The Political Mapping of Cyberspace - Softcover

Crampton, Jeremy W.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226117464 ISBN 13: 9780226117461

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2004

Synopsis

As inherently spatial beings, our sense of space in cyberspace challenges all that is familiar in terms of our ability to define, organize, govern, and map social places. In The Political Mapping of Cyberspace, Jeremy Crampton shows that cyberspace is not the virtual reality we think it to be, but instead a rich geography of political practices and power relations.

Using concepts and methods derived from the work of Michel Foucault, Crampton outlines a new mapping of cyberspace to help define the role of space in virtual worlds and to provide constructive ways in which humans can exist in another spatial dimension. He delineates the critical role maps play in constructing the medium as an object of knowledge and demonstrates that by processes of mapping we come to understand cyberspace. Maps, he argues, shape political thinking about cyberspace, and he deploys in-depth case studies of crime mapping, security maintenance, and geo-surveillance to show how we map ourselves onto cyberspace, inexorably, and indelibly.

Offering a powerful reinterpretation of technology and contemporary life, this innovative book will be an essential touchstone for the study of cartography and cyberspace in the twenty-first century.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

This book is about the politics of cyberspace. It shows that cyberspace is no mere virtual reality but a rich geography of practices and power relations. Using concepts and methods derived from the work of Michel Foucault, Jeremy Crampton explores the construction of digital subjectivity, web identity and authenticity, as well as the nature and consequences of the digital divide between the connected and those abandoned in limbo. He demonstrates that it is by processes of mapping that we understand cyberspace and in doing so delineates the critical role maps play in constructing cyberspace as an object of knowledge. Maps, he argues, shape political thinking about cyberspace, and he deploys in-depth case studies of crime mapping, security and geo-surveillance to show how we map ourselves onto cyberspace, inexorably and indelibly.

Clearly argued and vigorously written this book offers a powerful reinterpretation of cyberspace, politics, and contemporary life.

About the Author

Jeremy W. Crampton is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology and Geography at Georgia State University. He is the author of numerous articles on social and technical aspects of mapping.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0226117464
• ISBN 13: 9780226117461
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 214