From café culture to home schooling, remote community networks, and
smart cities, Wi-Fi is an invisible but fundamental element of
contemporary life. Loosely regulated, low-cost, and largely overlooked
by researchers, this technology has driven the rise of the smartphone
and broadband internet, and is a vital element in the next wave of
automation.
Thomas, Wilken, and Rennie provide the first comprehensive account of
the social and cultural consequences of Wi-Fi, highlighting the ways in
which it has changed our homes, communities, and cities. They discuss
its origins as an experimental technology, the conflicts generated
around its ownership and control, and the ideas and expectations
attached to it by technologists, activists, and entrepreneurs. The
authors reveal the ways in which Wi-Fi is an inherently social and
political technology, animated by conflicting aspirations for local,
public, and community control, and defined by private and corporate
interests. As this book shows, Wi-Fi has extended and intensified our
online lives while also promising a more inclusive internet.
Wi-Fi is essential reading for students and scholars of media and
communication, as well as anyone who wants a better understanding of
this ubiquitous and influential technology.
