Cyberghetto or Cybertopia?

Book excerpt: Computer-mediated communication and cyberculture are dramatically changing the nature of social relationships. Whether cyberspace will simply retain vestiges of traditional communities with hierarchical social links and class-structured relationships or create new egalitarian social networks remains an open question. The chapters in this volume examine the issue of social justice on the Internet by using a variety of methodological and theoretical perspectives. Political scientists, sociologists, and communications and information systems scholars address issues of race, class, and gender on the Internet in chapters that do not assume any specialized training in computer technology.