Category: News

Internet Governance and Communication beyond Boundaries

ICA Pre-Conference

24 May 2019

Washington, DC, USA

Hosted and sponsored by the Internet Governance Lab at the American University.

Co-sponsored by ICA Communication and Technology Division, ICA Communication Law and Policy Division, and the Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet).

Extended abstract due: 11 February 2019
Full papers due: 25 April 2019

SUBMIT HERE

Internet Governance and Communication beyond Boundaries

Contemporary questions about the information society are inseparable from questions of governance of the underlying infrastructures, the logic of information flows, and its uses at the edges. The scope of questions under the general umbrella of internet governance is thus extremely broad, but at the same time vaguely defined. In the spirit of this year’s ICA conference theme, this event will discuss the issue of boundaries in internet governance both as a substantive topic of research and as a reflexive exercise for internet governance as a research domain.

Substantively, within internet governance, boundaries have been traditionally an important area of research starting with question of sovereignty and jurisdiction in cyberspace, reaching to the exploration of boundaries of the technical, legal, social, and political decision-making with constitutive effects on the internet. As a field of study, internet governance has been debating its disciplinary boundaries as well as the scope of research questions that can come under this broad label.

To facilitate this debate, we are inviting proposals that cover a broad scope of topics relating to internet governance and communication, including, but not limited to, topics such as:

• Power structures in internet governance, their sustainability and change;
• Nationalization of internet governance and possible threats of internet fragmentation;
• Privatization of internet governance and its impact on individual freedoms and human rights;
• Technical, legal and policy initiatives for cybersecurity and their impact on global internet governance;
• Emerging forms of governance such as trade agreements or user-driven change;
• Technological disruption and emerging governance questions in areas such as artificial intelligence and human augmentics;
• The respective powers of the users, technology designers and regulators in distributed systems;
• Public awareness of internet governance and communication of internet policy;
• Visions and metaphors of information technology in internet policy discourse;

We are particularly interested in proposals that offer a reflection on Internet Governance as a field of research. Those may address, but again, are not limited to, the following topics:

• How does one research Internet Governance? 
• Epistemological and practical challenges of Internet Governance research;
• The (multi)disciplinary, topical, and epistemological boundaries of Internet Governance research;
• Exploration of the boundary between research and activism in Internet Governance.

The pre-conference is organized by the Internet Governance Lab at the American University and the Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet). It is co-sponsored by the ICA Communication Law and Policy and Communication and Technology divisions, but it touches upon the fields of many more ICA divisions and interest groups. We aim to bring together ICA participants interested in questions of governance, GigaNet members from other disciplines, and the Washington, DC community of practitioners and policymakers. Our goal is to have a mutual learning process and exchange of ideas and challenges for the further development of Internet Governance research. For further inquiries, please contact Kenneth Merrill (kmerrill@american.edu) or Dmitry Epstein (dima.e@mail.huji.ac.il).

Submission details

At this time we invite authors to submit extended abstracts (800-1000 words) that describe the main thesis, research goals, and to the extent possible, the methodological background and findings of their paper. All extended abstracts must be uploaded through EasyChair by 11 February 2019, with all identifying information removed. All contributions will be peer-reviewed.

UPLOAD YOUR EXTENDED ABSTRACT HERE

Authors of the accepted abstracts will be asked to submit a full original manuscript of approximately 4000 to 8000 words, which have not been published elsewhere, by 25 April 2019. Based on the volume and the quality of submissions we intend to explore a potential thematic publication of pre-conference materials.

• Andrea Calderaro (Cardiff University)

• Chair: Meryem Marzouki (CNRS France)
• Alison Harcourt (Exeter University), Global Informal Governance, Non-State Actors, and Models of National Policy-Making: Explaining Standard Developing Organisation (SDO) Decisions Through Multiple Streams
• Mauro Santaniello, Francesco Amoretti and Nicola Palladino (University of Salerno), Lost in (IANA) Transition: Inequalities and Discursive Struggles Within The “Global Multistakeholder Community”
• Dmitry Epstein (University of Illinois) and Brandie Nonnecke (UC Berkeley), Participation Matters: Potential Effects of the IGF on Internet Governance Capacity Building

• Chair: Robin Mansell (London School of Economics)
• Madeline Carr and Alex Chung (University College London), Atif Hussain and Siraj Shaikh (Coventry University), Cyber Security Capacity Building: Strengthening Policy Advice
• Madeleine Myatt and Detlef Sack (University of Bielefeld), Cyber Security a Shared Responsibility? The Role and Likelihood of Public Private Partnerships in National Cyber-Security Strategies as a Capacity Building Tool of Power Politics
• Domenico Fracchiolla (LUISS University) and Mara Morini (University of Genova), Cyber Security Strategies: a Comparative Analysis
• Zine Homburger (Leiden University), The Necessity and Pitfalls of Cybersecurity Capacity Building for Norm Development in Cyberspace

• Chair: Andrea Calderaro (Cardiff University)

The cyber dimension is increasingly central in foreign policy, and discussions around how to develop a sustainable internet infrastructure have become key to regulatory strategies at the transnational and national level. New levels of connectivity are welcomed as opportunities, but also increase vulnerability from a security and human rights perspective. Therefore, there is a growing demand to securitize connectivity, which is at the center of urgent demands to develop cyber capacity across actors, newly connected countries and beyond. CCB Strategies will be discussed by:

• Panagiota-Nayia Barmpaliou (European Commission, DG Int. Cooperation & Dev.)
• Robert Collett (UK Cabinet, Foreign and Commonwealth Office)
• Emily Taylor (Chatham House)

• Chair: Ben Wagner (Vienna University of Economics and Business)
• Sefa Ozalp, Chiara Poletti and Daniel Gray (Cardiff University), The Repressive Potentials of Social Media Regulation: a Warning From Turkey To the World
• Daniëlle Flonk (Hertie School of Governance), Content Control Contestations: Why Authoritarian States Challenge the Internet Freedom Norm    
• Liudmila Sivetc (University of Turku), Two Generations of Online Speech Controls in Russia: from Filtering and Blocking to Creating a Copy of the National Internet Infrastructure?

• Speaker: Professor JP Singh (University of Edinburg)

• Xianhong Hu (UNESCO)

 09:30-11:00     Session 4 – Cyber Capacity Building: Economy and Trade

• Chair: William Drake (University of Zurich)
• Marilia Maciel, Jovan Kurbalija and Roxana Radu (DiploFoundation), WTO Digital Trade Discussions: Identifying the Way Forward
• Martina Francesca Ferracane (University of Hamburg), Data Flows & National Security: a Conceptual Framework to Assess Restrictions on Data Flows Under GATS Security Exception
• Shamel Azmeh (University of Bath), Christopher Foster and Jaime Echávarri Valdez (University of Sheffield), The International Political Economy of Digital Catching-Up: New Trade Agreements and Digital Latecomers
• Thomas Winzen and David Weyrauch (Mannheim University), Towards a New Tech Meritocracy? World Society, Technological Capacity and Participation in Global Internet Governance

• Andrea Calderaro (Cardiff University)

Discussions on how to enhance inclusiveness in digital policies decision making processes has been at the centre of internet governance debate since its origins. Enhanced connectivity has however made it even more pressing that newly connected actors are represented in the debate. As a result, there is an increasing need to expose existing forms of inequalities and understand how they impact on agenda setting and decision making capacities. Discussions on internet governance inequalities and strategies to overcome this gap will benefit from the contribution from:

• Marilia Maciel (DiploFoundation / Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace)
• Andrea Beccalli (ICANN)
• Mike Nxele (UN International Telecommunication Union – ITU)
• Xianhong Hu (UNESCO)

• Chair: Katharina Höne (DiploFoundation)
• Katharina Höne (DiploFoundation), Big Data – Big Capacity Gaps? Towards Capacity Building for Big Data in Diplomacy and Development Cooperation in the Context of Small and Developing Countries
• Tina Freyburg, Lisa Garbe and Veronique Wavre (University of St. Gallen), Who Owns the Internet, and Why Does it Matter? An Analysis of ISP Ownership in Africa
• Massimo Ragnedda and Hanna Kreitem (Northumbria University), Artificial Limitations and Meaningful Access: How Artificial Limitations on the Internet Affect Digital Inequalities
• Chiara Poletti (Cardiff University), Who direct Social Media governance? An empirical study of actors performing the controversy around Social Media and content regulation