Governing the Environment: Three Motivating Factors

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 433-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Park

Governance arrangements have become increasingly complex over time, such that today everything from the Internet to medicine and warfare is subject to some form of governance at the global level. Notably, these changes in global governance can come slowly or quickly, depending on circumstances. For example, evolutionary change is evident in the establishment of new treaties and protocols on regulating the various aspects of war and its aftermath—an area where the list of agreements is long and growing. But change can also happen very quickly as new mechanisms—for example, for coordinating states’ responses during pandemics—are established during crises.

2013 ◽  
pp. 4-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Grigoryev ◽  
A. Kurdin

The coordination of economic activity at the global level is carried out through different mechanisms, which regulate activities of companies, states, international organizations. In spite of wide diversity of entrenched mechanisms of governance in different areas, they can be classified on the basis of key characteristics, including distribution of property rights, mechanisms of governance (in the narrow sense according to O. Williamson), mechanisms of expansion. This approach can contribute not only to classifying existing institutions but also to designing new ones. The modern aggravation of global problems may require rethinking mechanisms of global governance. The authors offer the universal framework for considering this problem and its possible solutions.


Author(s):  
Matthew Hindman

The Internet was supposed to fragment audiences and make media monopolies impossible. Instead, behemoths like Google and Facebook now dominate the time we spend online—and grab all the profits from the attention economy. This book explains how this happened. It sheds light on the stunning rise of the digital giants and the online struggles of nearly everyone else—and reveals what small players can do to survive in a game that is rigged against them. The book shows how seemingly tiny advantages in attracting users can snowball over time. The Internet has not reduced the cost of reaching audiences—it has merely shifted who pays and how. Challenging some of the most enduring myths of digital life, the book explains why the Internet is not the postindustrial technology that has been sold to the public, how it has become mathematically impossible for grad students in a garage to beat Google, and why net neutrality alone is no guarantee of an open Internet. It also explains why the challenges for local digital news outlets and other small players are worse than they appear and demonstrates what it really takes to grow a digital audience and stay alive in today's online economy. The book shows why, even on the Internet, there is still no such thing as a free audience.


Author(s):  
Ben Epstein

This chapter shifts the focus to the third and final stabilization phase of the political communication cycle (PCC). During the stabilization phase, a new political communication order (PCO) takes shape through the building of norms, institutions, and regulations that serve to fix the newly established status quo in place. This status quo occurs when formerly innovative political communication activities become mundane, yet remain powerful. Much of the chapter details the pattern of communication regulation and institution construction over time. In particular, this chapter explores the instructive similarities and key differences between the regulation of radio and the internet, which offers important perspectives on the significance of our current place in the PCC and the consequences of choices that will be made over the next few years.


2002 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-52
Author(s):  
Jorian Clarke

Describes a six‐year study of children’s Internet usage which shows how preferences and habits have changed over time; this was conducted by SpectraCom Inc and Circle 1 network. Explains the research methodology and the objectives, which were to identify trends in the amount of time spent by children online now and in future, their opinions about the future role of the Internet in society and the future of e‐commerce, and parents’ roles in children’s online activities. Concludes that there is need for a more child‐friendly content in Internet sites and for more parental involvement, that children will be influential in the market for alternative devices like mobile phones, that online shopping is likely to flourish, and that children have a growing interest in online banking.


Author(s):  
Mette Eilstrup-Sangiovanni

AbstractMany observers worry that growing numbers of international institutions with overlapping functions undermine governance effectiveness via duplication, inconsistency and conflict. Such pessimistic assessments may undervalue the mechanisms available to states and other political agents to reduce conflictual overlap and enhance inter-institutional synergy. Drawing on historical data I examine how states can mitigate conflict within Global Governance Complexes (GGCs) by dissolving or merging existing institutions or by re-configuring their mandates. I further explore how “order in complexity” can emerge through bottom-up processes of adaptation in lieu of state-led reform. My analysis supports three theoretical claims: (1) states frequently refashion governance complexes “top-down” in order to reduce conflictual overlap; (2) “top-down” restructuring and “bottom-up” adaptation present alternative mechanisms for ordering relations among component institutions of GGCs; (3) these twin mechanisms ensure that GGCs tend to (re)produce elements of order over time–albeit often temporarily. Rather than evolving towards ever-greater fragmentation and disorder, complex governance systems thus tend to fluctuate between greater or lesser integration and (dis)order.


Author(s):  
Ya-Wen Lei

This introductory chapter reveals that a nationwide contentious public sphere has emerged in China. It is an unruly sphere capable of generating issues and agendas not set by the Chinese state, as opposed to a sphere mostly orchestrated and constrained by said state. Over time, China's contentious public sphere has been increasingly recognized by the Chinese state as a force to be reckoned and negotiated with. Starting around 2010, official media of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), such as the People's Daily, began to warn of a threatening public sphere mediated by cell phones, the Internet, and even some unruly voices within state-controlled media. The state's awareness of these developments, however, means that one must not overstate the stability or permanence of the newly emerged contentious public sphere. Indeed, this provocative public arena has encountered serious opposition and setbacks, particularly since 2013. Seeing the rise of such a sphere as a threat to national security and an indication of ideological struggle between the West and China, the Chinese state has taken comprehensive and combative measures to contain it.


Author(s):  
Lauren Movius

As the Internet has spread globally, and its economic, political, and cultural influences have increased, it is necessary to develop appropriate policy to govern it, in order to manage and protect it’s presence in our lives. While national governments apply their laws on the Internet, the Internet presents many issues that span national jurisdictions, and therefore requires global governance. Early Internet governance was self-regulatory and involved organizations and a community of users that made decisions through rough consensus. ICANN and the technical issue of domain name and addressing began debates over the issue of Internet governance. Larger issues of Internet governance emerged during the World Summit on the Information Society, whose existence illustrates the shift towards accepting the need for a global, more formal framework of governance. This chapter explores Internet governance and covers the following themes: understanding the challenge of governing the Internet; frameworks and definitions of Internet governance; and the evolution of the Internet governance debate. As there is much disagreement about what Internet governance is, this chapter synthesizes the main issues and debates and provides an overview of Internet governance.


2021 ◽  
pp. 255-279
Author(s):  
Robert Fay

Digital platforms such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, and a more recent entrant, Zoom, have provided core societal functions that have enabled us to work, shop, educate ourselves and our children, run businesses, maintain social contact, and receive and disseminate information. At the same time, the uses of these technologies have led to elevated concerns in areas such as surveillance, cyber risks, democracy, public health, competition and monopoly power, and economic prosperity. Current governance arrangements are incoherent and fragmented nationally and internationally—where they even exist. At the same time, they typically reflect vested state and corporate interests that can be very difficult to challenge. The way forward is to create a new institution for the digital realm: a Digital Stability Board (DSB) that would be a multi-stakeholder forum with a remit to create global governance for big data, AI, and the digital platforms, while allowing national variation to reflect different values and cultures while avoiding a race to the bottom in governance. Taking concerted and coordinated action on global governance under a structure such as a DSB will help to ensure that the benefits of the platforms are magnified, and the risks minimized individually and globally.


Author(s):  
Hayri Abar ◽  
Ömer Alkan

The concept of trade has emerged with the inter-business division of labor. The internet, which is a much more recent concept than trade, has begun to get closer over time. The reason why trade is to see the internet as a commercial tool lies in the fact that the internet is spread over a wide mass network. The aim of this study is to determine socio-economic and demographic factors that are effective in purchasing or ordering goods and services by internet in Turkey. It was found that the number of information equipment, income, being male, working, and education increased the probability of shopping over the internet. It was determined that household size and age decreased. Females shop for clothing and sports goods more than males. The highest correlation with the purchase of other product groups over the internet is through holiday accommodation and other travel-related transactions.


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