A Socially-Just Internet?

We recently completed a HSSRG-funded pilot study on social justice and the internet. Dr. David Toews served as principal investigator in this study entitled 'The Impact of Communicative Creativity on Human Needs and Social Justice'. It traces changes in consumer use of globalized communication technology from 1990-2008. This information served as a basis for a paper recently published in Studies in Social Justice tinyurl.com/ckfn6c. 

Avatar-based virtual worlds are a key target for current and future study. "Avatar use in open-source, free-subscription virtual worlds like Second Life does seem to make social justice in relation to internet activity a matter of immediate, context-bound, ordinary social interaction," according to Toews. The aim is to identify, classify, and measure the extent and scope of the abilities of avatar use to alter forms of communication in a manner consistent with online community building. We want to categorize social-justice-related activities in those online communities: "My studies should help us determine if the hype surrounding the social uses of Web 2.0 has any basis in actual practices, and, crucially, whether the latter can make a socially-just contribution to human relationships".