Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Norbert Wiener and the Rise of Information Ethics
- 2 Why We Need Better Ethics for Emerging Technologies
- 3 Information Ethics: Its Nature and Scope
- 4 The Transformation of the Public Sphere: Political Authority, Communicative Freedom, and Internet Publics
- 5 Democracy and the Internet
- 6 The Social Epistemology of Blogging
- 7 Plural Selves and Relational Identity: Intimacy and Privacy Online
- 8 Identity and Information Technology
- 9 Trust, Reliance, and the Internet
- 10 Esteem, Identifiability, and the Internet
- 11 Culture and Global Networks: Hope for a Global Ethics?
- 12 Collective Responsibility and Information and Communication Technology
- 13 Computers as Surrogate Agents
- 14 Moral Philosophy, Information Technology, and Copyright: The Grokster Case
- 15 Information Technology, Privacy, and the Protection of Personal Data
- 16 Embodying Values in Technology: Theory and Practice
- 17 Information Technology Research Ethics
- 18 Distributive Justice and the Value of Information: A (Broadly) Rawlsian Approach
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- References
11 - Culture and Global Networks: Hope for a Global Ethics?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 July 2009
By
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Norbert Wiener and the Rise of Information Ethics
- 2 Why We Need Better Ethics for Emerging Technologies
- 3 Information Ethics: Its Nature and Scope
- 4 The Transformation of the Public Sphere: Political Authority, Communicative Freedom, and Internet Publics
- 5 Democracy and the Internet
- 6 The Social Epistemology of Blogging
- 7 Plural Selves and Relational Identity: Intimacy and Privacy Online
- 8 Identity and Information Technology
- 9 Trust, Reliance, and the Internet
- 10 Esteem, Identifiability, and the Internet
- 11 Culture and Global Networks: Hope for a Global Ethics?
- 12 Collective Responsibility and Information and Communication Technology
- 13 Computers as Surrogate Agents
- 14 Moral Philosophy, Information Technology, and Copyright: The Grokster Case
- 15 Information Technology, Privacy, and the Protection of Personal Data
- 16 Embodying Values in Technology: Theory and Practice
- 17 Information Technology Research Ethics
- 18 Distributive Justice and the Value of Information: A (Broadly) Rawlsian Approach
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
INTRODUCTION
From Global Village to Electronic Metropolis
At the height of 1990s, optimism regarding the rapidly expanding Internet and World Wide Web, Marshall McLuhan's vision of a global village seemed within more or less easy reach. By wiring the world, it was argued in many ways, we would enter into the ‘secondary orality of electronic culture’ (Ong 1988) and thereby open up an electronic information superhighway that would realize a genuinely global village – one whose citizens would enjoy the best possibilities of democratic politics, social and ethical equality, freedom of expression, and economic development.
This optimism, however, was countered by increasing tensions in the economic, political and social arenas between two contrasting developments. On the one hand, the phenomena of globalization – including, for example, growing internationalization and interdependencies of markets – appear to lead to increasing cultural homogenization. As terms for this homogenization such as ‘McWorld’ (Barber 1995) or ‘Disneyfication’ (Hamelink 2000) suggest, it is strongly shaped by the consumer and entertainment cultures of Western nations. On the other hand, and at least in part in reaction against real and perceived threats to given cultural traditions and identities, new (or renewed) efforts to defend and sustain these identities and traditions were seen by some to lead to fragmentation and indeed violence – most famously and disastrously, of course, in the attacks of September 11, 2001 against the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Information Technology and Moral Philosophy , pp. 195 - 225Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
References
2000. Over the rainbow: European and American consumer protection policy and remedy conflicts on the Internet and a possible solution. International Journal of Communications of Law and Policy, 4, 1–57.Google Scholar
, and 1998. The Analects of Confucius: A philosophical translation. New York: Ballantine Books.Google Scholar
Anderson, I.-E., and Jæger, B. 1997. Involving citizens in assessment and the public debate on information technology, in , , and (Eds.), Technology and Democracy: Technology in the Public Sphere – Proceedings from Workshop 1, Center for Technology and Culture, Oslo, pp. 149–172.Google Scholar
AoIR (Association of Internet Researchers) 2002. Decision-making and ethical Internet research. Retrieved January 10, 2006 from http://www.aoir.org/reports/ethics.pdf.
Barney, D. 2004. The vanishing table, or community in a world that is no world, in and (Eds.), Community in the digital age: Philosophy and practice. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Becker, B. 2001. The disappearance of materiality? in and (Eds.), The multiple and the mutable subject. Winnipeg: St. Norbert Arts Centre, pp. 58–77.Google Scholar
Becker, B. 2002. Sinn und Sinnlichkeit: Anmerkungen zur Eigendynamik und Fremdheit des eigenen Leibes, in (Ed.), Mentalität und Medialität, München: Fink, pp. 35–46.Google Scholar
1986. Critique, norm and utopia: A study of the foundations of critical theory. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Bizer, J. 2003. Grundrechte im Netz: Von der freien Meinungsäußerung bis zum Recht auf Eigentum [Basic rights on the net: from the free expression of opinion to property right], in (Ed.), Bürgerrechte im Netz [Civil rights online], Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, pp. 21–29. Available at http://www.bpb.de/publikationen/UZX6DW,0,B%fcrgerrechte_im_Netz.html.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1999. World philosophy: An East-West comparative introduction to philosophy. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
, , and 1992. Beyond the Western tradition: Readings in moral and political philosophy. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.Google Scholar
, and 1993. Understanding non-Western philosophy: introductory readings. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.Google Scholar
1999. Holding onto reality: The nature of information at the turn of the Millennium. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(Ed.) 2003. Readings in virtual research ethics: Issues and controversies. Hershey, PA: Idea Group.Google Scholar
, , and 2002. The first European Congress on Agricultural and Food Ethics and follow-up Workshop on Ethics and Food Biotechnology: A US perspective, Agriculture and Human Values, 17, 4, 327–332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chan, J. 2003. Confucian attitudes towards ethical pluralism, in and (Eds.), The many and the one: Religious and secular perspectives on ethical pluralism in the modern World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 129–153.Google Scholar
2005. Privacy in China. Unpublished Master's thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.Google Scholar
2003. China's struggle for practical regulations in medical ethics. Nature Reviews Genetics, 4, 3, 233–239.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Elberfeld, R. 2002. Resonanz als Grundmotiv ostasiatischer Ethik [Resonance as a fundamental motif of East Asian ethics], in and (Eds.), Komparative Ethik: Das gute Leben zwischen den Kulturen. München: Chora, pp. 131–141.Google Scholar
1983. Analogy in the critical works: Kant's transcendental philosophy as analectical thought. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms International.Google Scholar
Ess, C. 1996. The political computer: democracy, CMC and Habermas, in (Ed.), Philosophical perspectives on computer-mediated communication. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, pp. 197–230.Google Scholar
(Ed.) 2001. Culture, technology, communication: Towards an intercultural global village, with Fay Sudweeks, foreword by Susan Herring. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Ess, C. 2002a. Cultures in collision: Philosophical lessons from computer-mediated communication, in and (Eds.), CyberPhilosophy: The intersection of philosophy and computing. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 219–242.Google Scholar
2002b. Liberation in cyberspace … or computer-mediated colonization? / Liberation en cyberspace, ou colonisation assistee par ordinateur?Electronic Journal of Communication/La Revue Electronique de Communication, 12, 3 & 4. Available at: http://www.cios.org/www/ejc/v12n34.htm.Google Scholar
Ess, C. 2003. The cathedral or the bazaar? The AoIR document on Internet research ethics as an exercise in open source ethics, in (Ed.), Internet Research Annual Volume 1: Selected papers from the Association of Internet Researchers Conferences 2000–2002. New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Ess, C. 2004a. Beyond Contemptus Mundi and Cartesian dualism: Western resurrection of the bodysubject and (re)new(ed) coherencies with Eastern approaches to life/death, in and (Eds), Philosophie des Todes: death philosophy east and west, Munich: Chora, pp. 15–36.Google Scholar
Ess, C. 2004b. Discourse ethics. in et al. (Eds), Encyclopedia of science, technology and ethics. New York: MacMillan Reference.Google Scholar
, and 2003. Introduction and special issue on liberatory potentials and practices of CMC in the Middle East. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 8, 2. Available at: http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol8/issue2/essandsudweeks.html.Google Scholar
, and 2005. Culture and computer-mediated communication: Toward new understandings. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11, 1. Available at: http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue1/ess.html.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
European Parliament 1995. Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the Protection of Individuals with Regard to the Processing of Personal Data and on the Free Movement of Such Data. Retrieved 16 May 2006 from: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/smartapi/cgi/sga_doc?smartapi!celexapi!prod!CELEXnumdoc&lg=EN&numdoc=31995L0046&model=guichett.
Fixdal, J. 1997. Consensus conferences as extended peer groups, in , , and (Eds), Technology and Democracy: Technology in the Public Sphere – Proceedings from Workshop 1. Oslo: Center for Technology and Culture, pp. 75–94.Google Scholar
Floridi, L., and Sanders, J. W. 2004. Internet ethics: The constructionist values of homo poeticus, in (Ed.), The Internet and our moral lives. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
1982. In a different voice: Psychological theory and women's development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
GVU Center (College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology) 1998. GVU's 10th WWW User Survey. Retrieved 25 November 2003 at: http://www.gvu.gatech.edu/user_surveys/survey-1998–10/.
1981. Theorie des Kommuikativen Handelns. 2 vols. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt. Translated by T. McCarthy as The theory of communicative action. Boston: Beacon Press, 1984 (Vol. 1) and 1987 (Vol. 2).Google Scholar
1983. Diskursethik: Notizen zu einem Begründungsprogram, in Moralbewusstsein und kommunikatives Handeln. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp. Translated by C. Lenhardt and S. W. Nicholsen, as Discourse ethics: Notes on philosophical justification, in Moral consciousness and communicative action. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1990, pp. 43–115.Google Scholar
Habermas, J. 1989. Justice and solidarity: On the discussion concerning stage 6, in (Ed.), The moral domain: Essays in the ongoing discussion between philosophy and the social sciences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 224–251.Google Scholar
2000. National borders on the World Wide Web. New Media and Society, 2, 1, 7–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1999. How we became posthuman: Virtual bodies in cybernetics, literature and informatics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herring, S. 1999. Posting in a different voice: Gender and ethics in computer-mediated communication, in (Ed.), Computer media and communication: A reader, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 241–265.Google Scholar
2001. Gender and power in online communication. Center for Social Informatics Working Papers, WP01–05B. Retrieved 15 December 2003 from: http://www.slis.indiana.edu/csi/WP/WP01–05B.html.
Hjarvard, S. 2002. Mediated encounters: An essay on the role of communication media in the creation of trust in the global metropolis, in and (Eds.), Global encounters: Media and cultural transformation. Luton: University of Luton Press, pp. 69–84.Google Scholar
2001. Culture's consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions and organisations across nations (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
, and 1988. The Confucius connection: From cultural roots to economic growth. Organisational Dynamics, 16, 4–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hongladarom, S. 2004. Personal communication, 20 January.
1985 The Consensus Development Program of the National Institutes of Health. International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care, 1, 420–432.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, and (Eds.). 2003. Online social research: Methods, issues and ethics. New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
1969. The Classical mind: A history of Western philosophy (2nd ed.), Vol. 1). New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.Google Scholar
Kawasaki, L. T. 2003. Personal communication, December.
2000. Kant: The moral order. Retrieved 13 June 2006 from: http://www.philosophypages.com/hy/5i.htm.
, , , and (Eds) (2002). Pragmatist ethics for a technological culture. Dordrecht: Kluwer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2002. Revisiting Confucian Jen ethics and feminist care ethics: A reply. Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, 17, 1, 130–140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lundh, L. G. 2003. Personal communication, 15 December.
, and 2003. The many and the one: Religious and secular perspectives on ethical pluralism in the modern world. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
2001. The moral value of informational privacy in cyberspace. Ethics and information technology, 3, 2, 129–135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moon, J. D. 2003. Pluralisms compared, in and (Eds.), The many and the one: Religious and secular perspectives on ethical pluralism in the modern world. Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 343–359.Google Scholar
Nara, Y., and Iseda, T. 2004. An empirical study on the structure of Internet information ethics behaviors: Comparative research between Japan, US and Singapore, in and (Eds.), Community in the digital age: Philosophy and practice. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, pp. 161–179.Google Scholar
National Committee for Research Ethics in the Social Sciences and the Humanities (Den nasjonale forskningsetiske komité for samfunnsvitenskap og humaniora [NESH], Norway) 2001. Guidelines for research ethics in the social sciences, law and the humanities. Retrieved 15 May 2006 from http://www.etikkom.no/Engelsk/NESH/Publications/NESHguide.
National Committee for Research Ethics in the Social Sciences and the Humanities (Den nasjonale forskningsetiske komité for samfunnsvitenskap og humaniora [NESH], Norway) 2003. Research ethics guidelines for Internet research. Translated by L. G. Lundh and C. Ess. Retrieved 15 May 2006 from http://www.etikkom.no/Engelsk/Publications/Internet03/.
National Institutes of Health, Office of Human Subjects Research. 2005. Code of Federal Regulations Title 45, Department of Health and Human Services, Part 46, Protection of Human Subjects. Retrieved 15 May 2006 from http://ohsr.od.nih.gov/guidelines/45cfr46.html.
NUA Internet Surveys. 2003. How Many Online? Retrieved 15 December 2003 from http://www.nua.com/surveys/how_many_online/index.html.
O'Neill, O. 2001. Agents of justice, in (Ed.), Global justice. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 188–203.Google Scholar
Persondataloven [Personal Data Law, Denmark]. Lov. nr. 429 af 31. maj 2000 som ændret ved lov. nr. 280 af 25. april 2001. Retrieved 2 December 2003 from http://147.29.40.90/_GETDOC_/ACCN/A20000042930-REGL; English version: http://www.datatilsynet.dk/eng/index.html.
Pohl, K.-H. 2002. Chinese and Western values: Reflections on a cross-cultural dialogue on a universal ethics, in and (Eds.), Komparative Ethik: Das gute Leben zwischen den Kulturen. München: Chora, pp. 213–232.Google Scholar
1999. The right thing to do: Basic readings in moral philosophy. New York: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
Ramasoota, P. 2005. Thai Webmasters Association Code of Ethics. Second Asian-Pacific Computing and Philosophy Conference, Bangkok, Thailand, 8 January 2005.
2000. Resolving conflicting international data privacy rules in cyberspace. Stanford Law Review, 52, 1315–1376.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
RESPECT Project. 2004. Institute for Employment Studies. Retrieved 16 May 2006 from http://www.respectproject.org/main/index.php.
2001. Rationality and religious experience: The continuing relevance of the World's spiritual traditions (The First Master Hsüan Memorial Lecture), with a commentary by Huston Smith. Chicago and La Salle, IL: Open Court.Google Scholar
Sandberg, P., and Kraft, N. (Eds.). 1997. Fast salmon and technoburgers. Retrieved 15 May 2006 from http://www.etikkom.no/Etikkom/Etikkom/Engelsk/Publications/fast.
2001. Boundaries and allegiances: Problems of justice and responsibility in liberal thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Silverstone, R. 2002. Finding a voice: Minorities, media and the global commons, in and (Eds.), Global encounters: Media and cultural transformation. Luton: Luton University Press, pp. 107–122.Google Scholar
, and 2002. Technology assessment and ethics, Poiesis and Praxis: International Journal of Technology Assessment and Ethics of Science, 1, 2, 95–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1994. Hofstede's Consequences: A study of reviews, citations and replications. Organization Studies, 15, 3, 447–456.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2002. Approaches to privacy – The Hong Kong experience. Retrieved 16 May 2006 from http://www.pco.org.hk/English/infocentre/speech_20020222.html.
Taylor, C. 2002. Democracy, inclusive and exclusive, in , , , and (Eds.), Meaning and modernity: Religion, polity and self. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
(Ed.). 2003. Applied ethics in Internet research. Programme for Applied Ethics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim.Google Scholar
Torgersen, H., and Seifert, F. 1997. How to keep out what we don't want: On the assessment of ‘Sozialvergträglichkeit’ under the Austrian Genetic Engineering Act, in , , and (Eds.), Technology and democracy: technology in the public sphere – Proceedings from Workshop 1, Center for Technology and Culture, Oslo, pp. 115–148.Google Scholar
Tu, W.-M. 1999. Humanity as embodied love: Exploring filial piety as a global ethical perspective, in and (Eds.), Jen Agape Tao with Tu Wei-Ming. Binghamton, NY: Institute of Global Cultural Studies, pp. 28–37.Google Scholar
Tufte, T. 2002. Ethnic minority Danes between diaspora and locality – Social uses of mobile phones and Internet, in and (Eds), Global encounters: Media and cultural transformation. Luton: Luton University Press, pp. 235–261.Google Scholar
United Nations. 1948. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Retrieved 16 May 2006 from http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html.
Veatch, H. 1971. A Critique of Benedict, in and (Eds.), Theory of knowledge. New York: Holt, Reinhart & Winston.Google Scholar
1990. The power and the promise of ecological feminism. Environmental Ethics. 12, 2, 123–146.Google Scholar
1948. Cybernetics, or Control and communication in the animal and the machine. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Wilson, M. 2002. Communication, organizations and diverse populations, in and (Eds), Proceedings: Cultural Attitudes Towards Communication and Technology 2002, Université de Montréal, School of Information Technology, Murdoch University, Perth, WA, pp. 69–88. Available online: http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/~sudweeks/catac.Google Scholar
Yu, J. Y. 2003. Virtue: Confucius and Aristotle, in (Ed.) The examined life: The Chinese perspective. Binghamton,NY: Global Publications, pp. 1–31.Google Scholar
Yu, J. Y., and Bunnin, N. 2001. Saving the phenomena: An Aristotelian method in comparative philosophy, in (Ed.), Two roads to wisdom? – Chinese philosophy and analytical philosophy. LaSalle, IL: Open Court, pp. 293–312.Google Scholar
- 18
- Cited by