Towards Comparative Internet Studies: Internet Service Providers in Japan and China

Abstract

This article describes comparative internet studies as a useful paradigm through which to study Asian internet(s). It defines comparative internet studies as the systemic comparison of how material and immaterial internet infrastructure developed historically in different countries. This approach has the explicit aim of theoretical intervention and is located at the intersection of three strands of literature: internet studies, infrastructure studies, and regionality. This article brings together these three bodies of literature to illuminate areas of complementarity and cross-semination and to demonstrate how they contribute to a comparative internet studies project that is useful for grappling with Asian internet(s). Then, to illustrate how a comparative internet studies project can be realized, it draws on the author’s prior work on two internet service provider (ISP) projects: i-mode in Japan and Monternet in China.