Globalization, nationality and commodification: the politics of the social construction of the internet

Theories of the social construction of technology help to identify ways in which social forces can influence the development of communication media such as the internet, but often fail to pay sufficient attention to the ways that social structures constrain the agency of those who are most central to the social construction processes. This article examines some decisions concerning the domain name system of the internet and finds that such structural concerns add a needed dimension and can illuminate the power relations that help to shape the role of the internet in the tension between national and global structures of communications.