Susanna Paasonen: Net Years Away? Issues of Location in Internet Studies
In project: Disturbing Differences. Feminist Readings of Identity, Location and Power
Net Years Away? Issues of Location in Internet Studies addresses issues of location and difference within Internet studies, as they connect to disciplinary boundaries, issues of nationality, gender and sexuality. Building on, and broadening textual approaches to Internet studies, this study investigates the ethical, aesthetic and political aspects of doing research, while also arguing for the centrality of critical feminist theory for such an enterprise.
The study, which will be published as a monograph, will consist of individual, yet inter-connected thematic chapters that deal with both specific case studies (web sites, academic publications, rhetorical figures, newspaper articles), and the theoretical, conceptual and methodological issues of Internet studies. The case studies vary from pornographic e-mail spam to the boundaries of online activism and popular culture, the address of girls as online consumers, and conceptions of temporality and Internet research. While the individuals chapters vary drastically in research material, they all address issues of location and the construction of differences in studies of the Internet.
Net Years Away? investigates the construction of the Internet as an alternative spatio-temporal realm (i.e., "cyberspace") both in research and popular discourses, and pays special attention to the implications that such constructions have on the possibilities for critical dialogue within Internet studies. This also concerns the self-understanding of this still emerging discipline. Drawing from contextual and conceptual analysis, Net Years Away? addresses the connections of Internet studies to other fields of media studies, such as cinema or television. It deals with the forms and implications of feminist politics of location for defining the field of research, its central agents and experts, and the terminology used.