The Structural Power of Internet Governance

  • Dany C
N/ACitations
Citations of this article
10Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

Abstract

This paper gives way to a more sceptical assessment of the multi-stakeholder process of the UN World Summit on the Information Society (2003-2005) and the Working Group on Internet Governance (2004-2005). It questions the mostly positive outlook on the effects of the institutionalization of NGO participation and their ability to exert influence within the international negotiations. I argue that institutionalization had suboptimal effects and constrained the possibilities for NGOs to actively participate in the negotiations in the following ways: assigning them adversarial positions in comparison to state actors; shaping their identities; sacrificing external transparency; and failing to formalize the observers participation rights. Finally I argue that these observations show structural power at work in the analyzed governance processes. Hence, a structural power concept, as compared to prevalent agency-centred power concepts, can capture the ambiguous effects of the institutionalization of NGO participation.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Dany, C. (2007). The Structural Power of Internet Governance. In 2nd Annual Giganet Symposium.

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free