Mapping new digital landscapes

Information Communication & Society, vol. 23, pp. 1100–1105

Abstract

This Special Issue of Information, Communication and Society explores what can be understood as ‘digital landscapes’. The term draws our attention to the complex and overlapping contours of off- and on-line information flows, exchanges and meanings, and how these embody cultural, political and epistemic processes. The term also points to the ways in which social actors navigate the geographies of this landscape, and whether and how they have the resources to do so, indeed, whether they can create new geographies, and so new maps, in the process. This agency has therefore to be seen as highly contextual, a mix of both local and global dynamics. The papers brought together here examine the discursive, ethical, legal and infrastructural aspects of the digital landscape. In doing so, they open up for discussion on how we are best to understand, map, critique and importantly differentiate and contextualise the diverse forms of social engagement found within this landscape and its off-line instantiation.

Authors 3

1. Andrew Webster corresponding

   University of York

   Affiliation as printed

   Science and Technology Studies Unit (SATSU), Dept of Sociology, University of York, England, UK

2. Anna Lydia Svalastog

   Østfold University of Applied Sciences

   Affiliation as printed

   Psychosocial Work , Østfold University College, Halden, Norway

3. Joachim Allgaier Aachen Society and Technology at the Human Technology Center

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Society and Technology at the Human Technology Center, Aachen University, Aachen, Germany