Digital citizenship? Narrative exchange and the changing terms of civic culture

This article explores the possibilities for new forms of ‘digital citizenship’ currently emerging through digitally supported processes of narrative exchange. Using Dahlgren's (Dahlgren, P. 2003. “Reconfiguring Civic Culture in the New Media Milieu.” In Media and the Restyling of Politics, edited by J. Corner, and D. Pels, 151–170. London: Sage; Dahlgren, P. 2009. Media and Political Engagement. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.) circuit of ‘civic culture’ as a model for exploring the interlinking preconditions for new acts of citizenship, we discuss the contrasting outcomes of research at three fieldwork sites in the North of England – educational (a sixth form college), civil society (a community reporters' network) and social (a local club). Each site provided clear evidence of the elements of Dahlgren's circuit (some depending on the intensive use of digital infrastructure, others predating it), but there were also breaks in the circuit that constrained its effectiveness. A crucial factor in each case for building a lasting circuit of civic culture (and an effective base for new forms of digital citizenship) is the role that digital infrastructure can play in extending the scale of interactions beyond the purely local.     

Bombing at the Speed of Thought: Intelligence in the Coming Age of Cyberwar

The Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) puts new technology at the service of an old idea: the perfectability of intelligence. At least since the founding of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1947, defense and intelligence officials have entertained fantasies of an ideal information environment in which a complete, impartial, and accurate picture of events dispels the fog of politics and war. Amid the enthusiasm among military futurists for ‘total information dominance’, it is worth asking why the intelligence community has this recurring dream.