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A 24,000 word thesis submitted in 1998 at the University of Sydney for the award of Honours in Political Economy.

The entire work including the synopsis is copyright to James Howison 1999

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Synopsis

Cyberspace, the Internet and the Information 'revolution'. This thesis attempts to get behind the hype and examine the reality of the events surrounding and shaping cyberspace today.

It first moves to undermine the notion of a spontaneous technologically lead 'revolution' driven in part by unplanned 'convergence' and faceless 'market forces'. It does this throughout by emphasising strategic action taken with regard to the Internet, focusing especially on government and corporate 'agendas', such as the US Global Framework for Electronic Commerce.

Rather than accepting 'market forces' as an object capable of action, as does the bulk of work in this area, this paper argues that it is the market itself which is being created - a task which can only be undertaken by real people, real corporations, and real people. It is a process which is making major political decisions.

The main achievements of this paper are :

An analytical approach which gets beyond hype and concentrates on specific intentional actions and the identification of clear motivations for corporate interest in the Internet.

The identification of the social relations necessary to allow these motivations to be realised.


• Exchange relations.
  • - identity
  • - privacy (encryption)
  • - a coherent system of contract and corporate law
• Property rights.
• Standardisation (esp. for identity and protocols).

The identification and discussion of the substantial tensions in the process of making cyberspace safe for capitalism.

Are states acting as 'neutral market builders' or pursuing their perceived competitive interests? Where does that leave the dominance of the USA?
Encryption - the potential for overly private communication, locking out the state and especially the justice system. This is considered as a long term economic problem
How can a universal reliable identification system be created as a 'market object'? What level of state involvement will be necessary and how will it be achieved?
The potential for corporate and personal 'jurisdiction hopping'. "Darwinian pressure on the law"?
Tensions arising from the 'special relations of cyberspace'.

The consideration of cyberspace as a place with its own 'special' social relations and a consideration of how these are threatened by efforts to make cyberspace just another 'place of business'.

These relations are given a sympathetic treatment, emphasising their progressive elements.

• Information anarchy
• Anonymity
• Autonomy

The placement of the on-going discourse about the Internet and Commerce in its correct historical context : that of corporate interest in information and the ways in which these interests have been accommodated by states.

By going right back to the clash between the developing world and the US and UK in UNESCO the thesis places today's activity in an historical context. It considers two recent episodes : The discourse of the 'Global Information Infrastructure' and the post 1995 E-commerce Agenda

It argues that the attention paid to the internet in from 1995 onwards reflects the impasse that the GII discourse had reached and continues the realisation of corporate interest in information through a symbiotic relationship with state forms.

The key conclusion of the thesis is that the process of introducing commerce to the Internet is far from a spontaneous revolution. Rather it is a complex but intentional process in which people are making political decisions, while acting from behind the rhetorical screen of an impersonal 'necessary revolution'.

The general tone is critical, but along the way attempts are made to point to areas in which progressive social action can hope to have an impact.

The author is continuing to write in this area, working as a freelance journalist and researcher.