Multistakeholder governance processes as production sites: enhanced cooperation "in the making"

Julia Pohle

doi:10.14763/2016.3.432

Abstract

The paper combines actor-network theory and interpretative policy analysis to conceptualise multistakeholder arrangements in internet governance as production sites in which heterogeneous actors engage in dynamic processes of social ordering such as shared meaning-making and coalition building. The paper draws on existing research that traces processes of social ordering at the intersection of multistakeholder settings and intergovernmental institutions, and on theoretical considerations of multistakeholder mechanisms in internet governance. By focusing on processes of discursive production, the paper adds a new perspective to the existing body of literature on science and technology studies and internet governance, and provides illustrations based on deliberations of the Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation.

Highlights

The last decade witnessed rapidly growing interest among scholars from different disciplines in the new forms of participatory governance and multistakeholder deliberation that have emerged around the coordination and regulation of the internet
Using the toolbox provided by science and technology studies (STS) this research paper seeks to contribute to the second stream of scholarly work by exploring the inner workings of multistakeholder arrangements in the field of internet governance (IG)
By framing the discursive struggles in IG policy processes as vying for power and influence, the paper seeks to open the black box of multistakeholder policymaking and to apply the conceptual instruments of actor-network theory (ANT) and interpretative policy analysis (IPA) to retrace how actors position themselves within discursive production processes

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The last decade witnessed rapidly growing interest among scholars from different disciplines in the new forms of participatory governance and multistakeholder deliberation that have emerged around the coordination and regulation of the internet. While drawing on STS literature, the aim of this short research piece is to open another of the many black boxes 2 of internet governance by exploring the performative effects of multistakeholder deliberations and the conflictual co-production of discourse in policy debates To this end, the paper proposes to combine selected tools from actor-network theory with interpretative policy analysis, another tradition which, with some notable exceptions (Epstein, 2011, 2012; Pickard, 2007), is still underrepresented in IG research. ANT acknowledges the role of discourse or a linguistic utterance only if it leaves a trace in the policy process that can be observed by the researcher, for instance in the form of a text and/or a detectable shift in the position of other actors This is in contrast to IPA and similar approaches, for which discourse and language have priority over other influences such as economic interests or material structures. For the analysis of discursive production in IG, using selected ANT tools allows us to examine concretely how power relations and discourses are created in a multistakeholder context, without needing to consider nor justify them by appealing to external economic forces, political interests or geopolitical tensions

OPENING THE BLACK BOX OF DISCURSIVE PRODUCTION IN MULTISTAKEHOLDER ARRANGEMENTS

IDENTIFYING THE ACTORS

FOLLOW THE ACTORS AND THEIR PRACTICES

RETRACING PROCESSES OF DISCURSIVE PRODUCTION

CONCLUSION