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URI [dataset] UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES Electronics and Computer Science Web and Internet Science Values, Social Imaginaries and the Internet control By Rafael Melgarejo Heredia Thesis for the degree of PhD in WebScience Supervisors: Professor Leslie Carr, Professor Susan Halford, Professor Kieron O’Hara November 2019 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES WebScience Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in WebScience VALUES, SOCIAL IMAGINARIES AND THE INTERNET CONTROL Rafael Melgarejo Heredia ABSTRACT This thesis aims to explore the role of values in shaping the evolution and control of the Internet and the Web, regarding social imaginaries. Whilst the question of values in the design, operation and governance of the Internet is well documented from the point of view of the social imaginary behind the screen, relatively little is known about the values that are important to the users of the Web who have been so central in driving forward its growth in the last 25 years. The thesis will: (i) draw on published histories and other secondary sources to trace the role of values in shaping the Internet, and the Web as controlled technical infrastructures; (ii) conduct original empirical research to explore the Web values for those in front of the screen, as well as the possible control exerted by them on the Internet. It will suggest (i) an alternative history of the Internet, (ii) that there is a disjunction between the values linked to social imaginaries, and (iii) that there are considerable variations between the values of the users, not least in different parts of the world. Table of Contents Table of Contents ........................................................................................................ iii List of Tables ................................................................................................................ vii List of Figures ...............................................................................................................ix Research Thesis: Declaration of Authorship .................................................xi Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... xiii Chapter 1: Introduction and Outline .................................................................... 1 Chapter 2: Literature Review ............................................................................... 7 2.1 Is technology value neutral? .................................................................................... 7 2.1.1 Science, Technology and Dogmatism ........................................................ 7 2.1.2 Rationality and dogma ............................................................................... 8 2.1.3 Instrumental rationality and dogma ........................................................ 12 2.1.4 The moral intersubjectivity ...................................................................... 14 2.1.5 Technology for the public good ............................................................... 16 2.2 Values categorisation ............................................................................................. 19 2.2.1 Value and Values ..................................................................................... 19 2.2.2 Moral and social values ........................................................................... 22 2.2.3 The pragmatic individual ......................................................................... 26 2.2.4 Capitalist values ....................................................................................... 27 2.2.5 Depicting values relativism between cultures ......................................... 29 2.2.6 Cross-cultural values ................................................................................ 30 2.2.7 Alternative values .................................................................................... 32 2.3 Social imaginaries................................................................................................... 39 2.4 The Control ............................................................................................................ 42 2.4.1 The controlling technology ...................................................................... 43 2.4.2 Cybernetics .............................................................................................. 44 2.4.3 Second-order cybernetics ........................................................................ 47 2.4.4 An argument against the double-closure ................................................ 49 2.4.5 The self-controlled individual .................................................................. 49 Chapter 3: The Internet evolution: An Alternative History .................................. 53 iii 3.1 Early days ............................................................................................................... 53 3.2 Arpanet .................................................................................................................. 56 3.3 The fundamental values of the TCP/IP .................................................................. 58 3.4 First years of the Internet ...................................................................................... 59 3.4.1 The US government nudged the academic and then the commercial Internet .................................................................................................... 60 3.4.2 The commercial Internet backbone ........................................................ 62 3.5 Web 1.0 ................................................................................................................. 65 3.6 Idealism and Pragmatism ...................................................................................... 66 3.7 The main source of value ...................................................................................... 69 3.7.1 The Internet and the Web values for scholars and engineers ................ 69 3.7.2 The Internet values for the dominant social imaginary .......................... 73 3.7.2.1 The digital economy ................................................................................ 74 3.7.2.2 The Digital Divide ..................................................................................... 77 3.7.3 Beyond the digital divide ......................................................................... 88 3.7.4 P2P ........................................................................................................... 92 Chapter 4: Internet Control ................................................................................ 95 4.1 The Global Internet Governance ........................................................................... 95 4.1.1 The centralised control of the Internet ................................................... 95 4.1.2 A formal Internet Governance ................................................................ 98 4.1.2.1 IG scope ................................................................................................... 99 4.1.2.2 IG Models .............................................................................................. 101 4.2 The control on the Internet and the Web ........................................................... 107 4.2.1 Cybernetics and Internet control .......................................................... 108 4.2.2 The double closure and the Internet .................................................... 109 4.2.3 The negative consequences of Internet control ................................... 111 4.2.4 Revisiting the man-computer symbiosis ............................................... 111 4.2.5 Systems 1 and 2 versus Internet control ............................................... 113 Chapter 5: Methodology and Experiment Design .............................................. 115 5.1 Conceptualisation ................................................................................................ 115 iv 5.1.1 Social imaginaries .................................................................................. 115 5.1.2 Outline and Research Question ............................................................. 116 5.1.3 Human fast and slow thinking ............................................................... 117 5.1.3.1 Instrumentally-rational answers............................................................ 118 5.1.3.2 Value-rational