Cultured Technology: Internet and Religious Fundamentalism

The Information Society, Forthcoming

35 Pages Posted: 28 Jan 2013

See all articles by Karine Nahon

Karine Nahon

University of Washington - The Information School; Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy, Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya

Gad Barzilai

University of Haifa; University of Washington - Henry. M. Jackson School of International Studies, Societies and Justice Program

Date Written: August 25, 2004

Abstract

In this article we identify four principal dimensions of religious fundamentalism as they interact with the Internet: hierarchy, patriarchy, discipline and seclusion. We also develop the concept of cultured technology, and analyze the ways communities reshape a technology and make it a part of their culture, while at the same time changing their customary way of life and unwritten laws to adapt to it. Later, we exemplify our theoretical framework through an empirical examination of ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in Israel. Our empirical study is based on a dataset of 686,192 users and 60,346 virtual communities. The results show the complexity of interactions between religious fundamentalism and Internet, and invite further discussions of cultured technology as a means to understand how the Internet has been culturally constructed, modified and adapted to the needs of fundamentalist communities and how they in turn have been affected by it.

Keywords: cultured technology, localization, virtual communities, religious fundamentalism, online interactions, control and censorship, hierarchy, patriarchy, discipline, social capital, digital divide, cyberspace.

Suggested Citation

Nahon, Karine and Barzilai, Gad, Cultured Technology: Internet and Religious Fundamentalism (August 25, 2004). The Information Society, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2207679

Karine Nahon

University of Washington - The Information School ( email )

206-685-6668 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://eKarine.org

Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy, Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya ( email )

P.O. Box 167
Herzliya, 4610101
Israel

Gad Barzilai (Contact Author)

University of Haifa ( email )

Mount Carmel
Haifa, 31905
Israel

University of Washington - Henry. M. Jackson School of International Studies, Societies and Justice Program ( email )

Seattle, WA
United States
206- 353 3169 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://faculty.washington.edu/gbarzil/

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