53 research outputs found
The Geopolitical vs the Network Political: Internet Designers and Governance
With the recognition that communication networks in general and the Internet
in particular are not only infrastructural but socio-technical in nature comes the
responsibility to think such networks through from the perspective of how they
influence – and/or are – forms of power and governance. The notion of citizenship
is one that appears relative to both social and technical systems, and thus at their
conjuncture, because it is the concept through which the rights and responsibilities
of individuals relative to governance are refracted. It was in fact the case that citizenship
was a concern for those responsible for technical design of the Internet as
that history both unfolded through and is recorded in the technical document series
known as the Internet Requests for Comments, or RFCs. This paper analyzes the two
types of citizenship of concern from the perspective of Internet design – geopolitical
(oriented around the state) and network political (oriented around the network) –
and interactions between the two as they were discussed within and affected the
Internet design process. These network-inspired ideas about citizenship in turn
contribute to the ongoing discussion about the evolution of new forms of citizenship
in today’s environment, including in particular those that are global and/or technological
in nature.US National Science Foundation Grant No. 082326
Sheila Jasanoff: localizando o global
Em tempos em que todo conhecimento é situado e não mais universal e neutro, a tradução da reflexão de Sheila Jasanoff sobre como dirigir para o bem nossa habilidade inventiva, profundamente humana coloca uma questão para a academia brasileira: como situar essa reflexão? Se o tempo é de mudança para o Ocidente imperial, é plausível aproveitar esse tempo para problematizarmos os blocos constituintes da razão pública no Brasil. E não há motivo para que não consideremos as sinalizações que vêm de Harvard não mais para ser tomadas como saberes privilegiadamente autorizados, de resto inadmissíveis em um mundo que se quer desplatonizado, mas sim como proposições a ser situadas em processos de escolhas e transformações
Making data flow for the climate risk market
In 2011, the U.K. government announced that the national meteorological agency would be releasing a significant volume of data as part of its Open Data policy agenda. This article explores the interrelationship between this announcement and efforts to boost the competitiveness of the United Kingdom’s weather derivatives industry. Primary qualitative data are analyzed to produce a genealogical account of these policy developments, and Braman’s concept of “informational power” is used to frame a critical narrative of the broader dynamics of power at play. We argue that although there have been significant tensions around efforts to open the United Kingdom’s weather data, these have largely been absorbed by and, ultimately, contained within the hegemonic structures of the United Kingdom’s neoliberal state. We conclude by arguing that this struggle needs to be broadened and externalized beyond the state so that critical questions about the deepening data-driven financialization of climate change can be addressed
Political values and extra-institutional political participation: The impact of economic redistributive and social libertarian preferences on protest behaviour
Previous studies have found that left-wing and libertarian individuals are more likely to engage in extra-institutional political activism. However, due to a lack of suitable data, studies to date have not analysed the relative influence of economic redistributive and social libertarian values for the intensity of protest participation. By analysing data from a unique cross-national dataset on participants in mass demonstrations in seven countries, this article addresses this gap in the literature and provides evidence of the relative impact of economic redistributive and social libertarian values in explaining different degrees of protest participation. We show that there are divergent logics underpinning the effect of the two value sets on extra-institutional participation. While both economically redistributive and libertarian social values support extra-institutional participation, economically redistributive protesters are mobilized to political action mainly through organizations, whereas the extra-institutional participation of social libertarian protesters is underpinned by their dissatisfaction with the workings of democracy
Reinventing ‘Many Voices’: MacBride and a Digital New World Information and Communication Order
The MacBride Commission Report was arguably one of the most significant multilateral interventions in the history of international communication. This article charts its emergence at the time of deeply contested Cold War politics, coinciding with the rise of the southern voices in the global arena, led by the non-aligned nations. Thirty-five years after the report's publication, has the global media evolved into a more democratic system, demonstrating greater diversity of views and viewpoints? Despite the still formidable power of US-led western media, the article suggests that the globalisation and digitisation of communication has contributed to a multi-layered and more complex global media scene, demonstrating the “rise of the rest”
Economic Analysis of Knowledge: The History of Thought and the Central Themes
Following the development of knowledge economies, there has been a rapid expansion of economic analysis of knowledge, both in the context of technological knowledge in particular and the decision theory in general. This paper surveys this literature by identifying the main themes and contributions and outlines the future prospects of the discipline. The wide scope of knowledge related questions in terms of applicability and alternative approaches has led to the fragmentation of research. Nevertheless, one can identify a continuing tradition which analyses various aspects of the generation, dissemination and use of knowledge in the economy
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