LIST OF PANELS

The spreading of Internet practices worldwide is increasingly putting the debate and the negotiations concerning Internet Policy at the centre of international disputes. As result, we are witnessing to a growing scholarly oriented body of research addressing the fast developing debate concerning contentions clustered around internet policy challenges. Here, particular attention concerns how to enhance inclusiveness in Internet Governance decision making processes, in order to represent the multiple dimensions characterizing the Internet itself. Given its nature, multiple actors including Governments, representative of the private sectors, as well as civil society organizations are called to establish a so-defined multistakeholder policy making approach. With this, the governance of the internet is supposed to be run with the coordination of all parts involved to work for the good of the internet infrastructure. However, while a multistakeholder approach has been advocated for over 10 years, i.e. since the launch of the Internet Governance negotiations with the first United Nations World Summit of Information Society (WSIS) in 2003, we still lack evidence of the empirical outcomes of this approach. It is still unclear whether or not this policy making approach is successful in establishing an international and multidisciplinary policy capability and decision making processes able to react efficiently and as fast as the internet challenges develop.   This panel calls for papers exploring the increasing centrality of Internet Governance negotiations in international disputes, with a particular focus on how internet policy making processes influence this discourse. Within this framework, this panel will include papers that address theoretical or empirically grounded research providing (1) evidence on successful and failing cases in the field of internet policy clustered around a multistakeholder approach; (2) methodological approaches able to frame novel policy network research strategy; and (3), research leading us to answer to the key question whether and how the multistakeholder decision making processes influence the capability of institutions to provide policy response in the fast developing Internet Governance debate. By addressing these questions, this panel aims to frame the policy challenges attached to the Internet Governance debate, and expand our understanding of the decision making process concerning internet policies. Finally, with the scope to establish clear lines of dialogues between scholarly relevant empirical research and innovative approach, this panel calls for papers combining novel research and empirical cases that capture the policy making challenges attached to the broader Internet Governance debate, as an emerging topic with long-term implications.

The spreading of Internet practices worldwide is increasingly putting the debate and the negotiations concerning Internet Policy at the centre of international disputes. As result, we are witnessing to a growing scholarly oriented body of research addressing the fast developing debate concerning contentions clustered around internet policy challenges. More recently, the PRISM case has boosted the discussions on how to implement the governance of the Internet in order to secure citizens’ digital rights, including right of privacy and of online freedom of expression. Here, particular attention concerns how to enhance inclusiveness in Internet Governance decision making processes, in order to represent the multiple dimensions characterizing the Internet itself. Given its nature, multiple actors including Governments, representative of the private sectors, as well as civil society organizations are called to establish a so-defined multistakeholder policy making approach. With this, the governance of the internet is supposed to be run with the coordination of all parts involved to work for the good of the internet infrastructure. However, while a multistakeholder approach has been advocated for over 10 years, i.e. since the launch of the Internet Governance negotiations with the first United Nations World Summit of Information Society (WSIS) in 2003, we still lack evidence of the empirical outcomes of this approach. It is still unclear whether or not this policy making approach is successful in establishing an international and multidisciplinary policy capability and decision making processes able to react efficiently and as fast as the internet challenges develop.   This panel welcomes papers exploring the increasing centrality of Internet Governance negotiations in international disputes, with a particular focus on how internet policy making processes influence this discourse. Within this framework, this panel will include papers that address theoretical or empirically grounded research providing (1) evidence on successful and failing cases in the field of internet policy clustered around a multistakeholder approach; (2) methodological approaches able to frame novel policy network research strategy; and (3), research leading us to answer to the key question whether and how the multistakeholder decision making processes influence the capability of institutions to provide policy response in the fast developing Internet Governance debate. By addressing these questions, this panel aims to frame the policy challenges attached to the Internet Governance debate, and expand our understanding of the decision making process concerning internet policies. Finally, with the scope to establish clear lines of dialogues between scholarly relevant empirical research and innovative approach, this panel  combines novel research and empirical cases that capture the policy making challenges attached to the broader Internet Governance debate, as an emerging topic with long-term implications.