Governable spaces : democratic design for online life / Nathan Schneider; illustrations by Darija Medic.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : democracy in the wild -- Implicit feudalism : the origins of counter-democratic design -- Homesteading on a superhighway: how the politics of no-politics aided an authoritarian revival -- Democratic mediums : case studies in political imagination -- Governable stacks : organizing against digital colonialism -- Governable spaces : democracy as a policy strategy -- Epilogue : metagovernance.

"When was the last time you participated in an election for a Facebook Group, or sat on a jury for a dispute in a subreddit? Platforms nudge users to tolerate nearly all-powerful admins, moderators, and "benevolent dictators for life." In Governable Spaces, Nathan Schneider argues that the internet has been plagued by a phenomenon he calls "implicit feudalism": a bias, both cultural and technical, for building communities as fiefdoms. The consequences of this arrangement matter far beyond online spaces themselves, as feudal defaults train us to give up on our communities' democratic potential, inclining us to be more tolerant of autocratic tech CEOs and authoritarian tendencies among politicians. But online spaces could be sites of a creative, radical, and democratic renaissance. Using media archaeology, political theory, and participant observation, Schneider shows how the internet can learn from governance legacies of the past to become a more democratic medium, responsive and inventive unlike anything that has come before"-- Provided by publisher.