THE CONTENTIOUS INTERNET: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL CITASA SECTION ON CONTENTIOUS POLITICS ON AND OFF LINE

摘要

Has nothing changed? Well, ICTs have come: the internet along with mobile phones, smart and not-so. In theory, and sometimes in practice, information is abundantly available and communication spans the globe. Yet people are still rioting in Africa, etc.rnShould we still be singing the same old song? What is the impact of ICTs on contentious politics? That's the focus of these four papers, part of the recent florescence of work in this area. This section emerged when CITASA discovered the abundance of solid submissions looking at how contentious politics plays out on and off-line. It's a doubly new field: ICT researchers have hitherto been focused on interpersonal relations, and contentious politics researchers have newly discovered ICTs.