Transnational Networks on Internet governance: mapping an emerging field

  • Pavan E
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Abstract

Internet governance (IG) is as recent as the development of the Internet itself and just has recently gained importance on a global scale also thanks to the organization of the 5 years process of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). Although discussion over IG does extend well beyond the IGF space, this process has certainly fostered the convergence of a multiplicity of heterogeneous actors previously acting separately in this field thus enhancing visibility of the issue itself on global scale. Despite convergence between actors and their perspectives on this topic is actually happening, the governance of the Internet remains an uncertain field in which neither its boundaries nor dynamics played inside it have not been analyzed in depth yet. This project aims at providing a better understanding of the emergence of this new field thus placing it in the broader context of Global Governance of Communication (GGC) structuring processes which are characterized by diversity, dynamics and complexity both for what concerns actors as well as issues involved. Starting from a closer examination of dynamics developing fostered by the IGF process, we firstly characterize on a conceptual base Internet governance from other issues in the larger GGC panorama pointing out its specificity along three lines: levels of authority at which decisions are taken and the gate-keeping role played by institutions; the degree of formalization of interaction processes developing in the field; the historical development of the topic itself from a matter for technicians to the status of inclusive framework in which the most diverse themes are gathered under. Secondly, we empirically analyse the emergence of this field adopting a relational point of view that combines a social mobilization perspective with a policy network approach. Instead of focusing either on actors or on issues separately, we join them together in networks that we believe can be seen as hybrids between informal civil society mobilization networks and more structured policy networks. Thus, we focus specifically on interactions played inside these networks in order to elaborate some hypothesis on their impacts on the one hand on policy making processes and, on the other, on the nexus between bottom-up civil society mobilizations and policy networks. In this sense, we will put specific attention in examining networks compositions (who are actors involved), boundaries (progressive definition of shared identities inside networks) and ties (what kind of relationships, if any, are linking interested actors one another). The empirical examination of the case study largely rely on social network analysis techniques. We are currently gathering data on partnership building in the IG field starting from the Dynamic Coalitions on Internet governance that we consider as thematic and interaction proxies repeating characteristics and dynamics of the broader IGF context in which they were set up and operate.

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APA

Pavan, E. (2008). Transnational Networks on Internet governance: mapping an emerging field. In 1st International Giganet Workshop.

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