Towards a Humanistic Conception of Cyberspace. A Twofold Challenge for Netizens Mobilizing for a Democratic Internet Governance
15 Pages Posted: 22 Jun 2016
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Towards a Humanistic Conception of Cyberspace. A Twofold Challenge for Netizens Mobilizing for a Democratic Internet Governance
Towards a Humanistic Conception of Cyberspace - A Twofold Challenge for Netizens Mobilizing for a Democratic Internet Governance
Date Written: 2008
Abstract
This paper addresses the challenge of how to approach internet governance from a multi-stakeholder perspective taking into account, at the same time, the peculiar conditions of the internet itself. More concretely its diversity, the dynamics and the complexity entailed in contemporary reform of global governance processes towards more open and participatory arrangements. We argue that the specific case study of internet governance can provide interesting insights on how collaborative patterns of interaction can nurture multi-actor politics also in different sectors. Our departure point is the recognition of the inherent social and human component of technology, in order to stress how technology can become, and actually has become, a global social issue soliciting interests from a plurality of actors who range from governmental institutions, passing through private sector entities and including the heterogeneous universe labeled as “civil society”. Specifically, as far as the internet case is concerned, we employ the idea of the internet as a Common-pool resource (CPR) and we will sketch out its composition joining together different kinds of commons: social, infrastructural, service and access. The simultaneous co-presence of these commons within the internet and Cyberspace is what implies the necessity of involving at the same time all competences necessary to their management thus bringing into the internet governance field heterogeneous and possibly clashing interests.
Keywords: GigaNet
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