Working-Class Network Society

In Working-Class Network Society: Communication Technology and the Information Have-Less in Urban China, Jack Linchuan Qiu breaks down the dichotomy of information haves and have-nots by discussing the information “have-less.” Qiu frames his discussion around the emergence of a new working class of “network labor” and the effects of technology on the lives of migrants, the unemployed, micro-entrepreneurs, youth, retirees, and other marginalized groups in China.

Working-Class Network Society is broken down into three major sections: “Networks Materialized,” “The People of Have-Less,” and “A New Working-Class in the Making.” Qiu discusses both the regulation and resistance associated with the rise of Internet Cafés and inexpensive mobile telephony in China. After discussing the ways in which ICTs are provided in working-class communities, Qiu explores the information needs of specific “have-less” groups. Out of these groups, I found Qiu’s examination of migrant laborers within urban villages to be of particular interest, especially when juxtaposed with the effects of ICT use on the indigenous population.

Having conducted five years of empirical research in twenty Chinese cities, Qiu uses Working-Class Network Society as a means to discuss not only the underlying socioeconomic issues of the Chinese network society, but also to address the ways in which politics and government/institutional policies have contributed to the current Chinese informational state. By highlighting the diverse needs of the “have-less,” Qiu debunks the pedestrian view that insufficient access to technology is the primary cause of information poverty.

"Who Controls the Internet?" - Goldsmith and Wu

"Who Controls the Internet?" is the question informing this 2006 title - recently updated in 2008 - from noted legal/Internet scholars Jack Goldsmith and Tim Wu. The book lays out a compelling case for the fact that the notion of the Internet as an unfettered Great Equalizer being less than accurate, and for the institution itself being a dynamic point of tension and subject to national, geographic, political and technocultural barriers. These artificial divides, imposed on a technology typically touted as borderless and agnostic in terms of cultural and other barriers, have many real-world implications for millions of people across the globe.

I am excited to delve into the narrative of many important precedent-setting events and cases. Many of the incidents this books reports on are included in the Cyberlaw course here taught by Anuj Desai, so I am looking forward to focusing on the background and the implications for the cases and the decisions made.

Additionally, I am looking at a book called Access Denied while I read "Who Controls...?".