Social Science Research Council

Princeton University Press, 2005

Edited by Robert Latham and Saskia Sassen

Computer-centered networks and technologies are reshaping social relations and constituting new social domains. These transformations assume multiple forms and involve diverse actors. This volume focuses on communication and information structures—or "digital formations"—that are constituted in electronic space. Examples include electronic markets, Internet-based large-scale conversations, knowledge spaces arising out of NGO networks, and early conflict warning systems, among others. This volume seeks to develop a better understanding of how such formations are shaped by the intersection of digital technologies and the broad range of social contexts that provide the logics, substantive rationalities, and cultural meanings for much of what happens in electronic spaces.