Contextualing cyberspace: a photographic study of landscapes of Internet access

The paper examines contemporary issues surrounding the internet as a tool for promoting social inclusion. By means of case studies based on a photographic method we seek to unravel relationships between the social meanings associated with the sites of internet access and how the status of those viewing those sites influences how they are understood. Our approach is informed by the ideas of the Marxist intellectual Louis Althusser. For him dominant images circulate within society and these images impact upon how persons construct their identities and affiliations. For example, commercial advertisers seek to “recruit” us into the consumption of particular life-styles. The paper concludes with a discussion of how inclusivist policies should acknowledge the powerful effects of images in an individual’s decision-making. Images, it is suggested, inform how individuals regard the “landscapes” within which cyberspace is positioned for consumption.