It always amazes me how opportunities present themselves as you keep working on things that really interest you. About two years ago, I was invited to speak at an internet governance workshop hosted by the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), where I met Christian Katzenbach. Then, about a year ago, Francesca Musiani and I organized an AoIR panel on internet governance and science and technology studies (STS). These encounters led to a great collaboration that just resulted in a special issue of Internet Policy Review co-edited by the three of us. In a nutshell:
This special issue makes an argument for, and illustrates, the applicability of a science and technology studies (STS) informed approach to internet governance research. The conceptual framework put forward in this editorial and the articles composing this issue add to the mainstream internet governance scholarship by unpacking macro questions of politics and power. They do so through the analysis of the mundane and taken-for-granted practices and discourses that constitute the design, regulation, maintenance, and use of both technical and institutional arrangements of internet governance. Together, this body of work calls to rethink how we conceptualise both internet and governance.
I am pretty happy with the result (also thanks to IPR’s amazing managing editor, Frédéric Dubois) and I invite you to explore the entire issue. It hosts pieces by an impressive and very diverse group of researchers, who tackle issues ranging from classic internet governance topics such as internet infrastructure and its protocols, to block-chain and “free basics.”
And this is not all, building on this special issue and with Julia Pohle‘s help, we have also put together a pre-AoIR workshop on the same theme. With Laura DeNardis‘ keynote and with over 70 participants, who signed up for the event, it promises to be a very interesting and stimulating encounter.
As I stated at the beginning, it is amazing how nicely things come together sometimes 🙂