The Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet) is a proud co-sponsor of GIG-ARTS 2018 – The Second European Multidisciplinary Conference on Global Internet Governance Actors, Regulations, Transactions and Strategies held 26-27 April 2018, in Cardiff.
The conference was organized by Centre for Internet and Global Politics / School of Law and Politics / Cardiff University, in partnership with DiploFoundation, The ECPR Standing Group on Internet and Politics, The Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet), IAMCR Communication Policy and Technology Section, ICA Division Communication Law & Policy.
After having explored “Global Internet Governance as a Diplomacy Issue” at its first edition in Paris in 2007, the Second European Multidisciplinary Conference on Global Internet Governance Actors, Regulations, Transactions and Strategies (GIG-ARTS 2018) addresses power inequalities in internet governance, and digital policy capacity building strategies aiming at overcoming gaps in digital policy developments.
Overcoming Inequalities in Internet Governance: Framing Digital Policy Capacity Building Strategies
Connectivity infrastructure is constantly expanding, while internet access is incessantly growing across countries, regions and socio-political contexts. In this context, new and crucial questions emerge from a governance and security perspective. As for the latter, new connectivity calls for cybersecurity capacity building strategies aiming at secure digital infrastructure. At the same time, from a governance perspective, traditional powers in the governance of the internet are increasingly challenged from newly connected actors who demand more influence in the transnational debate around digital policy development. As a result, despite claims for equal representations and diversity since the first World Summit on Information Society in 2003, the narrowing of the digital divide opens new and key questions: Whether and what inequalities exist in internet governance decision making? How is the rapidly changing internet geography and sociography reflected in the governance of the internet? Moreover, in order to increase awareness and enhance involvement of newly connected countries in national and transnational digital policy developments, what are the best internet governance capacity building strategies available? How do newly connected countries and actors build their digital policy capacity, and do they develop an active role in the transnational internet governance debate? Whether in newly or early connected countries, various kinds of divides persist across socio-cultural and political contexts, reflecting if not extending societal and socio-economic inequalities. Are such renewed forms of inequalities and discriminations adequately addressed in internet governance debates? What are the requirements for digital policies to actually empower people and uphold their individual and collective rights online?
In order to answer these crucial and manifold questions, the conference program includes more than 20 scholarly presentations and contributions from policy makers from the European Commission, UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Chatham House, International Telecommunication Union (ITU), ICANN, UNESCO, DiploFoundation and the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace.
The conference will also benefit from the contribution of Professor JP Singh, Chair of Culture and Political Economy / Director of the Centre for Cultural Relations at the University of Edinburgh, and author of the forthcoming book Development 2.0: How Technologies Can Foster Inclusivity in the Developing World (Oxford University Press), who will deliver the keynote speech.
Program Chair
Andrea Calderaro
Centre for Internet and Global Politics, University of Cardiff, United Kingdom
Program Committee
William J. Drake, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Marianne Franklin, Goldsmiths University
Katharina Höne, DiploFoundation, Malta & Switzerland
Nanette S. Levinson, American University Washington DC, USA
Robin Mansell, London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom
Meryem Marzouki, CNRS & Sorbonne Université, France
Ben Wagner, UW Vienna, Austria
GIG-ARTS 2018 Communication Details
Venue
The conference was held in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales, at the Centre for Internet and Global Politics, hosted at Cardiff University / School of Law and Politics.
Conference program
Day 1 – Thursday 26 April 2018
09:15-09:30 Welcome Session
- Andrea Calderaro (Cardiff University)
09:30-11:00 Session 1:Inequalities in Internet Governance
- 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
11:00-11:30 Coffee Break
11:30-13:00 Session 2 – Cyber Capacity Building: Security
- 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
13:00-14:30 Lunch Break
14:30-15:30 Roundtable: Politics and Policy of Cyber Capacity Building
- 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)
15:30-16:00 Coffee Break
16:00-17:30 Session 3 – Cyber Capacity Building: Human Rights
- 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?
18:00-18:30 Key Note Speech at the Wales National Museum
- Speaker: Professor JP Singh (University of Edinburg)
18:30-20:00 Conference Reception at the Wales National Museum
Day 2 – Friday 27 April 2018
09:00-09:30 UNESCO’s “Internet Universality Indicators”
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
11:00-11:30 Coffee Break
11:30-12:30 Roundtable: Power Struggles in 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)
12:30-14:00 Lunch Break
14:00-15:30 Session 5 – Identifying the gaps: Actors, Diplomacy, and Regulation
- 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
15:30 Concluding Remarks
