Berghahn Books Cyberidentities At War: The Moluccan Conflict on the Internet: 20 (EASA Series, 20)

"This is a highly interesting study of the way three internet sites operated in the Moluccan violent conflict over a number of years...The book offers a wealth of information about the Moluccan conflict and provides an in-depth study of the new media that make current conflicts so much more complex. Moreover, there are few long-term studies of the use of cyberspace." · Keebet von Benda-Beckmann, Max-Planck-Institute, Halle/Saale Conflicting parties worldwide increasingly use the Internet in a strategic way, and struggles carried out on a local level achieve a new dimension. This new kind of medialization results in a conflict's expansion into global cyberspace. Based on ethnographic research on the online activities of Christian and Muslim actors in the Moluccan conflict (1999-2003), this study investigates processes of identity construction, community building and evolving conflict dynamics on the Internet. In contributing to conflict and Internet research, this study paves the way for a new cyberanthropology. A newly added epilogue outlines the directions in which the situation in the Moluccas has continued and discusses the advances and developments of theoretical and methodological concerns presented in the 2005 German edition. Birgit Bräuchler teaches at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany. She is editor of Reconciling Indonesia (Routledge 2009), co-editor of Theorising Media and Practice (Berghahn Books 2010), and has published several book chapters and articles on media and cyberanthropology, conflict and peace studies, cultural rights and the revival of tradition.