How is society being shaped by the diffusion and increasing centrality of the Internet in everyday life and work? By bringing together leading research that addresses some of the most significant cultural, economic, and political roles of the Internet, this volume introduces students to a core set of readings that address this question in specific social and institutional contexts.

Internet Studies is a burgeoning new field, which has been central to the Oxford Internet Institute (OII), an innovative multi-disciplinary department at the University of Oxford. Society and the Internet builds on the OII's evolving series of lectures on society and the Internet. The series has been edited to create a reader to supplement upper-division undergraduate and graduate courses that seek to introduce students to scholarship focused on the implications of the Internet for networked societies around the world. The chapters of the reader are rooted in a variety of disciplines, but all directly tackle the powerful ways in which the Internet is linked to political, social, cultural, and economic transformations in society. This book will be a starting point for anyone with a serious interest in the factors shaping the Internet and its impact on society.

The book begins with an introduction by the editors, which provides a brief history of the Internet and Web and its study from multi-disciplinary perspectives. The chapters are grouped into six focused sections: The Internet and Everyday Life; Information and Culture on the Line; Networked Politics and Government; Networked Businesses, Industries, and Economies; and Technological and Regulatory Histories and Futures.

Mark Graham, Director of Research and Senior Research Fellow, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford,William H. Dutton, Professor of Internet Studies, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford

Mark Graham is a geographer and a Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute. He is a also the Director of Research at the Oxford Internet Institute and a Visiting Research Associate at the University of Oxford's School of Geography and the Environment.


William H. Dutton is Professor of Internet Studies at the University of Oxford's Internet Institute, and a Professorial Fellow at Balliol College. He received a lifetime achievement award for his role as founding director of the OII, and the International Communication Association's Fred Williams prize for contributions to the study of communication and technology.

Foreword, Manuel Castells
Introduction, Mark Graham and William H. Dutton
Part I. Internet Studies Of Everyday Life
1. Inventing the Internet: Scapegoat, Sin Eater, and Trickster, Aleks Krotoski
2. Next Generation Internet Users: A New Digital Divide, Grant Blank And William Dutton
3. The Conceptual Foundations of Social Network Sites and the Emergence of the Relational Self-Portrait, Bernie Hogan And Barry Wellman
4. The Politics of Children s Internet Use, Victoria Nash
5. Gender and Race Online, Lisa Nakamura
Part II. Information And Culture On The Line
6. Internet Geographies: Data Shadows and Digital Divisions of Labour, Mark Graham
7. China and the US in the New Internet World: A Comparative Perspective, Gillian Bolsover, William H. Dutton, Ginette Law, And Soumitra Dutta
8. Social Media and the News: Implications for the Press and Society, Nic Newman, William H. Dutton, And Grant Blank
9. The Impact of the Internet on Media Industries: An Economic Perspective, Sung Wook Ji And David Waterman
10. Big Data: Towards a More Scientific Social Science and Humanities?, Ralph Schroeder
Part III. Networked Politics And Governments
11. Transforming Government by Default?, Miriam Lips
12. The Wisdom of Which Crowd? On the Pathology of a Digital Democracy Initiative for a Listening Government, Stephen Coleman And Jay Blumler
13. Online Social Networks and Bottom-up Politics, Sandra Gonzalez-Bailon
14. Big Data and Collective Action, Helen Margetts, Scott A. Hale, Taha Yasseri
15. Empowering Citizens of the Internet Age: The Role of a Fifth Estate, Elizabeth Dubois And William H. Dutton
Part IV: Networked Businesses, Industries AND Economies
16. Scarcity of Attention for a Medium of Abundance: An Economic Perspective, Greg Taylor
17. The Internet in the Law: Transforming Problem-Solving and Education, Richard Susskind
18. The Digital Divide and Employment: The Case of the Sudanese Labour Market, Laura Mann
19. A Critical Perspective on the Potential of the Internet at the Margins of the Global Economy, Mark Graham
Part V. Technological And Regulatory Histories And Futures
20. Next-Generation Content for Next-Generation Networks, Eli M. Noam
21. Data Privacy in the Clouds, Christopher Millard
22. The Social Media Challenge to Internet Governance, Laura Denardis
23. Beyond the Internet and Web, Yorick Wilks