Paolo Bory - The Internet Myth: From the Internet Imaginary to Network Ideologies

The Internet Myth:

From the Internet Imaginary to Network Ideologies

Paolo Bory

Critical, Digital and Social Media Studies

Series Editor: Christian Fuchs

The peer-reviewed book series edited by Christian Fuchs publishes books that critically study the role of the internet and digital and social media in society. Titles analyse how power structures, digital capitalism, ideology and social struggles shape and are shaped by digital and social media. They use and develop critical theory discussing the political relevance and implications of studied topics. The series is a theoretical forum for internet and social media research for books using methods and theories that challenge digital positivism; it also seeks to explore digital media ethics grounded in critical social theories and philosophy.

Editorial Board

Thomas Allmer, Mark Andrejevic, Miriyam Aouragh, Charles Brown, Eran Fisher, Peter Goodwin, Jonathan Hardy, Kylie Jarrett, Anastasia Kavada, Maria Michalis, Stefania Milan, Vincent Mosco, Jack Qiu, Jernej Amon Prodnik, Marisol Sandoval, Sebastian Sevignani, Pieter Verdegem

Published

Critical Theory of Communication: New Readings of Lukcs, Adorno, Marcuse, Honneth and Habermas in the Age of the Internet

Christian Fuchs

https://doi.org/10.16997/book1

Knowledge in the Age of Digital Capitalism: An Introduction to Cognitive Materialism

Mariano Zukerfeld

https://doi.org/10.16997/book3

Politicizing Digital Space: Theory, the Internet, and Renewing Democracy

Trevor Garrison Smith

https://doi.org/10.16997/book5

Capital, State, Empire: The New American Way of Digital Warfare

Scott Timcke

https://doi.org/10.16997/book6

The Spectacle 2.0: Reading Debord in the Context of Digital Capitalism

Edited by Marco Briziarelli and Emiliana Armano

https://doi.org/10.16997/book11

The Big Data Agenda: Data Ethics and Critical Data Studies

Annika Richterich

https://doi.org/10.16997/book14

Social Capital Online: Alienation and Accumulation

Kane X. Faucher

https://doi.org/10.16997/book16

The Propaganda Model Today: Filtering Perception and Awareness

Edited by Joan Pedro-Caraana, Daniel Broudy and Jeffery Klaehn

https://doi.org/10.16997/book27

Critical Theory and Authoritarian Populism

Edited by Jeremiah Morelock

https://doi.org/10.16997/book30

Peer to Peer: The Commons Manifesto

Michel Bauwens, Vasilis Kostakis, and Alex Pazaitis

https://doi.org/10.16997/book33

Bubbles and Machines: Gender, Information and Financial Crises

Micky Lee

https://doi.org/10.16997/book34

Cultural Crowdfunding: Platform Capitalism, Labour, and Globalization

Edited by Vincent Rouz

https://doi.org/10.16997/book38

The Condition of Digitality: A Post-Modern Marxism for the Practice of Digital Life

Robert Hassan

https://doi.org/10.16997/book44

Incorporating the Digital Commons: Corporate Involvement in Free and Open Source Software

Benjamin J. Birkinbine

https://doi.org/10.16997/book39

Communication and Capitalism: A Critical Theory

Christian Fuchs

https://doi.org/10.16997/book45

The Internet Myth:

From the Internet Imaginary to Network Ideologies

Paolo Bory

University of Westminster Press

www.uwestminsterpress.co.uk

Published by

University of Westminster Press

115 New Cavendish Street

London W1W 6UW

www.uwestminsterpress.co.uk

Text Paolo Bory 2020

First published 2020

Cover design: www.ketchup-productions.co.uk

Series cover concept: Mina Bach (minabach.co.uk)

Print and digital versions typeset by Siliconchips Services Ltd.

ISBN (Paperback): 978-1-912656-75-2

ISBN (PDF): 978-1-912656-76-9

ISBN (EPUB): 978-1-912656-77-6

ISBN (Kindle): 978-912656-78-3

DOI: https://doi.org/10.16997/book48

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA. This license allows for copying and distributing the work, providing author attribution is clearly stated, that you are not using the material for commercial purposes, and that modified versions are not distributed.

The full text of this book has been peer-reviewed to ensure high academic standards. For full review policies, see: http://www.uwestminsterpress.co.uk/site/publish.

Competing interests: The author has no competing interests to declare.

This title has been published with the financial assistance of the

Fondazione Hilda e Felice Vitali, Lugano, Switzerland.

Suggested citation: Bory, Paolo. 2020. The Internet Myth: From the Internet Imaginary to Network Ideologies

London: University of Westminster Press.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.16997/book48 License: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0

To read the free, open access version of this book online, visit https://doi.org/10.16997/book48 or scan this QR code with your mobile device:

The Author and Publisher thank the Fondazione Hilda e Felice Vitali, Lugano, Switzerland for supporting the publication of this book.

This work is the result of five years of research and fruitful collaboration with my colleagues from the Universit della Svizzera italiana (USI) of Lugano. The realization of this book could not be possible without the support of Gabriele Balbi, who provided me with his advice and motivation. Together, we had a constant and fruitful exchange of ideas and thoughts, and I owe him also for always having much more confidence in my abilities than I had myself. Professors Vincent Mosco and Peppino Ortoleva have been also essential for my academic path; their feedback on previous versions of this book contributed to enrich and enlarge my perspective on network histories, myths and imaginaries. A great thank you goes to my colleagues and friends from the Institute of Media and Journalism of USI: Eleonora Benecchi, Marco Cucco, Gloria Dagnino, Philip Di Salvo, Maria Rikitianskaia, Gianluigi Negro and Zhan Zhang. I am also grateful to Valrie Schafer, for her constant help, kindness and essential support during my research stay in Paris. Thanks also to my Parisian friends Stefano Crabu, Dominique Trudel and Antonio Rafele for sharing such good ideas, and such a good time, together. The theoretical framework of this work owes a lot to Simone Natale, who inspired me with his previous work and original ideas. A big thanks goes to all the interviewees for kindly agreeing to talk to me and sharing their experiences and memories. I am grateful to Roberto Parodi for giving me access to the Telecom Italia world and for being so kind and helpful with the retrieval of informants and sources. I owe all the archivists and librarians from the Archivio Storico Telecom Italia, Polo Bibliotecario Parlamentare, Biblioteca Universitaria di Lugano and CERN Archive for their patience and professional help during these years of research. I would like to thank Andrew Lockett, who supported me during all stages of the editorial work on this publication. I am grateful to Prof. Giuseppe Richeri, Theo Musli and Rocco Bonzanigo from the Fondazione Vitali for their financial and human support for this project. For the rest, the list of people who directly or indirectly contributed to this book would be much too long. I hope that the network of friends and colleagues who have enriched my academic and social life with their writings, thoughts and a long series of empty glasses will recognize themselves in the following pages. If not, the fault is all mine (or of Omar, my sleepless newborn).