Content area
Full Text
The Internet, Social Media, and a Changing China Edited by Jacques Delisle , Avery Goldstein and Guobin Yang Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press , 2016 vi + 284 pp. $49.95; £32.50 ISBN 978-0-8122-2351-4
Book Reviews
The development of the internet and social media in China has received considerable scholarly attention, producing several important monographs and edited books. The Internet, Social Media, and a Changing China, edited by Jacques deLisle, Avery Goldstein and Guobin Yang, represents the latest contribution to the field. The volume consists of an introduction and ten chapters by authors from multiple disciplinary and methodological backgrounds. It serves as a solid foundation for understanding the relationship between the internet - social media in particular - and a transforming China.
The chapters are organized under three themes, namely the internet and civil society, law and the internet, and the internet and foreign relations. The first three chapters focus on the expansion of civil society and citizen engagement through the internet. Chapter one by Min Jiang identifies four types of online activities - real-time activism, political jamming, Weibo celebrities, and uncivil interactions - revealing the coevolution of civic activism and state control as well as the rise of uncivil interactions online. Chapter two by Marina Svensson examines connectivity and civic engagement in cyberspace....