Sociology in the Age of the Internet

by Allison Cavanagh

Overview

In recent years there has been a large and diverse body of writing from scholars in the social sciences who have been studying changes brought about by new communication technologies in general and the Internet in particular. The question of how people behave, interact and organize themselves in relation to this form of communication has been given added prominence by developments within new social theory, especially in relation to the novelty of contemporary social formations and the importance of mass communications to this changed order.

For the student new to the study of technology and society, there are a bewildering array of claims and counter claims, representing a spectrum of theoretical, methodological and critical sensibilities in relation to the Internet. In this new book Allison Cavanagh evaluates the work in this area by: Investigating the novelty of the Internet and setting the Internet in the context of communication histories Evaluating the extent and rate of change through a synthesis of the available empirical literature Providing a key to understanding the changes identified through an evaluation of the utility of new social theory "Sociology in the Age of the Internet" is essential reading for academics and students with an interest in the relationship between the internet and society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780335217250
Publisher:	McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing
Publication date:	04/01/2007
Series:	Sociology and Social Change
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.43(d)

About the Author

Dr Allison Cavanagh is a lecturer in Communications Studies at the University of Leeds. She completed her PhD at the University of Manchester on panic narratives in journalists representations of the internet. Her research concerns risk and social transformation in relation to new communications technologies and information circulation between media.

Table of Contents

Series editor's preface     vi
Acknowledgements     viii
Introduction     1
The rise of the network metaphor
Approaches to networks     23
Network methodologies     27
The network society     38
The internet as a network     48
The internet as a medium
Introduction to Part Two
Elements of a public sphere     64
Interactivity: it's got to be jelly 'cos jam don't shake like that     81
The global public sphere and forms of power     92
The internet as a social space
Introduction to Part Three
Community     102
Online identity     120
Conclusion to Part Three     132
The internet as a technology
Introduction to Part Four
Sociologies of technology     139
The sociology of technology and the internet: emergent perspectives     151
References     164
Index     00