Governable Spaces: Democratic Design for Online Life
Nathan Schneider 2024. Governable Spaces: Democratic Design for Online Life. University of California Press.
| Title | Governable Spaces: Democratic Design for Online Life |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nathan Schneider |
| Abstract | When was the last time you participated in an election for an online group chat or sat on a jury for a dispute about a controversial post? Platforms nudge users to tolerate nearly all-powerful admins, moderators, and “benevolent dictators for life.” In Governable Spaces, Nathan Schneider argues that the internet has been plagued by a phenomenon he calls “implicit feudalism”: a bias, both cultural and technical, for building communities as fiefdoms. The consequences have spread far beyond online spaces themselves. Feudal defaults train us to give up on our communities’ democratic potential, inclining us to be more tolerant of autocratic tech CEOs and authoritarian politicians. But online spaces could be sites of a creative, radical, and democratic renaissance. Schneider shows how the internet can learn from governance legacies of the past to become a more democratic medium, responsive and inventive unlike anything that has come before. |
| Year | 2024 |
| Publisher | University of California Press |
| Publication dates | |
| Published | 27 Feb 2024 |
| ISBN | 9780520393943 |
| 9780520393950 | |
| Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1525/luminos.181 |
| File | License CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 File Access Level Open (open metadata and files) |
| Web address (URL) | http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/luminos.181 |
| Journal | University of California Press |