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Nationalism and Globalization in the Social Construction of the Internet in Canada

Posted on:2012-07-05Degree:Ph.DType:Thesis
University:University of Calgary (Canada)Candidate:Dumitrica, Delia DFull Text:PDF
GTID:2466390011964825Subject:Sociology
Abstract/Summary:
This thesis looks into the social construction of the internet as an object of discourse in relation to discourses of nationalism and globalization. It investigates this question by analyzing the discursive articulations of the internet in the spheres of policy, media and everyday life. Importantly, this research project originates in a view of the internet as a site where social values, forces and power networks intersect; this, I propose, makes the social construction of the internet a suitable site for exposing the dynamics and the concerns permeating our contemporary world. To get to these issues, this thesis relies on a Foucaultian theoretical framework for approaching the relation between discourses, power and material structures. By means of a critical discourse analysis, it investigates 7 federal policy reports and 134 news stories for their articulations of the internet in Canada. This data has been supplemented with a convenience sample consisting of 29 interviews with internet users across Canada; these interviews have provided an insight into how individuals articulate an image of the internet in relation to nationalism and globalization in everyday life. The results of this analysis point to the increased importance of the mutual adjustment of neo-liberalism and nationalism in legitimizing a particular distribution of power across the social landscape. This thesis exposes the processes through which the 'nationalization' of the internet takes place in the three analyzed spheres. It further proposes that, far from becoming obsolete, nationalism remains a major discourse for ordering the world and, thus, for legitimizing social action.
Keywords/Search Tags:Social, Internet, Nationalism, Discourse
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