Living Without a Mobile Phone: An Autoethnography

This paper presents an autoethnography of my experiences living without a mobile phone. What started as an experiment motivated by a personal need to reduce stress, has resulted in two voluntary mobile phone breaks spread over nine years (i.e., 2002-2008 and 2014-2017). Conducting this autoethnography is the means to assess if the lack of having a phone has had any real impact in my life. Based on formative and summative analyses, four meaningful units or themes were identified (i.e., social relationships, everyday work, research career, and location and security), and judged using seven criteria for successful ethnography from existing literature. Furthermore, I discuss factors that allow me to make the choice of not having a mobile phone, as well as the relevance that the lessons gained from not having a mobile phone have on the lives of people who are involuntarily disconnected from communication infrastructures.Comment: 12 page

Between empowerment and abuse: citizen participation beyond the post-democratic turn

In this special issue on “Democratization beyond the Post-Democratic Turn. Political Participation between Empowerment and Abuse”, we have explored changing understandings of participation in contemporary Western representative democracies through the analytical lens of the concept of the post-democratic-turn. We have investigated technology-based, market-based, and expert-led innovations that claim to enhance democratic participation and to provide policy legitimation. In this concluding article, I revisit the cases made by the individual contributors and analyse how shifting notions of participation alter dominant understandings of democracy. I carve out how new and emerging ideas of participation are based on different understandings of political subjectivity; furthermore, how constantly rising democratic expectations and simultaneously increasing scepticism with regard to democratic processes and institutions point to a growing democratic ambivalence within Western societies. Making use of Dahl’s conceptualization of democracy, in this article, I review changing understandings of participation in light of their contribution to further democratization. The article shows how under post-democratic conditions the simulative performance of autonomy and subjectivity has become central to democratic participation. It emphasizes that what in established perspectives on democratization might appear as an abuse of participation, through the lens of a post-democratic-turn might be perceived as emancipatory and liberating

Internet Utopianism and the Practical Inevitability of Law

Writing at the dawn of the digital era, John Perry Barlow proclaimed cyberspace to be a new domain of pure freedom. Addressing the nations of the world, he cautioned that their laws, which were “based on matter,” simply did not speak to conduct in the new virtual realm. As both Barlow and the cyberlaw scholars who took up his call recognized, that was not so much a statement of fact as it was an exercise in deliberate utopianism. But it has proved prescient in a way that they certainly did not intend. The “laws” that increasingly have no meaning in online environments include not only the mandates of market regulators but also the guarantees that supposedly protect the fundamental rights of internet users, including the expressive and associational freedoms whose supremacy Barlow asserted. More generally, in the networked information era, protections for fundamental human rights — both on- and offline — have begun to fail comprehensively. Cyberlaw scholarship in the Barlowian mold isn’t to blame for the worldwide erosion of protections for fundamental rights, but it also hasn’t helped as much as it might have. In this essay, adapted from a forthcoming book on the evolution of legal institutions in the information era, I identify and briefly examine three intersecting flavors of internet utopianism in cyberlegal thought that are worth reexamining. It has become increasingly apparent that functioning legal institutions have indispensable roles to play in protecting and advancing human freedom. It has also become increasingly apparent, however, that the legal institutions we need are different than the ones we have

European Union's Regulating of Social Media: A Discourse Analysis of the Digital Services Act

Traditional conceptions of democratic publics are changing due to the rise of social media as a global communication tool. While social media brings people together globally and creates new spaces for creativity and resistance, it is also a space of harassment, discrimination, and violence. As recent debates about hate speech and the distribution of "fake news" have shown, the political responsibilities and consequences of regulating online content remain unclear. More recently, the EU is increasingly paying attention to platform providers. How is the EU legitimizing its new approach to social media platform regulation and how will this legislation shape transnational publics? This article contributes to ongoing debates on platform regulation by governments and other political authorities (especially the EU as a transnational legislator) and discussions about the shape of online publics. By applying a discourse analytical perspective, key legitimation narratives can be explored. I argue that the EU claims political authority over corporate interests by introducing new legislation to regulate social media platforms with the Digital Services Act. On the one hand, the EU imagines an idealized democratic online public without harmful and illegal content. On the other hand, the new legislation serves the EU's agenda on digital sovereignty, taking back control from big and US-based enterprises. There is a strong consensus about four legitimation narratives: (a) "What is illegal offline has to be illegal online"; (b) the EU is "taking back control"; (c) the EU is "protecting small businesses, consumers, and our citizens against big tech"; (d) the EU is developing "a golden standard and rulebook beyond the EU." Held together by the idea of democratic procedures, authority, and sovereignty, these narratives are demanding more action from social media providers to act on harmful and illegal content

"Internet universality": Human rights and principles for the internet

This paper details proposals by UNESCO to manufacture and draft a concept of “Internet Universality” that adopts a human-rights framework as a basis for articulating a set of principles and rights for the Internet. The paper discusses various drafts of this concept before examining the Charter of Human Rights and Principles for the Internet put forward by The Internet Rights & Principles Dynamic Coalition based at the UN Internet Governance Forum, and the working law Marco Civil da Internet introduced by Brazil

Political participation in the age of the internet : an analysis of the online forum as legitimation mechanism

Abstract unavailable please refer to PD

A Method for Authentication Services in Wireless Networks

With the widespread use of wireless network services and applications, security is a major concern. From wireless network security aspects, authentication for services is very important especially in Internet banking. In this paper, an authentication method for wireless networks using dynamic key theory is presented. The dynamic key theory is used to produce “one time keys” for authentication. These one time keys will improve the efficiency and security of wireless authentication. It can be applied for Internet banking and services in wireless networks

From Slurs to Science, Racism to Revisionism: White Nationalist Rhetors and Legitimation in the Stormfront Community

While on the surface mainstream discussions about race appear to encompass the values and ideologies associated with egalitarianism, subtle and at times not so subtle discussions continue to disparage groups and individuals who have been historically associated with the minority. The growing existence of hate groups illustrates that arguments for these extreme ideologies are not only present but for some individuals are gaining in acceptance. For this reason, I perform a critical discourse analysis of the language of one of the most popular and prolific White Nationalist groups on the Internet, Stormfront. In particular, I examine how scientific and revisionist discourse is used throughout Stormfront to create a seemingly rational and legitimate justification for White Nationalist ideology. Focusing on scientific and historical discourses, this analysis identifies the similar argument types, orders of discourse, and styles between mainstream and White Nationalist discourse to show how seamlessly Stormfront discourse draws off of mainstream discourse. Designed to divert the audience from the stigma associated with White Nationalism, Stormfront users have intentionally adopted a mainstream script that follows current social norms. This analysis finds that Stormfront members use current scientific research to advance the White Nationalist ideology through the incorporation of a socially acceptable and mainstream discourse that is granted high status. Similarly, Stormfront members recontextualize authoritative historical discourses and mainstream mediated discourse to recast White Nationalists as the victims of inequality under a guise of legitimacy. Furthermore, both the science and revisionist threads on Stormfront use similar techniques (hyperlinking, source referral, etc.) and styles (assertions, legitimizing language, modality, etc.) to advance these arguments. Additionally, both threads incorporate external sources to their discourse, and this interdiscursivity gradually begins to chip away at the boundaries between extremist/hate/racist speech and mainstream discourse. These similar discourses are suggestive of a transition from the “extreme” to a more subtle, indirect racism that may have a more persuasive effect when presented under the guise of the socially acceptable

The role of Twitter in legitimating the Energy East Pipeline, Canada

This thesis explores the value of social media in contemporary democratic practices; more precisely, on the use of social media in Canadian tar-sands pipeline infrastructure debate through the lens of public sphere theory. The study aims to contribute to improved understanding of Twitter’s shaping the course of the proposed Energy East pipeline, its legitimacy and formation of public debate around it. It is based on a mixed-methods approach employing both qualitative and quantitative research methodology. Data was collected from a topic-specific content stream on Twitter, followed by a series of semi-structured interviews with some of the most influential users within a sample of collected tweets. The study identified the users, the content and socio-political context of tweets that are posted in connection with the pipeline as well as users’ perceptions of Twitter as a tool for online deliberative democratic practices. Findings indicate Twitter is praised for offering an enabling environment for citizen journalism on real-time events, its swiftness of information dissemination, enabling contact with individuals outside of users’ established social circles and the power to influence public opinion. However, the medium is not without limitations which diminish its role as an optimal tool for democratic online public deliberation. My study suggests the main hindrance for this is the absence of constructive debate due to Twitter’s character-limitation of posts and predominantly one-sided communicative processes that take place within this medium. Its role in Energy East debate remains constrained within informative and reactive aspects of its service on current developments on the pipeline polemics and has as such a limited influence on legitimation processes surrounding the project. I therefore conclude that Twitter represents only a fragment of what can be considered the new public sphere and definitely not one-size-fits-all solution to the contemporary legitimation crisis of proposed large-scale industrial projects such as Energy East pipeline.M-IE