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What if we could start over and build the Internet from scratch? How could it be rebuilt or reimagined as more equitable and just? For more than eight years, Britt S. Paris investigated alternative Internet infrastructure projects, conducting interviews, site visits, and policy analysis. In this expansive and interdisciplinary study, Paris critically examines the myriad and contradictory promises, utility, and obstacles to building a completely new Internet. Radical Infrastructure locates and analyzes the boundaries of how people and groups imagine, build, deploy, maintain, and use the Internet as they survive—and even dare to thrive—in challenging political, economic, and environmental contexts. Ultimately, Paris encourages active reflection among scholars, policymakers, and activists and reveals more grounded imaginaries, tactics, and opportunities for future people-centered projects.
What if we could start over and build the Internet from scratch? How could it be rebuilt or reimagined as more equitable and just? For more than eight years, Britt S. Paris investigated alternative Internet infrastructure projects, conducting interviews, site visits, and policy analysis. In this expansive and interdisciplinary study, Paris critically examines the myriad and contradictory promises, utility, and obstacles to building a completely new Internet. Radical Infrastructure locates and analyzes the boundaries of how people and groups imagine, build, deploy, maintain, and use the Internet as they survive—and even dare to thrive—in challenging political, economic, and environmental contexts. Ultimately, Paris encourages active reflection among scholars, policymakers, and activists and reveals more grounded imaginaries, tactics, and opportunities for future people-centered projects.
Price: $34.95
Pages: 338
Publisher: University of California Press
Imprint: University of California Press
Publication Date:
17 February 2026
Trim Size: 8.50 X 5.50 in
ISBN: 9780520402058
Format: Paperback
BISACs:
Britt S. Paris is Assistant Professor of Library and Information Science in the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers.
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments and Dedication
On the Current Moment
List of Abbreviations
Introduction. Internet and Infrastructure: What Is and What Shouldn't Be
1. Networking Futures Past
2. Buried Bodies of Internet Infrastructure
3. Mining Silicon Holler for Alternatives
4. The Struggle Around Municipal Internet
5. Imagining and Managing Relations from the Ground to the Cloud
6. Reading Futures for Internet Infrastructure
Conclusion. Mobilizing Theories of Change and Organizing Tactics for Radical Internet Infrastructure
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Preface
Acknowledgments and Dedication
On the Current Moment
List of Abbreviations
Introduction. Internet and Infrastructure: What Is and What Shouldn't Be
1. Networking Futures Past
2. Buried Bodies of Internet Infrastructure
3. Mining Silicon Holler for Alternatives
4. The Struggle Around Municipal Internet
5. Imagining and Managing Relations from the Ground to the Cloud
6. Reading Futures for Internet Infrastructure
Conclusion. Mobilizing Theories of Change and Organizing Tactics for Radical Internet Infrastructure
Notes
Bibliography
Index