Democratic and Anti-Democratic Regulators of the Internet: A Framework

We employ Lessig's framework of regulation to conceptualize the relationship between the Internet and democracy. Lessig defines four classes of regulators, forces that control and define systems such as the Internet. They are markets, architectures, norms, and laws. We propose that a “democratic regulator” is a force that serves to enhance civil or political liberties. And we argue by example that there are democratic (and, indeed, anti-democratic) regulators that control aspects of cyberspace. Expressing the democratic effects of the Internet in this manner may prove useful for future comparisons across existing Internet and democracy theories, especially in the realm of quantitative analyses.     

The Emerging Mobile Internet Underclass: A Critique of Mobile Internet Access

This article provides a critical comparative analysis of mobile versus personal computer (PC)-based forms of Internet access. Drawing from an interdisciplinary body of literature, it illustrates a wide range of ways in which mobile Internet access offers lower levels of functionality and content availability; operates on less open and flexible platforms; and contributes to diminished levels of user engagement, content creation, and information seeking. At a time when a growing proportion of the online population is “mobile only,” these disparities have created what is termed here a mobile Internet underclass. The implications of this argument for digital divide policymaking and, more broadly, for the evolutionary trajectory of the Internet and the dynamics of Internet usage are discussed.     

论民间组织在区域合作中的作用

民间组织通过建立合作联盟或联席会议等形式,广泛开展信息交流、教育培训、会展合作、技术成果推广应用、异地服务以及对国家有关政策和规划提出意见和建议,推动行业突破行政区划障碍,有效遏制区域间的过度竞争,促进区域各类市场资源的连接和整合,实现行业间经济、技术合作及产权运作,已成为区域合作和区域经济发展中的一支不可缺少的重要力量。对此,政府要加强制度和立法的供给,打破行业协会行政管辖的分割。同时,民间组织要加强自治自律,提升自身能力以更好地参与区域合作。     

Drawing Conclusions from New Media Research: Reflections and Puzzles Regarding Children's Experience of the Internet

New media studies are now benefiting from a burgeoning of empirical studies and theoretical analyses from diverse academic disciplines seeking to locate new media, especially the Internet, within longstanding traditions of social science research. By reviewing and reflecting upon findings from UK Children Go Online, a multimethod research project examining the role of the Internet in children's and young people's everyday lives, the present article takes the opportunity to draw out some general conclusions, and associated puzzles, to guide future research. These contribute toward an emerging framework for understanding questions regarding new media access, use, and consequences within the social, cultural, and political parameters of young people's lives. A range of research findings are discussed that illuminate the shifting balance of opportunities and risks posed by the Internet for children, youth, and the family.     

A Multidimensional Analysis of the Disability Digital Divide: Some Evidence for Internet Use

Over the last few years, information and communication technologies have become an essential part of daily life, affecting education, employment, and leisure, among other activities. Nonetheless, many individuals still reap few or no benefits from these technologies, and there are resilient gaps in their use. Within this larger context, the authors examine the Internet digital divide between people with and without disabilities from a multidimensional approach. Rather than analyzing the gap in terms of “haves” and “have-nots,” a range of Internet-related dimensions—affordability, motivation and attitudes, skills, usage, and others—is taken into account.     

参与民主的主题——评卡罗尔·帕特曼《参与和民主理论》

卡罗尔·帕特曼通过《参与和民主理论》论述了“参与民主”理论．以评判自由主义民主为逻辑起点推断出参与民主。她强调参与是民主的核心,同时指出参与民主的最重要的功能在于教育。虽然参与民主推动了民族理论的发展,但它仍然存在一些不足。     

Mapping and measuring the information society: A social science perspective on the opportunities,problems, and prospects of broadband Internet data in the United States

Abstract

There are concerns across government, industry, and academia over the inadequacies of data on broadband Internet connections. These inadequacies are important to consider because government policies and regulations, industry strategies, and scholarly research can be impacted by inaccurate or distorted data. Given that there are ongoing discussions about policy initiatives to improve these data, this article sets out to critically review publicly available data, identify important limitations of these data, and profile studies that have used these data successfully. In this review, the dynamic nature of broadband data will be discussed and the tradeoffs of pursuing further investments to create better databases evaluated. This evaluation suggests a more fruitful research path would be to recognize and work around existing data drawbacks, using the studies profiled in this article as examples, to explore a multitude of issues related to broadband availability, adoption, and use.     

农民政治参与视域中的农村民间组织功能分析

政治参与是政治过程中的一个重要变量,对政治发展有着重要的影响。我国是一个农业大国,农民占我国人口的绝大多数,因此其政治参与程度对我国基层政治发展有着举足轻重的作用。然而,受制于历史和现实诸多因素的制约,农民政治参与状况不容乐观。在突破这一瓶颈的多种可行性方法中,鼓励和引导农村民间组织的快速发展是一个行之有效的措施,可以有效地提高农民的政治文化素质,拓宽农民的政治参与渠道和范围,进而实现农民制度化的政治参与。     

国际互联网发展现状分析及思考

国际互联网在世界范围内飞速发展,联网计算机和网络用户数每天都在激增,互联网改变了人们的生活,但是,国际互联网发展的不平衡带来了数字鸿沟,造成发达国家与发展中国家的信息不对称,使得全球信息安全问题更加突出,从而使全球政治经济的稳定受到威胁,向世界各国,特别是发展中国家提出新的挑战。所有的国际组织和国家应该把促进国际互联网的平衡发展当作自己的责任,共同关注和确保发展中国家信息时代的发展权,建立公平合理的国际互联网价格体系,为实现全球经济的全面和共同繁荣而努力。     

The Bumpy Road to Universal Access: An Actor-Network Analysis of a U.S. Municipal Broadband Internet Initiative

Universal high-speed Internet access can productively transform a nation's economy. However, many municipalities in the United States have been left behind in terms of Internet penetration. Some municipal governments have tried to address this by launching initiatives that aim at offering citywide, universal broadband access. Unfortunately, most of these initiatives either have been discontinued or have ended in failure. Drawing on actor-network theory, we conducted a 3-year study to investigate the evolution of the Internet TV initiative in LaGrange, Georgia, in the United States. The results reveal distinct interpretations of the initiative by different actor groups (the government, the service providers, socioeconomically advantaged residents, and socioeconomically disadvantaged residents), at different stages of implementation, pointing to tensions among the various groups. These tensions reflect the structural problems embedded in the macro political, economic, and societal context. The findings offer insights for policymakers who intend to achieve universal broadband access.     

Real-Time Politics: The Internet and the Political Process

Research on the Internet's role in politics has struggled to transcend technological determinism--the assumption, often inadvertent, that the technology simply imprints its own logic on social relationships. An alternative approach traces the ways, often numerous, in which an institution's participants appropriate the technology in the service of goals, strategies, and relationships that the institution has already organized. This amplification model can be applied in analyzing the Internet's role in politics. After critically surveying a list of widely held views on the matter, this article illustrates how the amplification model might be applied to concrete problems. These include the development of social networks and ways that technology is used to bind people together into a polity.     

Closing the Digital Divide: The Role of Services and Infrastructure in Bhutan 1

Abstract

Considerable attention has been devoted in recent years to the digital divides that exist between and within countries. Within developing countries, information and communication infrastructures are often limited. This paper focuses on the digital divide within Bhutan. More specifically, the paper identifies two related dimensions of the digital divide in Bhutan—access and skills—and argues that the interaction between geography, resources and services will shape how the divide is tackled.     

信息社会的公民参与与行政公开的深化

公民参与主要是指一个国家的公民通过一定的方式和程序,对政策的制定和执行表达集体或个人的政治意愿,试图影响政治体系的运行方式、运行规则和运行结果的活动.在信息环境下,公民参与体现出不同于传统社会的许多新的特点.对行政公开提出了许多新的挑战,我们必须完善行政公开建设,促进公民参与的深化.     

中华民族共同体教育融入土木类课程思政机制与路径探究——以大连民族大学土木工程学院为例

民族院校每一名师生都肩负着铸牢中华民族共同体意识、维护民族团结的重要使命。民族院校土木类学生承担着建设祖国的重要使命,更应该注重中华民族共同体教育。应通过结合、挖掘专业课教学中蕴含的思想政治教育资源,引导学生树立积极向上的价值观、客观科学的世界观,实现人文知识的内化和道德情操的升华,铸牢中华民族共同体意识,培育大国工匠精神,为实现中华民族伟大复兴而努力奋斗。     

解读风险社会中的科学与政治

本文试图分析贝克的风险社会理论中的科学与政治的关系,并讨论启蒙理性中的科学主义与人文主义之间的关系。从而认为风险社会的政治图景本身值得反思,而这种反思需要重新探讨科学理性与人文理性之间的关系,这种讨论将开启规范政治哲学的重新思考。     

浅析互联网时代传统媒体对高校思想政治教育的基础作用

在互联网时代背景下，传统媒体并没有消匿也不可能被新媒体取代，依然在高校思想政治教育中发挥重要的基础作用。     

Internetworking and the Politics of Science: NSFNET in Internet History

This article presents an account of the process of development of the NSFNET and its significance for the emergence of the Internet of the 1990s. The fact that the development of the interconnected system of computer networks occurred within the realm of academic research is not incidental. The dynamics of the world of scientific research were intimately related to the shaping of the network and to the way in which it spread to other sectors of society. The construction of computer networks crossed the boundaries between science and society in order to build the scientific realm by transforming the world in which it is embedded.     

风险社会和移动互联网时代的舆情表达与政府回应

风险社会和移动互联网时代的舆情表达体现出许多新特征,尚未完全适应此种变化的政府回应时不时地陷入困境。只有通过理顺政府内部关系、健全信息公开制度、引导社会力量参与等,才能有效解决政府回应困境,建构政府与民众之间的良性互动关系。