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This edited volume brings together experts from around the world to
provide coverage and analysis of infrastructure's role in Internet
governance, both now and in the future. Never in history have
conflicts over Internet governance attracted such widespread
attention. High-profile controversies include the disclosures about
NSA surveillance by intelligence analyst Edward Snowden,
controversy over a decision by the US government to relinquish its
historic oversight of Internet names and numbers, and countless
cybersecurity breaches involving unauthorized access to Internet
users' personal data. Much of the Internet governance
ecosystem-both technical architecture and coordinating
institutions-is behind the scenes but increasingly carries
significant public interest implications. An area once concealed in
institutional and technological complexity is now rightly bracketed
among other shared global issues-such as environmental protection
and human rights-that have considerable global implications but are
simply incongruous with national borders. This transformation into
an era of global governance by Internet infrastructure presents a
moment of opportunity for scholars to bring these politicized
infrastructures to the foreground.
The editor of this new Routledge title argues that our economic and
social lives are now utterly dependent upon the successful
coordination of the Internet. Moreover, as the Internet expands
from its current form to an 'Internet of things', she suggests that
its stability and security will soon be recognized as important as
other global concerns, like battling terrorism and fighting climate
change. Who controls the Internet? The question has profound
implications for our access to knowledge, the pace of economic
growth, and the protection of human rights, not least freedom of
expression and the right to privacy. And the question's importance
has been underscored in recent times by landmark events, including
revelations about the actual and potential power of social-media
companies, and the breathtaking extent of surveillance by
intelligence and security organizations, such as the NSA in the
United States and Britain's GCHQ. It is perhaps only in the last
several years that issues about and around the governance of the
Internet have entered the public consciousness, but serious
academic and policy work dates back decades. And now there is a
critical mass of scholarship that can usefully be collected under
the rubric of 'Internet Governance'. Like the Internet itself,
leading theorists and researchers in the field are distributed
globally, and work in disciplines across the social sciences and
humanities. Indeed, much of the relevant literature remains
inaccessible or is highly specialized and compartmentalized, so
that it is difficult for many of those who are interested in the
subject to obtain an informed, balanced, and comprehensive
overview. This new four-volume collection, published as part of
Routledge's acclaimed series, Critical Concepts in Sociology, meets
the need for a reference work to make sense of the subject's vast
and dispersed literature and the continuing explosion in research
output.
A groundbreaking study of one of the most crucial yet least
understood issues of the twenty-first century: the governance of
the Internet and its content The Internet has transformed the
manner in which information is exchanged and business is conducted,
arguably more than any other communication development in the past
century. Despite its wide reach and powerful global influence, it
is a medium uncontrolled by any one centralized system,
organization, or governing body, a reality that has given rise to
all manner of free-speech issues and cybersecurity concerns. The
conflicts surrounding Internet governance are the new spaces where
political and economic power is unfolding in the twenty-first
century. This all-important study by Laura DeNardis reveals the
inner power structure already in place within the architectures and
institutions of Internet governance. It provides a theoretical
framework for Internet governance that takes into account the
privatization of global power as well as the role of sovereign
nations and international treaties. In addition, DeNardis explores
what is at stake in open global controversies and stresses the
responsibility of the public to actively engage in these debates,
because Internet governance will ultimately determine Internet
freedom.
A compelling argument that the Internet of things threatens human
rights and security "Sobering and important."-Financial Times,
"Best Books of 2020: Technology" The Internet has leapt from
human-facing display screens into the material objects all around
us. In this so-called Internet of things-connecting everything from
cars to cardiac monitors to home appliances-there is no longer a
meaningful distinction between physical and virtual worlds.
Everything is connected. The social and economic benefits are
tremendous, but there is a downside: an outage in cyberspace can
result not only in loss of communication but also potentially in
loss of life. Control of this infrastructure has become a proxy for
political power, since countries can easily reach across borders to
disrupt real-world systems. Laura DeNardis argues that the
diffusion of the Internet into the physical world radically
escalates governance concerns around privacy, discrimination, human
safety, democracy, and national security, and she offers new
cyber-policy solutions. In her discussion, she makes visible the
sinews of power already embedded in our technology and explores how
hidden technical governance arrangements will become the
constitution of our future.
Scholars from a range of disciplines discuss research methods,
theories, and conceptual approaches in the study of internet
governance. The design and governance of the internet has become
one of the most pressing geopolitical issues of our era. The
stability of the economy, democracy, and the public sphere are
wholly dependent on the stability and security of the internet.
Revelations about election hacking, facial recognition technology,
and government surveillance have gotten the public's attention and
made clear the need for scholarly research that examines internet
governance both empirically and conceptually. In this volume,
scholars from a range of disciplines consider research methods,
theories, and conceptual approaches in the study of internet
governance.
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