Book Talk: Governable Spaces

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Discover how we can transform digital spaces into more democratic and creative environments, inspired by governance legacies of the past.

“A prescient analysis of how we create democratic spaces for engagement in the age of polarization. Governable Spaces is new, impeccably researched, and imaginative.”—Zizi Papacharissi, Professor of Communication and Political Science, University of Illinois at Chicago

When was the last time you participated in an election for a Facebook group or sat on a jury for a dispute in a subreddit? Platforms nudge users to tolerate nearly all-powerful admins, moderators, and “benevolent dictators for life.” In Governable Spaces, Nathan Schneider argues that the internet has been plagued by a phenomenon he calls “implicit feudalism”: a bias, both cultural and technical, for building communities as fiefdoms. The consequences of this arrangement matter far beyond online spaces themselves, as feudal defaults train us to give up on our communities’ democratic potential, inclining us to be more tolerant of autocratic tech CEOs and authoritarian tendencies among politicians. But online spaces could be sites of a creative, radical, and democratic renaissance. Using media archaeology, political theory, and participant observation, Schneider shows how the internet can learn from governance legacies of the past to become a more democratic medium, responsive and inventive unlike anything that has come before.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS

NATHAN SCHNEIDER is an assistant professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he leads the <a href="https://cmci.colorado.edu/medlab/" title="https://cmci.colorado.edu/medlab/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Media Economies Design Lab</a> and the MA program in <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/cmci/academics/media-studies/ma-media-and-public-engagement" title="https://www.colorado.edu/cmci/academics/media-studies/ma-media-and-public-engagement" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Media and Public Engagement</a>. He is the author of <a href="https://nathanschneider.info/books/" title="https://nathanschneider.info/books/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">four books</a>, most recently <a href="https://nathanschneider.info/books/governable-spaces/" title="https://nathanschneider.info/books/governable-spaces/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Governable Spaces: Democratic Design for Online Life</a>, published by University of California Press in 2024, and <a href="https://nathanschneider.info/books/everything-for-everyone/" title="https://nathanschneider.info/books/everything-for-everyone/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Everything for Everyone: The Radical Tradition that Is Shaping the Next Economy</a>, published by Bold Type Books in 2018.

LILLY IRANI is an Associate Professor of Communication &amp; Science Studies at University of California, San Diego where she is Faculty Director of the UC San Diego Labor Center. She is author of <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691175133/chasing-innovation" title="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691175133/chasing-innovation" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Chasing Innovation: Making Entrepreneurial Citizens in Modern India </a>(Princeton University Press, 2019) and <a href="https://tallercalifornia.org/Redacted" title="https://tallercalifornia.org/Redacted" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Redacted</a> (with Jesse Marx) (Taller California, 2021). She organizes with Tech Workers Coalition San Diego. She serves on the steering committee of the Transparent and Responsible Use of Surveillance Technology (TRUST) SD Coalition and the board of United Taxi Workers San Diego. She is co-founder of data worker organizing project and activism tool Turkopticon.

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Book Talk: Governable Spaces

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