Frames and Connections in the Governance of Global Communications

A Network Study of the Internet Governance Forum

Elena Pavan

The governance of global communications is consolidating as a field where innovative political practices of multi-actor collaboration are being experimented. Within this broad political landscape, the Internet governance domain is emerging as one of the most relevant areas where institutional and non-institutional actors are converging in order to reform collectively governance mechanisms that will determine the future developments of the Internet technology. This book adopts a network approach to study the progressive and collective construction of a new discourse on Internet governance fostered by the realization of the United Nations Internet Governance Forum, a new “space for multi-stakeholder policy-dialogue” (WSIS Tunis Agenda 2005, art. 72). Looking both at how semantic and social connections are created in the online and the offline discursive spaces, this book seeks to provide insights on how principles of democratic collaboration between institutional and non-institutional actors are translated into actual political dynamics; on how the global political agenda on the governance of the Internet comes to be shaped thanks to the provision of heterogeneous and sometimes opposite thematic inputs; and, finally, on how the roles of States, intergovernmental bodies, civil society entities in participatory supra-national politics are progressively being (re)defined. Starting form the Internet governance case study, this books aims at providing an alternative approach to the study of supra-national politics as well as of global communication governance processes: one that considers simultaneously contents and processes of political dynamics and examines how immaterial resources, such as information and communication, become a new field for multi-actor politics experiments, conflicts and network construction.

Lexington Books

Pages: 236 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9½

978-0-7391-4643-9 • Hardback • January 2012 • $128.00 • (£98.00)

978-0-7391-9059-3 • Paperback • December 2013 • $56.99 • (£44.00)

Subjects: Social Science / Media Studies, Computers / Internet / General, Social Science / General, Language Arts & Disciplines / Communication Studies, Language Arts & Disciplines / International Communication

Frames and Connections in the Governance of Global Communications

A Network Study of the Internet Governance Forum

Hardback

Paperback

Summary

The governance of global communications is consolidating as a field where innovative political practices of multi-actor collaboration are being experimented. Within this broad political landscape, the Internet governance domain is emerging as one of the most relevant areas where institutional and non-institutional actors are converging in order to reform collectively governance mechanisms that will determine the future developments of the Internet technology. This book adopts a network approach to study the progressive and collective construction of a new discourse on Internet governance fostered by the realization of the United Nations Internet Governance Forum, a new “space for multi-stakeholder policy-dialogue” (WSIS Tunis Agenda 2005, art. 72). Looking both at how semantic and social connections are created in the online and the offline discursive spaces, this book seeks to provide insights on how principles of democratic collaboration between institutional and non-institutional actors are translated into actual political dynamics; on how the global political agenda on the governance of the Internet comes to be shaped thanks to the provision of heterogeneous and sometimes opposite thematic inputs; and, finally, on how the roles of States, intergovernmental bodies, civil society entities in participatory supra-national politics are progressively being (re)defined. Starting form the Internet governance case study, this books aims at providing an alternative approach to the study of supra-national politics as well as of global communication governance processes: one that considers simultaneously contents and processes of political dynamics and examines how immaterial resources, such as information and communication, become a new field for multi-actor politics experiments, conflicts and network construction.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 236 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9½

978-0-7391-4643-9 • Hardback • January 2012 • $128.00 • (£98.00)

978-0-7391-9059-3 • Paperback • December 2013 • $56.99 • (£44.00)

Subjects: Social Science / Media Studies, Computers / Internet / General, Social Science / General, Language Arts & Disciplines / Communication Studies, Language Arts & Disciplines / International Communication

Author

Elena Pavan is postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Sociology and Social Research at the University of Trento, Italy.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter 1: A Background Picture
Chapter 2: Investigating Content and Process in Political Dynamics: Theoretical Background and Analytic Framework
Chapter 3: Introducing the Internet Governance Case
Chapter 4: The Internet Governance Online Discursive Space
Chapter 5: The Internet Governane Offline Discursive Space
Conclusions
Appendix 1: Issue Crawler working logic

Reviews

With the advances in information communication technologies and the subsequent rise of the Internet, new avenues for research continue to open. Pavan (Univ. of Trento, Italy) opens a new avenue by analyzing specific structures of the Global Communication Governance (GCG) from both a systematic theoretical and empirical framework. GCG is defined as the sum of all political processes underpinning the management of information and communication matters from a supranational perspective. Based on sophisticated frames and network analyses and within the broader context of GCG, the study focuses on the development and consolidation of the global Internet Governance (IG) following the 2003-05 World Summit on the Information Society and pays close attention to the collaborative and dynamic roles played by institutional and noninstitutional actors. Relying on a bottom-up approach where the empirical investigation of these dynamic and collaborative relationships focuses on the emerging practices within IG, the study first discusses the structural and historical elements that gave rise to GCG and introduces the joint operational tools associated with the frames and network analyses. Subsequent chapters investigate the political structures and multiple groups as well as the social and semantic networks involved in shaping IG. Summing Up: Recommended.
— Choice Reviews