Governable Spaces

Democratic Design for Online Life

Bibliographic Data

ID5807124
AuthorsN Schneider (0000-0002-2745-0533, University of Colorado Boulder, corresponding author), Darija Medic
Year2023
Publication date2023-09-12
Open AccessYes
TypeBOOK
VenueGovernable spaces (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherUniversity of California Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1525/luminos.181
OpenAlexW4386633815
Open LibraryOL50626516M
ISBN9780520393943
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited197

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

Computer security · Democracy · Political science · Sociology · Computer Science · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Law · Engineering · Feudalism—Political aspects · Internet governance · Online social networks—Political aspects · Social media and society

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Open DOILibgenOpen Access