Inhabiting Cyberspace and Emerging Cyberplaces - The Case of Siena, Italy

This book explores the concept of cyberplace as a mode of inhabiting the contemporary world. As a result, it suggests that, for many communities, unlocking cyberspace and inhabiting cyberplaces is now an integral part of their coming-to-the-globalised-world. 

Boos reviews in the detail the existing academic literature from cultural anthropology, human geography, and sociology on 'cyberspace', concluding that a phenomenological perspective on cyberspace provides the possibility of gaining a deep understanding of our contemporary lifeworlds, in which on- and offline practices constantly intermingle. In four chapters, he applies the developed theoretical and methodological approaches to the case of Siena's neighbourhoods, the contrade, analysing their websites and discussing the implications of his findings for understanding contemporary processes of community building and for future research on cyberspace.

This concise and accessible book will be of interest to advanced students and scholars in cultural anthropology, human geography, media studies and sociology.

Tobias Boos is scientific assistant for cultural and social geography at the Institute of Geography at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany. His research interests are diaspora studies, urban festival and the relation between processes of community building and new media.