What happens when the means of communication, often centralized, become diffused? What happens when coalitions in South Africa, Malawi, China, Russia, Turkey, Burma, El Salvador, and the United States utilize electronic technologies to seek enfranchisement? This book describes such creative uses by emergent democratic movements and other cultural alliances seeking solidarity in these countries. It investigates the way the strange confluence of technological language and radical social change opens new discursive terrain. Unusual fissures and interstices appear; some auger well for the distribution of political power and the promotion of free speech, while unfortunately some open gaps within old hierarchies implicit in capitalistic discourses of technology.

Autorentext

The Editors: Ann De Vaney is Professor Emerita of Educational Communications and Technology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Visiting Professor in the Department of Education, University of California, Irvine. Her work explores the intersections of education, technology, and social/cultural issues. One of her latest texts is Watching Channel One: The Convergence of Students, Technology, and Private Business.
Stephen Gance received his B.S. in mathematics and M.S. in computer science from the University of Colorado in Boulder. He is currently a doctoral student in the Educational Communications and Technology Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Department of Curriculum and Instruction.
Yan Ma is Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Rhode Island. Her work focuses on critical and cultural analysis of technologies and information systems in library science and education.

Inhalt
Petek Askar/Buket Akkoyunlu: Computer Links to the West: Experiences from Turkey. Contents: Ann De Vaney/Stephen Gance: Introduction Ann De Vaney: Technology in Old Democratic Discourses and Current Resistance Narrative: What is Borrowed? What is Abandoned? What is New? Kedmon N. Hungwe: Breaking the Silence: Fax Transmissions and the Movement for Democracy in Malawi Zarni: Resistance and Cybercommunities: The Internet and the Free Burma Movement Stephen T. Kerr: Old Technology in New Contexts: Print Media and Russian Education Sousan Arafeh: Women, Telephones, and Subtle Solidarity: A Counternarrative Yan Ma: Chinese Online Presence: Tiananmen Square and Beyond Marina Stock McIsaac/ Petek Askar/Buket Akkoyunlu: Computer Links to the West: Experiences from Turkey.