Alison Harcourt gives opening speech at Global Internet Governance Actors, Regulations, Transactions and Strategies conference

Professor Alison Harcourt recently gave the opening speech at the 2nd European Multidisciplinary Conference GIGARTS (Global Internet Governance Actors, Regulations, Transactions and Strategies). The conference theme was “Overcoming Inequalities in Internet Governance: framing digital policy capacity building strategies” and took place at Cardiff University, on 26 and 27 April 2018. A range of speakers addressed issues concerning power inequalities in internet governance, and digital policy capacity building strategies aiming at overcoming gaps in digital policy developments.

Alison’s talk considered new and crucial questions concerning internet governance in a context in which connectivity infrastructure is constantly expanding, and internet access is incessantly growing across countries, regions and socio-political contexts. She argued that 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.  Alison then moved to discuss how external actors might be able to steer agendas within standard developing organisations (SDOs) which have long been dominated by private actors, through external lobbying efforts, constraining problem recognition and exploiting temporal events which determine the direction of SDO policy formation. Her talk examined the conditions under which external actors are able to press for policy direction in internet governance standard-setting using a variety of case studies.

The conference included more than 20 scholarly presentations and contributions from policy makers including 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.

It was organised by the Centre for Internet and Global Politics, Cardiff University, and was supported by the DiploFoundation, the ECPR Standing Group on Internet and Politics, the Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet), IAMCR Communication Policy and Technology Section, and the ICA Division Communication Law & Policy.

For further information see the conference website.