Crossroads in New Media, Identity and Law ― The Shape of Diversity to Come

This volume brings together a number of timely contributions at the nexus of new media, politics and law. The central intuition that ties these essays together is that information and communication technology, cultural identity, and legal and political institutions are spheres that co-evolve and interpenetrate in myriad ways. Discussing these shifting relationships, the contributions all probe the question of what shape diversity will take as a result of the changes in the way we communicate and spread information: that is, are we heading to the disintegration and fragmentation of national and cultural identity, or is society moving towards more consolidation, standardization and centralization at a transnational level? In an age of digitization and globalization, this book addresses the question of whether this calls for a new civility fit for the 21st century.

Wouter de Been has a background in legal theory (Tilburg University), political philosophy (University of New Orleans) and American Studies (University of Amsterdam). He is the author of Legal Realism Regained (2008). Currently he is Assistant Professor at the Erasmus School of Law in the department of Legal Theory. His recent research has focused on the way globalization and the revolution in information and communication technology affect immigrants and minorities.

Payal Arora is the author of Dot Com Mantra: Social Computing in the Central Himalayas (2010), The Leisure Commons: A Spatial History of Web 2.0 (2014) and co-author of the upcoming book Poor@Play: Digital Life beyond the West. She is currently in the Department of Media and Communication at Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Mireille Hildebrandt holds the Chair of Smart Environments, Data Protection and the Rule of Law at the Institute of Computing and Information Sciences at Radboud University Nijmegen. She is also Professor of Technology Law and Law in Technology at the research group of Law Science Technology and Society Studies at Vrije Universiteit Brussels and Associate Professor of Jurisprudence at the Erasmus School of Law, Rotterdam.