Towards a Sustainable Information Society

Deconstructing WSIS

By (author) Nico Carpentier, Jan Servaes

Publication date:

01 January 2006

Publisher

Intellect Books

Dimensions:

229x172mm
7x9"

ISBN-13: 9781841501338

BOOK DESCRIPTION
TABLE OF CONTENTS

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.

1 Bart Staes:

Foreword: Towards a New Democratic Lingua Franca

5 Jan Servaes and Nico Carpentier:

Introduction:

Steps to Achieve a Sustainable Information Society

17 Bart Cammaerts & Nico Carpentier:

1: The Unbearable Lightness of Full Participation in a Global Context: WSIS and Civil Society

Participation

51 Claudia Padovani & Arjuna Tuzzi:

2: Communication Governance and the Role of Civil Society. Reflections on Participation and the

Changing Scope of Political Action

81 Divina Frau Meigs:

3: Civil Society's Involvement in the WSIS Process. Drafting the Alter-agenda

97 Ned Rossiter:

4: WSIS and Organized Networks as New Civil Society Movements

117 Stefano Martelli:

5: How Civil Society Can Help Civil Society

129 Miyase Christensen:

6: What Price the Information Society? A Candidate Country Perspective within the Context of

the EU's Information Society Policies

151 Michel Bauwens:

7: Peer-to-Peer: From Technology to Politics

169 Paul Verschueren:

8: From Virtual to Everyday Life

185 Claudio Antonio Feijóo González, José Luis Gómez Barroso, Ana Laguía González, Sergio Ramos Villaverde, David Rojo Alonso:

9: Shifting from Equity to Efficiency Rationales: Global Benefits Resulting from a Digital

Solidarity Fund

195 Barbara Thomass:

10: PSB as an Instrument of Implementing WSIS Aims

203 Afterword

Peter Johnston

Towards a Knowledge Society and Sustainable Development.

Deconstructing the WSIS in the European Policy Context

207 ECCR:

Recommendations on the Subject of Research and Education in the Area of the Information

Society

211 Notes on Contributors