Year: 2012
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This project focuses on the dynamics of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) as a non-binding multistakeholder debate about information policymaking.Using the theory of structuration and critical discourse analysis, I explore how the nation-state-centric and the internet-communitycentric perceptions of authority and approaches to decision-making manifest themselves in the forum and what political and cultural norms they reify.This study is based on participatory observations, personal interviews, and analysis of documents and meeting transcripts.It explains the inner workings of the IGF as a space where the historical tensions between the traditional methods of global policymaking and the unorthodox approach to governance developed by the Internet community are played out.It explains how the IGF functions as a UN forum that aspires to bring practices of collaborative, meritocratic, and bottom-up decision-making into the nation-state-focused, hierarchical environment of the UN system.My analysis demonstrates how the two worldviews on Internet policymaking coexist and collide within the formalized bodies of the IGF, and how they are enacted through practices that evolved around the IGF fixtures.It explains how the IGF manages to draw legitimacy from both the intergovernmental and the Internet community environments by incorporating elements of both during its meetings.It also explains the pivotal I was always told that writing a dissertation is a lonely experience.But, now, as I am finalizing this manuscript, one of my fears is forgetting to thank everyone who inspired, challenged, helped, supported, funded, provided feedback, asked or influenced this project in any other way.I am grateful to all those who made the past five years a fascinating intellectual journey.Especially, I want to thank Tarleton Gillespie for being an Adviser with a capital "A
Source: eCommons (Cornell University)
Author: Dmitry Epstein
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W63021132