Virtual Politics: Identity and Community in Cyberspace

Virtual Politics is a critical overview of the newùdigitalùbody politic, with new technologies framing the discussion of key themes in social theory. This book shows how these new technologies are altering the nature of identity and agency, the relation of self to other, and the structure of community and political representation. The principal theme of Virtual Politics is that electronically and digitally simulated environments offer an important metaphor for understanding social relations. This volume focuses on how virtual realities effectively extend space, time, and the body, showing how technologies such as the automobile and environments such as the movie theater and the shopping mall prefigure cyberspace. It also examines the loss of political identity and agency in cyberspace and identifies a disembodied consumer in anonymous control of a simulated reality. Virtual Politics will be required reading for students of sociology, social theory, and cultural studies.