The goal of this research is to produce both a monograph and an edited volume that analyze the public spheres of the contemporary United States and other nations and the role of the Internet within them. The premise of the monograph is that, in the U.S. case, what we have come to see as a decline in civic engagement is better understood as the passing away of one model of public sphere conjoined with the emergence of a new model. The old public sphere was “localized,” grounded in local relations, particularly economic ones, while the new public sphere is de-localized. This new de-localized sphere emerged pre-Internet, but has been shaped and organized by online networks made possible by the Internet. This research addresses the Internet’s positive and negative impacts on this new de-localized sphere. The edited volume brings together scholars from across disciplines to tackle the question of the meaning of the public sphere(s) in the new media age.

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