Networks of Change
Gender and the Making of Internet and Web History
1st Edition
Will be published approx. on 28. April 2026
Book
Hardback
230 pages
978-1-041-07456-4 (ISBN)
Description
This book challenges dominant narratives of internet history by uncovering the overlooked contributions of women and LGBTQ+ communities in shaping our digital world. This groundbreaking collection brings together critical essays and archival research that illuminate how these social groups have been instrumental in building, maintaining, and transforming online spaces. The volume is structured in two complementary parts: the first examines women's pivotal roles in online communities, from Wikipedia contributors to pioneers in digital fandom and blogging cultures; the second explores LGBTQ+ digital histories, including archiving practices, representation in AI databases, and the complexities of documenting queer internet experiences. By centering these previously silenced voices, this collection not only reconstructs a more inclusive digital past but also provides essential frameworks for reimagining our technological future.
This volume will appeal to scholars and students across digital humanities, media studies, gender studies, queer theory, and internet history. It offers valuable insights for technology professionals seeking to understand the diverse foundations of digital culture, as well as activists and policymakers working toward more equitable digital spaces. By bridging historical analysis with contemporary digital issues, the book speaks to anyone concerned with how power, identity, and representation continue to shape our networked world.
The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Internet Histories.
This volume will appeal to scholars and students across digital humanities, media studies, gender studies, queer theory, and internet history. It offers valuable insights for technology professionals seeking to understand the diverse foundations of digital culture, as well as activists and policymakers working toward more equitable digital spaces. By bridging historical analysis with contemporary digital issues, the book speaks to anyone concerned with how power, identity, and representation continue to shape our networked world.
The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Internet Histories.
Reviews / Votes
This volume of Internet Histories brings to light multiple fascinating and understudied facets of the history of the Internet. Through uncovering these hidden histories that center gender and sexuality, the authors have re-oriented common perceptions of the Internet, and who has historically used and built it. The communities detailed in these essays- from queer online anarchists to Mormon mommy bloggers-teach us key lessons for the present, as well as showing us that being online has always been weirder and wilder than most people know."--Mar Hicks, Author of Programmed Inequality: How Britain Discarded Women Technologists and Lost Its Edge in Computing (MIT Press, 2017)
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Postgraduate, Undergraduate Advanced, and Undergraduate Core
Dimensions
Height: 246 mm
Width: 174 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-041-07456-4 (9781041074564)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Leopoldina Fortunati | Autumn Edwards | Janet Abbate
Networks of Change
Gender and the Making of Internet and Web History
E-Book
04/2026
1st Edition
Routledge
€205.99
Not yet available
Leopoldina Fortunati | Autumn Edwards | Janet Abbate
Networks of Change
Gender and the Making of Internet and Web History
E-Book
04/2026
1st Edition
Routledge
€205.99
Not yet available
Persons
Leopoldina Fortunati, long involved in feminism and feminist studies, is Senior Professor of Sociology of Culture and Communication in the Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Physics at the University of Udine, Italy.
Autumn Edwards is Professor of Communication at Western Michigan University and Co-directs the Communication & Social Robotics Labs. Her research explores gender, human-machine communication, and human-technology relations. She is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Human-Machine Communication and a recognized leader in understanding digital interlocutors and social robots in communication.
Janet Abbate is a Professor at Virginia Tech who researches the history, culture, and politics of computing and the Internet.
Autumn Edwards is Professor of Communication at Western Michigan University and Co-directs the Communication & Social Robotics Labs. Her research explores gender, human-machine communication, and human-technology relations. She is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Human-Machine Communication and a recognized leader in understanding digital interlocutors and social robots in communication.
Janet Abbate is a Professor at Virginia Tech who researches the history, culture, and politics of computing and the Internet.
Content
Introduction: (Re)writing gender in Internet histories 1."She does a good job for a woman" - the challenges for women enablers in the era of internet histories 2. Becoming Wikipedian women: A sociotechnical history of the Gender Gap Task Force (2013-2023) 3. Gendering of the "ideal user" in 1990s-era internet magazines 4. The politics of the digital transition: Lessons from slash fan fiction communities at the turn of the millennium 5. Digital pioneers: Mormon mommy bloggers and building the "Bloggernacle" 6. Streaming out of the spiral of silence. Women's visibility in gaming community and on twitch 7. Network breakdown: the queer anarchist politics at the heart of the 'net from FidoNet to HOMOCORE 8. (Un)scaffolding gender: Social media and the evolution of nonbinary identity 9. How have you modelled my gender? Reconstructing the history of gender representation in Wikidata 10. Doing LGBTQ internet histories justice: A queer web archive manifesto 11. Dwelling with feminist media archives in the age of big data 12. Researching gender in the history of the Internet and the Web. A roundtable at the SHOT 2023 conference