A network of humans and of non-humans Latour (1995)

Question 5

4 categories of cyberspace?

Answer 5

The Internet
Virtual Reality
Telecoms
The internet of things

Question 6

1. The internet

Answer 6

Kitchin creates a distinction between the internet and virtual reality
Cern and Tim Berners Lee
The first web browsers
The end of the internet?

Question 7

2. Virtual reality

Answer 7

Virtual reality an actual sensory experience of digital space
Does this still seem relevant?
Second life, mmorpg
What is virtual reality for?

Question 8

3. Telecommunications

Answer 8

Since Kitchin 2000 telecommunications have become more important in the provision of access to the internet
Particularly in the developing world
“East African countries like Kenya have only recently received international fiber-optic submarine cable. They are nevertheless using their large populations of mobile phone users to develop the world’s newest business models.” (Easterling 2014:15)

Question 9

4. An Internet of things?

Answer 9

A fourth model or an alternative concept? 
The internet of things 
Connects not just people but objects
It augments and changes “the real” world
Code/space (Kitchin & Dodge 2011)

Question 10

Two cartographies of the digital

Answer 10

Virtual maps – a map that describes the way we ‘move’ via digital communications networks
Real maps – maps that describe the materiality of the digital
Or maps of different realities?

Question 11

Surfing the net

Answer 11

“going to a website”
“navigators & browsers”
From “going” to “using”
Metaphor or reality?

Question 12

Code/Space

Answer 12

Those spaces in everyday life which are produced through and dependent upon software
“Any Space that is dependent on software-driven technologies to function as intended constitutes a code/space” (Dodge & Kitchin 2011:17)

Question 13

Space – the space between

Answer 13

An “Internet of things” describes a world embedded with so many digital devices that the space between them consists not of dark circuitry but rather the space of the city itself (Easterling 2014:157)
Smart city? (Hollands 2008) risk of reducing space to technological infrastructure.
Dodge and Kitchin 2011:12

Question 14

Globalisation

Answer 14

Reducing distance
Diasporic relationships
“electric circuitry has overthrown the regime of ‘time’ and ‘space’ and pours upon us instantly and continuously concerns of all other men. It has reconstituted dialogue on a global scale . . . ‘Time’ has ceased, ‘space’ has vanished. We now live in a global village” (McLuhan and Fiore 1967, 63)
Somewhat utopian!

Question 15

Servers and stacks

Answer 15

The internet appears as an illusion – however it is a concrete reality
Accessing data means accessing specific places
Via specific connectivities
Uneven distribution of connectivity

Question 16

Is cyberspace a limiting metaphor?

Answer 16

Multiple cyberspaces “A myriad of rapidly expanding cyberspaces” (Kitchin 2000:1)
Not a singular universally accessible space - “It is a network that is characterized by highly uneven geographies and in many ways has simply reinforced global patterns of visibility, representation and voice that we are used to in the offline world” (Graham 2013:180-181

Question 17

The explosion of digital networks has shaped…

Answer 17

the way political networks are organised.

Question 18

Tahir Square- Cairo, 2011: Arab spring happened

Answer 18

Started with a revolution in Tunisia
Many arabs states overthrew their leaders
Largest revolution was in Egypt
Youth protest groups protests in Tahir Square in early 2011
Twitter was important in instigation and made it easier to assemble people and organise (80,000)

Question 19

Occupy movement

Answer 19

New York
1,000s of people joined in the movement
Galvanised through digital communication

Question 20

Turkey Coup

Answer 20

Tried to overthrow the government (led by expat)
Brutal regime of arrests followed
Many academics
Very hard to access social media
Media was largely run by the state
Space that was fought over
The information coming from it was very muddy
Example of the state reacting attempts of overthrowing via controlling social media

Question 21

Standing Rock

Answer 21

Protest about native American land in Dakota that is being dug up for an oil pipeline
Started in April last year
The police in the area were using facebook to find out where protesters were- “check in” to Standing Rock
Idea was to confuse police
Enables an occupation to happen via virtual means

Question 22

Connectivity and Protest

Two things social media can do:

Answer 22

1. Networking and organisation
   Enables very broad and quick communication
2. Mobilising and congregating
   (Jeffrey Juris, 2012)

Question 23

Governance problems

Answer 23

Governments responding with efforts to control social media
Problems with controlling digital voices – particularly those from outside
Great firewall of china
Russian hacking

Question 24

Network society

Answer 24

Cyberspace is providing a platform for people to change the real world
The virtual as a crucial realm for the imagining of alternative futures
The problem of bubbles etc…

Question 25

Presentation of self

Answer 25

Goffman 1956
Used a theatrical metaphor to describe social interactions
We adopt different roles in different circumstances
Is this most fully realised online?
Networked self Papachrissi 2010

Question 26

Anonymity vs. personalisation

Answer 26

Adaptable online identities 
Post-fordist post-community? 
Algorithms and networks more influential than ever
No space for encounter
Confirmation bias

Question 27

Support and Solidarity

Answer 27

Has connectivity reduced social and cultural distance as well as spatial?
Opportunities for people to connect with niches
The transformation of disparate communities into solid ones

Question 28

Diaspora and Nationalism

Answer 28

The internet allows relationships to be maintained over long distances (Miller & Madianou 2012)
It allows the maintenance and construction of transnational communities. (Bernal 2006, 2014)

Question 29

Distributed politics

Answer 29

Castells Network Society (1996) 
Networks exceeding traditional political structures
Interacting with nationalisms
Network as Imagined Community
Who has power?