Lecture 9/10: Geographies of cyberspace Flashcards
What is Cyberspace?
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)
An expanded idea of cyberspace?
How old is the network?
“We have been wired for a long time” (Kitchin)
The first transatlantic cable was laid in 1958
The material of the digital
“Globalising agents are still dependent on real-world spatial fixity” (Kitchin)
The digital relies on the material
Transatlantic cables
Network Society?
Network society (Castells 1996) networks the basic unit of society – more important than places A network of humans and of non-humans Latour (1995)
4 categories of cyberspace?
The Internet
Virtual Reality
Telecoms
The internet of things
- The internet
Kitchin creates a distinction between the internet and virtual reality
Cern and Tim Berners Lee
The first web browsers
The end of the internet?
- Virtual reality
Virtual reality an actual sensory experience of digital space
Does this still seem relevant?
Second life, mmorpg
What is virtual reality for?
- Telecommunications
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)
- An Internet of things?
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)
Two cartographies of the digital
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?
Surfing the net
“going to a website”
“navigators & browsers”
From “going” to “using”
Metaphor or reality?
Code/Space
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)
Space – the space between
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
Globalisation
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!
Servers and stacks
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
Is cyberspace a limiting metaphor?
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
The explosion of digital networks has shaped…
the way political networks are organised.
Tahir Square- Cairo, 2011: Arab spring happened
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)
Occupy movement
New York
1,000s of people joined in the movement
Galvanised through digital communication
Turkey Coup
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
Standing Rock
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
Connectivity and Protest
Two things social media can do:
- Networking and organisation
Enables very broad and quick communication - Mobilising and congregating
(Jeffrey Juris, 2012)
Governance problems
Governments responding with efforts to control social media
Problems with controlling digital voices – particularly those from outside
Great firewall of china
Russian hacking
Network society
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…
Presentation of self
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
Anonymity vs. personalisation
Adaptable online identities Post-fordist post-community? Algorithms and networks more influential than ever No space for encounter Confirmation bias
Support and Solidarity
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
Diaspora and Nationalism
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)
Distributed politics
Castells Network Society (1996) Networks exceeding traditional political structures Interacting with nationalisms Network as Imagined Community Who has power?
