Digital Governance://Networked Societies: Creating Authority, Community and Identity in a Globalized World

This volume explores the role of the Internet in the creation and reconfiguration of political authority, community and identity in a globalizing world. A string of case studies demonstrates how the Internet and connectivity facilitate the creation of political authorities 'within' and 'beyond' the nation state, and how it lies at the core of the formation of automated forms of power and the emergence of a plethora of communities with global reach and outloook, affecting identity formation processes and social dynamics. These developments have important repercussions for politics and democracy. Politics in the Information Age becomes a 'politics of presence' and a 'politics of becoming', as expressed through multiple practices, connections and organizational forms, as well as the complex formation of political identities. In such a setup, democracy comes to depend more ethics and less on procedures. This volume lays the foundation for further work on politics and democracy in the Information Age.