Forging Trust Communities: How Technology Changes Politics

Twenty historical case studies reveal how communication technology allows people to trust one another while mobilizing around a shared cause. Bloggers in India used social media and wikis to broadcast news and bring humanitarian aid to tsunami victims in South Asia. Terrorist groups like ISIS pour out messages and recruit new members on websites. The Internet is the new public square, bringing to politics a platform on which to create community at both the grassroots and bureaucratic level. Drawing on historical and contemporary case studies from more than ten countries, Irene S. Wu’s Forging Trust Communities argues that the Internet, and the technologies that predate it, catalyze political change by creating new opportunities for cooperation. The Internet does not simply enable faster and easier communication, but makes it possible for people around the world to interact closely, reciprocate favors, and build trust. The information and ideas exchanged by members of these cooperative communities become key sources of political power akin to military might and economic strength. Wu illustrates the rich world history of citizens and leaders exercising political power through communications technology. People in nineteenth-century China, for example, used the telegraph and newspapers to mobilize against the emperor. In 1970, Taiwanese cable television gave voice to a political opposition demanding democracy. Both Qatar (in the 1990s) and Great Britain (in the 1930s) relied on public broadcasters to enhance their influence abroad. Additional case studies from Brazil, Egypt, the United States, Russia, India, the Philippines, and Tunisia reveal how various technologies function to create new political energy, enabling activists to challenge institutions while allowing governments to increase their power at home and abroad. Forging Trust Communities demonstrates that the way people receive and share information through network communities reveals as much about their political identity as their socioeconomic class, ethnicity, or religion. Scholars and students in political science, public administration, international studies, sociology, and the history of science and technology will find this to be an insightful and indispensable work.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Part I 1. Trust Communities from the Telegraph to the Internet Activists Use the Latest Technology Available Governments Use Technology to Define the Nation The Link between Commercial Success and Political Usefulness Sharing and Interaction Create Meaning within a Trust Community Trust Communities Can Have Diverse Members Information as Political Currency The Trust Community as an Analytical Tool Unpacking the Concept of "Trust Community" 2. Blogs, Wikis, and International Collective Action How This Case Came to Light Failure of Government, Humanitarian, and Media Institutions Why Individuals Came Together and How They Did It Shock, Grief, and Anger Frustration and the Impulse to Help Creating the Blog and Wiki Making the Blog Easier to Use Creating the Wiki Moving the Wiki to a New Home The Egalitarian Ethos Blog and Wiki Effectiveness on the Ground Did Volunteers Participate Again in Other Collective Actions? The View through the Lens of a Trust Community Creating a Common Identity Building Trust Social Capital Network Trust Community Institution Part Two 3. Activists Challenge Institutions with Information Technology Networks China 1900 Philippines 2001 Taiwan 1970s Global 1990s Egypt and Tunisia 2011 Conclusion 4. Governments Shape Nations with Communications Technology Infrastructure and National Identity Canada 1927 Brazill 1900 Discussion Infrastructure, Economic Development, and National Security China 1979 United States 1864 United States 1968 Information, Ideas, and National Security USSR 1960 Russia 1880 Information, Ideas, and Delivering Public Services Global 1990 United States 1960 Information, Ideas, and National Identity India 1987 UK 1938 Qatar 1996 Discussion Conclusion Part III 5. Technology + Trust = Political Influence Trust Communities — Opportunities for Individuals and Institutions The Role of Capitalism Engagement, Participation, and Interactivity Trust Communities and Diversity Information and Ideas as a Source of Power Trust Community as an Analytical Lens Future Research Conclusion Epilogue For the Activist For Businesses For Governments Notes References Index

About the Author :
Irene S. Wu is a senior analyst at the US Federal Communications Commission. The author of From Iron Fist to Invisible Hand: The Uneven Path of Telecommunications Reform in China, she teaches in the Communications, Culture & Technology Program at Georgetown University.

Review :
Wu has given us an important book of ideas, presented with clarity and originality, that could go a long way toward helping us keep up with – and understand the vast implications of – the technology swirling around us. —Hill Rag