Introduction: Global Coordinates of Internet Histories

Abstract

This chapter introduces the particular angle and contribution of the Routledge Companion to Global Internet Histories – the imperative to grasp the global character of Internet histories. The Routledge Companion to Global Internet Histories brings together research on local and international internet histories that have evolved in different regions, language cultures and social contexts across the globe. While the internet is now in its fifth decade, the understanding and formulation of its histories outside of an Anglophone framework is very much in its infancy. The emphasis of this volume is on understanding and formulating internet histories outside of the Anglophone case studies and theoretical paradigms that have so far dominated academic scholarship on internet history. Interdisciplinary in scope, the collection offers a variety of historical lenses on the development of the internet: as a new communications technology seen in the context of older technologies; as a new form of sociality read alongside previous technologically mediated means of relating; and as a new media ‘vehicle’ for the communication of content.