HYPERMEDIA: Modes of Communication in World Order Transformation by RONALD JAMES ...

370 Pages·2009·9.06 MB·English

HYPERMEDIA:
Modes of Communication in World Order Transformation
by
RONALD JAMES DEIBERT
B.A., The University of British Columbia, 1988
M.A., Queen’s University, 1990
A THESIS SUBMITfED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
in
THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES
Department of Political Science
We accept this thesis as conforming
to the required standard
THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
JUNE 1995
©Ronald James Deibert
______________
In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced
degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shalt make it
freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive
copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my
department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or
publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written
permission.
(Signature)
Department of
The University of British Columbia
Vancouver, Canada
•3c),
(71i
Date
DE-6 (2/88)
ABSTRACT
Despite that we are in the midst of profound changes in communications technologies,
there is a remarkable gap in the International Relations literature devoted to exploring the
implications of these changes. In part, this can be attributed to the discipline’s conservative
tendencies; generally, InternationalRelationstheorists have resisted studying majordiscontinuity
in the international system. The few studies that do attempt to account for change typically
focus on modes of production or destruction as determinant variables. Though there are rare
exceptions, many of them also tend towards a form of mono-causal reductionism. When
considered at all, communications technologies are viewed through the prism of, or are reduced
to, these other factors. This study seeks to remedy this gap by examining the relationship
between large-scale shifts in modes of communication and “world order” transformation the
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structure or architecture of political authority at a world-level.
Drawing from the work of various “medium theory” scholars, such as Harold Innis and
Marshall McLuhan, the study outlines an open-ended, non-reductive theory at the core of which
is the argument that changes in modes of communication facilitate and constrain social forces
and ideas latent in society. This hypothesized process can be likened to the interaction between
species and achanging natural environment: new communicationsenvironments “favour” certain
social forces and ideas by means of a functional bias towards some and not others, much the
same as environments determine which species prosper by “selecting” for certain physical
characteristics. In other words, social forces and ideas survive differentially according to their
“fitness” or match with the new communications environment a process that is both open
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ended and contingent.
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The study is organized into two parts: Part one examines the relationship between
printing and the medieval to modem world order transformation in Europe; Part two examines
the relationship between new digital-electronic-telecommunications (called “hypermedia”) and
the modem to postmodern world order transformation. The study suggests that the hypermedia
communications environment is contributing to the dissolution of modern world order by
facilitating the transnationalization of production, the globalization of finance, the rise of
complex, non-territorial social networks, and the de-massification of “national” identities. The
hypermedia environment is also helping to re-focus security concerns from an inter-national to
an intra-planetary context. While it is far too early to provide a clear outline of the emerging
postmodern world order, the trends that are unearthed in this study point away from single mass
identities, linear political boundaries, and exclusive jurisdictions centred on territorial spaces,
and towards multiple identities and non-territorial communities, overlapping boundaries, and
non-exclusive jurisdictions.
111
Table of Contents
Abstract ii
Table of Contents iv
Acknowledgement viii
INTRODUCTION 1
Chapter One Medium Theory, Ecological Holism, and the
Transformation of World Order 25
International Relations theory and
communications 27
Medium theory 30
Theory and epistemology 37
a. Towards a non-reductionist medium theory 38
b. Two effects: distributional changes and
changes to social epistemology 43
Ecological holism and medium theory 49
Ecological holism, medium theory, and
International Relations theory 53
Notes 58
PART ONE PRINTING AND THE MEDIEVAL TO MODERN
WORLD ORDER TRANSFORMATION 67
Chapter Two From the Parchment Codex to the Printing Press:
The Sacred Word and the Rise and Fall of Medieval
Theocracy 68
The sanctity of the written word 70
The rise and fall of medieval theocracy 75
iv
Structural characteristics of the Church’s
hegemony in the High Middle Ages 80
Counter-hegemonic forces and the decline
of the Church 86
The printing press 90
Conclusion 92
Notes 93
Chapter Three Print and the Medieval to Modern World Order
Transformation: Distributional Changes 100
The new media environment and the dissolution
of the old order 102
a. The Protestant Reformation 102
b. Scientific humanism 110
The new media environment and the constitution
of the new order 116
a. From the oath to the contract 117
b. The emergence of modem state bureaucracies 125
Conclusion 133
Notes 134
Chapter Four Print and the Medieval to Modem World Order
Transformation: Changes to Social Epistemology 142
a. Individual identity 143
b. Spatial biases 151
c. Imagined communities 155
Conclusion 161
Notes 163
V
PART TWO HYPERMEDIA AND THE MODERN TO POSTMODERN
WORLD ORDER TRANSFORMATION 169
Chapter Five Transformation in the Mode of Communication:
The Emergence of the Hypermedia Environment 170
The pre-history of hypermedia: technological
and sociological roots 173
The Cold War and military research and development 178
The properties of the hypermedia environment 185
Conclusion 198
Notes 200
Chapter Six Hypermedia and the Modern to Postmodern World Order
Transformation: Distributional Changes 208
I. International economics: the transnationalization
of production and finance 209
a. Transnational production 209
b. The emergence of global finance 222
State autonomy in a global economy 232
II. Transnational Social Movements in the
Hypermedia Environment 234
III. The Nature of Security in the Hypermedia
Environment 242
Hypermedia and the RealState: an electronic
Panopticon? 244
The emergence of planetary surveillance 251
Conclusion 255
Notes 257
vi
Chapter Seven Hypermedia and the Modern to Postmodern World Order
Transformation: Changes to Social Epistemology 272
The rise of postmodernist thought 275
a. Individual identities 277
b. Spatial biases 283
c. Imagined communities 291
Conclusion 299
Notes 301
CONCLUSION 308
BIBLIOGRAPHY 325
Appendix A Figure 1 360
vii
Acknowledgement
There is more than a little irony in submitting a dissertation in which I argue that notions of
“authorship” are now being undermined in the hypermedia environment. However, it certainly
makes me feel more compelled than ever to recognize and acknowledge those who have
contributed in some way or another to the construction of this study. And there are many.
First, I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my advisor and friend, Mark Zacher. Mark has
helped me along every step ofthis study, and through my tenure in the Ph.D. program. He has
been an unwavering supporter and a diligent critic. His integrity and his enthusiasm for the
discipline are a constant source of inspiration. No student could hope for a better advisor. I
would also like to thank the many people who have read various versions and pieces of the text
through its many different lives, including Dan Deudney, David Elkins, Paul Heyer, Kal Hoisti,
Tsuyoshi Kawasaki, Richard Matthew, Richard Price, and Hendrick Spruyt. Special thanks go
to three individuals with whom I engage regularly in on-line discussions: Darcy Cutler, Rodney
Bruce Hall, and Neal Roese. All three have contributed in countless valuable ways to my
thinking on the many different topics that are covered in this study. I would also like to thank
and acknowledge the financial support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
of Canada, and The Canadian Department of National Defence/Military and Strategic Studies
program. I am very grateful to the Institute of International Relations, and especially its
Director, Brian Job, for help in numerous ways. Finally, and most importantly, I would like
to thank my wife, Anna, for herpatience, encouragement, support and humour. It is to her, and
to my daughters Emily and Rosalind, that I dedicate this dissertation, and to whom I now turn
to have some fun.
viii
Introduction
There is an emerging consensus among a growing body of scholars that the present era
is one in which fundamental change is occurring. Among International Relations t1heorists, for
example, John Ruggie has argued that we are witnessing “a shift not in the play ofpowerpolitics
but of the stage on which that play is p2erformed.” Similarly, James Rosenau contends that the
present era constitutes an historical breakpoint leading to a “postinternational p3olitics” while
Mark Zacher has traced the “decaying pillars of the Westphalian t4emple.” This belief in
epochal change is mirrored outside of the mainstream of International Relations theory in, for
example, pronouncements of a coming “information a5ge,” “6post-industrialism,” “post
f7ordism,” or, more generally, “8postmodernism.” While these analyses differ widely in terms
of their respective foci and theoretical concerns, there is at least one common thread running
through each of them: the recognition that current transformations are deeply intertwined with
developments in communications technologies popularly known as the “information
--
revolution.”
Communication is vital to social cohesion. The ability to communicate complex symbols
and ideas is generally considered to be one of the distinguishing characteristics of the human
species. Yet in the International Relations field little or no attention has been given to the wider
implications of large-scale shifts in the means through which humans communicate. In part, this
can be attributed to the discipline’s conservative tendencies; as Ruggie points out, International
Relations theorists are not “very good. at studying the possibility of fundamental discontinuity
..
in the international s9ystem.” The few studies that do attempt to account for change in the
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