Cyberprovincialism

Collapsing Locality – Ludic Locations Place and space are notions that have to be renegotiated once territory is claimed in virtual environments. A discourse on locative aspects of virtual environments will have to find new forms of transport and of non-travelling to rediscover place and location in e-space. These locations are however often characterised by an extreme homogenisation of appearance and talk. Foreign languages are not strictly forbidden - they are often cherished as exotic and cool -, but the practice is less then monolingual, it is controlled by a totalitarism of jargon below the level of language or even dialect. The article questions notions of internationalisation and suggests that SecondLife is a conglomerate of cyberprovincialism rather than an international community.