The dotcom boom may well have come and gone but information and communication technologies (ICTs) are now an inescapable part of both everyday life and world politics. In this close-up study of several longstanding Internet discussion forums, M.I. Franklin explores the form and substance of everyday life online. The author traces how non-Western diasporas use the Internet to talk productively about local and global politics, cultural issues, and identity in an era dominated by neoliberal globalization. The openings for intercultural and intracultural empowerment, online and also on the ground, that emerge through ordinary people's uses of the Internet are being squeezed out, however, by powerful political economic and sociocultural interests from above and below. Franklin argues that a closer look at the content and communicative styles of these Pacific traversals online suggest other Internet futures; more hospitable, culturally inclusive and economically equitable than the one currently being put in place by vested economic interests and political power elites. This book will be of interest to students of international relations, social sciences, cultural studies, science and technology studies.
