Virtual Utopias and the Imaginary of the Internet

Abstract

This chapter offers a detailed exploration of cultural representations of the internet as a utopian space in which self-identity, social relations and community life may be revitalised and reconfigured. In contrast with a ‘disenchanted’ and corrupted world of the ‘real’, the virtual promises liberation and renewal. Such constructions of virtual utopianism are explored through a critical reading of works by the likes of Sherry Turkle, Howard Rheingold, John Perry Barlow and Edward Castronova, alongside the language of internet evangelism and popular culture.