NGOs and the “Information Society”: Grassroots Advocacy at the UN—A Cautionary Tale.

This article looks at the United Nations-brokered World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in light of nongovernmental organization participation as a full partner in consultations and decisions. Combining participation-observation fieldwork, interviews, and eye-witness accounts with a selecti...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Review of Policy Research Vol. 24; no. 4; pp. 309 - 331
Autor principal: Franklin, M. I.
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Wiley-Blackwell July 2007
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:This article looks at the United Nations-brokered World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in light of nongovernmental organization participation as a full partner in consultations and decisions. Combining participation-observation fieldwork, interviews, and eye-witness accounts with a selective content analysis of key WSIS documentation, official and dissenting, the article presents the occupational hazards of this sort of encounter between civil society participants, government, and business sectors as global information and communication technologies (ICTs) and media agenda-setting partners. It focuses on the hazards of key word strategies in what are now irrevocably computer-embedded domains for action and access. Hyperlinked textual production and related key word search functionalities are now, I argue, integral to global agenda-setting in the intertwined areas of ICT media, and sociocultural policy. This Journal encounter between multilateral institutions and social justice and ICT advocacy, online and on the ground, raises new questions for policy research in these domains, questions that require fresh approaches. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.