[Air-l] FW: [chineseinternetresearch] final draft of thesis - internet co ntrol and the chinese government

[Greg Wise]

Thought this might be of interest.

Greg Wise

-----Original Message-----
From: Lokman Tsui [mailto:lokkie at lokman.nu] 
Sent: Monday, July 16, 2001 9:07 AM
To: chineseinternetresearch at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [chineseinternetresearch] final draft of thesis - internet
control and the chinese government


Dear all,

The final draft of my thesis is available at
http://www.lokman.nu/thesis
it is in pdf format and about 800Kb. The abstract is below.
Comments are welcome.


Abstract

Initially, the internet was an open medium with certain characteristics that
made it hard to control. According to Western journalists and politicians,
the efforts of the Chinese government to control the internet are doomed to
fail. This study attempts to counter this view and discusses to what degree
the Chinese government can control the internet in China and, more than
that, to what degree the internet can be used as a means for control.
Methodologically, the four modalities of control (the law, architecture,
social norms and the market), set forth by Lessig will be used. As a result,
this study will offer a legal, technical, social and economical perspective
in discussing the degree of internet control in China. Lessig further argues
that the architecture of the internet is undergoing changes that continue to
enable control. A prime example of using architecture as a means of control
is the concept of the Panopticon prison, invented by Bentham and mediated by
Foucault. The concept of the Panopticon will be used to show how the
internet can be used as a means for control. The conclusions are that the
Chinese government are quite capable of controlling the internet in China
and that China has the perfect ingredients for deploying a digital
Panopticon. This digital Panopticon will continue to improve and develop,
driven by the market. These conclusions show that the internet, to contrary
belief, can be controlled and even be used as a means for control.



 Key words

internet regulation, internet control, social control, political control,
censorship, privacy, surveillance, panopticon, Lessig, internet in China,
Chinese Internet, media.
--
"The lure of imaginary totality is momentarily frozen before the dialectic
of desire hastens on within symbolic chains."
http://www.lokman.nu            [-silent dreams-]
http://www.wongkarwai.net   Because We Have Taste


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