Gillian Youngs argues that one of the major challenges of the new virtual era is to understand exactly what the transformative meanings of processes involving the Internet may be, in order to ensure that approaches are both politically engaged and sociologically rich. She focuses on the...

Gillian Youngs explores the term virtual democracy in three broad and loosely interrelated areas: new spatialities of politics; virtual imperatives for proactive politics; the multimedia public sphere. Development (2007) 50, 23–27. doi:10.1057/palgrave.development.1100331

Gillian Youngs is University of Wales Alliance Research Chair, Professor of Digital Economy and academic director of the Institute of Advanced Broadcasting, University of Wales, Newport. She is associate editor of Development and she is currently leading an ESRC Research Seminar Series entitled...