"This important volume is the first to offer a serious analysis of the relevance of the Habermasian view of the public sphere to the age of virtual communication . . . [A] rich mix of philosophical insights and ethnographic analyses from unlikely locations . . . [it] is destined to become a major interdisciplinary resource for all scholars concerned with the future of democratic participation in the age of virtuality."

- Arjun Appadurai, Goddard Professor of Media, Culture and Communication, New York University, USA

- Christopher Pinney, Professor of Anthropology and Visual Culture, University College London, UK

"The book examines ways that participating in the VPS impacts communities (both virtual and in the lived world), aesthetics, identity, commerce, subject positions, the subconscious, and the unconscious. The essays are consistently sharp, well written, and provocative... All told, [the book] is a solidly engaging read, chock full of challenging, well-considered articles. The theories and opinions offered in the book are, like the VPS itself, disparate¿yet somehow connected."

- John Sewell, University of West Georgia, Carrollton, Georgia, USA, in Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly