Reviews for Cyberpower

The average rating for Cyberpower based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-10-27 00:00:00 Evelyn Burnside Cyberpower is a fairly bold book, working to construct a theory of power-relations applicable to cyberspace. Jordan tackles the issue from various levels of analysis, ranging from individual-to-individual power in certain communities to the information flows that characterize interactions over the internet. Roughly speaking, the book hypothesizes that power on the internet can best be understood through Barry Barnes' theory of power as social order — power should not be reified as a capacity or possession of any certain actor but rather as the collective understanding of roles and norms that guide individual behavior. The example of a stoplight is given: a red light could not be described as being powerful in any traditional sense, yet functionally exhibits the power to direct traffic. Cyberpower in this understanding emerges from the collective understanding of the internet and its communities self-actualizing the properties of the internet. Coupled with this, on a smaller level, Jordan suggests technopower (learned knowledge of programming or other digital comprehension) works to guide communities in certain directions. To this effect Jordan describes a power spiral, where access to information empowers individuals but subsequently results in information overload that is assuaged by technocrats creating organizational tools. These tools make information easier to sift through for individuals, but work to limit the decisionmaking capacity for uninformed actors. The issue with Cyberpower is mainly a result of the time it was written. Given that the internet and the online communities that inhabit it have evolved so much since the book was written in 1998, much of the text sounds outdated and trite. Social media, portable internet devices, and even online video are left out of the discussion entirely, resulting in an analysis that fails to fully encapsulate the contemporary reality of digital life. At the same time, the author fully admits that the internet had, at the time of writing, not progressed enough for theorists to rigorously expound the social systems of the internet. Still, the book is written in such a way to make the author's theories of power easily understandable, even if certain passages tend to ramble or overstate a certain concept. Overall a decent inquiry into digital power structures, but simply too outdated to be felicitous to the modern digital realm.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-03-05 00:00:00 rory Welch #curriculum #digitext If you need a reference for power phenomena on the Internet, this book sort of works, though it badly needs updating for the social media age. Most readable parts are the explanation of theories of power in the beginning and the grey-boxed "myths of cyberspace" (myths in the sense of iconic stories retold). Good on permanent information overload and the cooptation of the geekerie by the "offline elites" - which has accelerated as the collapse of other sectors seems to make it a luxury to build the cyberspace we want. The invented terminology is not always successful. A few quotes: "Offline elites seeking to utilize the informational space of flows will have little interest in sustaining the identity experimentation available in MUDs, while individuals atempting to enhance their powers may see little advantage in cyberspace becoming the home of niche marketing." p. 171 "Individual domination occurs when the technology that creates cyberspace is a given to be used. Elite domination occurs when the technology that creates cyberspace is manipulated and reconstructed. Individuals exist in cyberspace by using the tools that depend on a technological infrastructure controlled by an elite, but that technological infrastructure exists to provide the tools that individuals use for empowerment." p. 211