The Virtual Transformation of the Public Sphere

Gaurav Desai is Associate Professor of English at Tulane University, New Orleans.

The essays in the volume re-examine the debate centred on the Habermasian notion of the public sphere and ask whether the structural transformations of the public sphere by new media technologies are an indication of a degenerate consumerist society, or that of a more egalitarian and democratic public culture.

Acknowledgements. Introduction: The Virtual Transformation of the Public Sphere Gaurav Desai. 1. The Right to Look Nicholas Mirzoeff 2. Democracy, the Public Sphere, and Problems of Self-reflexivity R. Radhakrishnan 3. On the Market Colonization of the Virtual Public Sphere Lewis R. Gordon 4. Cyberspace and Post-modern Democracy: A Critique of the Habermasian Notion of the Public Sphere K. M. Johnson 5. Cybernecology: Liberation Aesthetics and the Public Sphere Timothy Allen Jackson 6. The Ever-expanding Sphere of Cybercommunities Sukhdeep Ghuman 7. The Public Sphere: Restitution for the Internet James J. Winchester 8. Piracy as Tactics: Re-imagining Creativity as Forms of Access Aruni Mahapatra 9. The Internet as a Public Sphere: The Emergence of New Forms of Politics in India Esha Sen Madhavan 10. Virtual Activism, Real Repercussions: How Facebook Impacts the Public Sphere Hiba Aleem 11. Negotiating Virtual Terrain: New Social Media and the Public Intellectual Sumedha Iyer 12. Virtualization of the Politics of Recognition: Lepcha Struggle for Recognition as PTG in Darjeeling Hills (West Bengal) and Sikkim, India Padam Nepal 13. Identity and Virtual Spaces among the Zo hnahthlak: Emergent Zo Cyberpolitics Anup Shekhar Chakraborty 14. The Public Spheres of Vicarious Fulfilments: Live Sex on the Internet and the Performative Dynamics of Body and Sexuality Bini B. S. 15. Is the New Media Erasing Boundaries or Erecting Barriers? Gay/Transgender vs. Kothi/Aravani Sunita Manian 16. Anonymity and Online Interaction: A Thematic (Dramaturgical) Perspective Mallika Vijaya Kumar and P. E. Thomas 17. Constructing New Mediated Knowledge in the Process of Writing for Life Rich Rice 18. Changed Dimensions of the Public Sphere: Media's Role in the Growth of Learning Pankaj Roy. Bibliography. About the Editor. Notes on Contributors. Index