Collective Principles and the Formation of the Internet

This book describes how distinctive socio-political commitments and cultural practices developed upon the internet in the later 20th and early 21st century and considers what lies ahead in those terms.    

Five decades after the internet’s technological structure began to be erected, and three decades after engagement with it started burgeoning, an active and global collective formation has grown upon it. This collective formation is dubbed the ‘Internet Polity’ here and is distinguishable from, and yet embedded within, real-world collectives. Despite divergences and conflicts, its organization is based on certain shared principles and its culture characterized by distinctive discursive practices. This book examines how the Internet Polity developed until 2010, in terms of the technological and cultural features that have supported it. Accordingly, the Internet Polity’s emerging prospects are considered. 

Topics and features:

Gives an original framework for understanding the global collective grounded on the internet as a social space
Presents a history of the technological basis and communication features of this collective, from the beginnings to 2010
Offers an interdisciplinary perspective that cuts across most disciplines of the humanities and social sciences
Describes the histories of and debates surrounding popular terms like ‘cyberspace,’ ‘information superhighway,’ ‘Internet of Things,’ ‘hacker,’ etc.  


This wide-ranging and original book is for researchers, graduate students, professionals and informed readers who are interested in information technology and political culture, digital humanities, sociolinguistics and communication studies, history of the internet, contemporary social organization and political philosophy.

Suman Gupta is Professor of Literature and Cultural History at The Open University, UK.