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THE SOCIAL MATRIX OF THE EMERGENT WEB: GOVERNANCE, EXCHANGE, PARTICIPATION, & ENGAGEMENT

In the 2012 ASA Communication and Information Technologies Special Issue, we are pleased to bring together eight articles revealing the importance of social engagement on the web. This issue contains research speaking to scholarship dealing with four key topics: governance, exchange, participation, and engagement. Taken together, these eight articles raise far-reaching questions about the intersection of new media and various social formations and processes. Each of these contributions addresses fundamental issues both about the social matrix in which the internet continues to evolve and the effects of technologically mediated communication and interaction on contemporary social life. As a whole, the articles point to the coadaptation between social structures and actions on the one hand and technologically mediated communication on the other hand. This coadaptation process confronts new media scholars with challenging questions about the forces, factors, and processes at play in various domains of economic, cultural, and political practice. The articles remind us that the complex articulations between technology and social life are evolving and changing at a rapid pace along with the tools themselves. Moreover, sometimes this coadaptation fails to forestall consequential conflict and tensions between the technology and the social processes and social actors who are deploying it. The articles remind us that as the internet continues to evolve, fundamental questions about social behavior and communication must continue to drive our