“Make No Little Plans”

The concluding chapter turns back to wider questions of democracy, taking up some of the challenges associated with the book’s project of democratizing digital environments. In particular, it addresses the authoritarian impulses of architecture—and the corresponding lack of faith in citizens that leads us to cede the work of building to others in the first place—as well as the “proper” role of experts in any project of democratization. It responds to these challenges by reaffirming a democratic faith in citizens’ capacities and highlighting the role of the built environment in nurturing them; by redesigning our digital environments, it argues, we can create conditions for these currently under-realized capacities to flourish. The chapter concludes by outlining strategies through which experts and citizens might collaborate to rebuild digital spaces democratically.

Exploring Experience at the Intersection of Migration and Digital Democracy in South Korea

This article examines how digital spaces for political participation by migrants are experienced and governed in South Korea. Drawing on semi-structured interviews conducted in Seoul, South Korea, between April and July 2018, this article argues that migrant participation in digital democratic processes in South Korea is hindered by a fragmented and centralized digital management, which can be linked back to the specific historical-political context in which this digital space was developed.

LGBTQ+ Communities and Digital Media

Digital media offer spaces to many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people (LGBTQ+) for connection, support, and friendship and hosts vital resources for learning and practicing diverse genders and sexualities. In this chapter, the authors review key research on LGBTQ+ communities and identities in digital spaces over several decades, dividing the chapter into three main sections: (1) community and connection, (2) romance and dating, and (3) identity work. In the first section on community and connection, they examine research centered on how LGBTQ+ people use digital media to forge connections and build “communities.” While this term is contested in the literature, many LGBTQ+ people use it to describe their experiences of digital networks. Second, they outline the growing body of research on how LGBTQ+ people use digital media in their romantic and sexual lives, from dating/hook-up apps to social media. They consider the challenges, pleasures, and opportunities in how LGBTQ+ people use digital media for sex and dating practices and potential. Third, they reflect on how these connections have figured into ongoing research on LGBTQ+ identities, where digital media allow LGBTQ+ people to develop shared languages to describe their experiences, to reflect on their lives, and to rehearse modes of self-representation.