Project
The emergence of new technology has repeatedly appeared unique to those living through the resulting changes. The digital revolution of the decades around the year 2000 has generated unprecedented claims of exceptionalism, with particular regard to the potentially redemptive or destructive power of the digital. New technologies of communication have the obvious potential to transform the conduct of democratic society, but it is far from obvious how to assess the nature of this transformation as well as its implications. This project seeks to investigate such claims through a set of historical comparisons and contextualisations which will pose the question of whether – and in which ways – we have been here before. Its aim will be to provide a set of tools for thinking critically and constructively about the impact of the digital revolution on democracy.