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The Information Society is one of the recurrent imaginaries to describe present-day structures, discourses and practices. Within its meaning is ens...
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The Information Society is one of the recurrent imaginaries to describe present-day structures, discourses and practices. Within its meaning is enshrined the promise of a better world, sometimes naively assuming a technological deus ex machina, in other cases hoping for the creation of policy tools that will overcome a diversity of societal divides.
With the two-phased World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the United Nations attempted to stimulate the development of such tools.
Simultaneously, the WSIS is a large-scale experiment in multistakeholderism. The objective was to create a more balanced decision-making process that would allow the voices of civil society and business actors to be heard in international politics.
This book aims to evaluate the potentialities of both the Information Society, and the WSIS in supporting and constructing more democratic, just and developed societies. It is the second book arising from the intellectual work of European Consortium for Communications Research members.
Contents include:
• The Unbearable Lightness of Full Participation in a Global Context:
• WSIS and Civil Society Participation
• Communication Governance and the Role of Civil Society. Reflections
• on Participation and the Changing Scope of Political Action
• Civil Society's Involvement in the WSIS Process. Drafting the
• Alter-agenda
• WSIS and Organised Networks as New Civil Society Movements
• How Civil Society Can Help Civil Society
• What Price Has the Information Society? A Candidate Country
• Perspective within the Context of the EU's Information Society Policies
• Peer-to-peer: from Technology to Politics
• From Virtual to Everyday Life
• Shifting from Equity to Efficiency Rationales: Global Benefits
• Resulting from a Digital Solidarity Fund
• PSB as an Instrument of Implementing WSIS Aims 'Scholars with an interest in learning about the efforts of European civil society in fostering debate over the development and goals of the Information Society would find this book most enlightening.' - Stephen McElhinney, Media International Australia
‘[This book] is related to important questions about the information society and to politics more generally: what are the appropriate levels of representation; which collective body/ies (if any) should represent individuals; and is it individuals, values, principles, or something else that should be represented? One lesson we can draw from the book is the need to act locally, globally and regionally.’ - Arthur L. Morin, RCCS
'The volume is a very helpful resource for students, teachers, and others who are interested in the analysis of civil society's contribution to the WSIS. It contains relevant documentation, well-argued intellectual positions, and offers useful analytical insights... a publication that offers a lot of relevant theoretical and empirical material.' – Cees J. Hamelink
Part of the ECREA series
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