Between Coordination and Regulation: Finding the Governance in Internet Governance

New Media & Society, 2016

33 Pages Posted: 10 Sep 2016

See all articles by Jeanette Hofmann

Jeanette Hofmann

Social Science Research Centre Berlin; Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society; Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society

Christian Katzenbach

Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society

Kirsten Gollatz

Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society

Date Written: September 7, 2016

Abstract

Following recent theoretical contributions, this article suggests a new approach to finding the governance in Internet governance. Studies on Internet governance rely on contradictory notions of governance. The common understanding of governance as some form of deliberate steering or regulation clashes with equally common definitions of Internet governance as distributed modes of ordering. Drawing on controversies in the broader field of governance and regulation studies, we propose to resolve this conceptual conundrum by grounding governance in mundane activities of coordination. We define governance as reflexive coordination – focusing on those ‘critical moments’ when routine activities become problematic and need to be revised, thus, when regular coordination itself requires coordination. Regulation, in turn, can be understood as targeted public or private interventions aiming to influence the behaviour of others. With this distinction between governance and regulation, we offer a conceptual framework for empirical studies of doing Internet governance.

Keywords: Internet Governance, Governance, Regulation, Coordination, Ordering, Reflexive Coordination, Economics of Convention, Intentionality, IGF, ICANN

Suggested Citation

Hofmann, Jeanette and Katzenbach, Christian and Gollatz, Kirsten, Between Coordination and Regulation: Finding the Governance in Internet Governance (September 7, 2016). New Media & Society, 2016, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2836068

Jeanette Hofmann

Social Science Research Centre Berlin ( email )

Berlin, 10785
Germany

Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society ( email )

Bebelplatz 1 | 10099
Berlin
Germany

Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society ( email )

Berlin
Germany

Christian Katzenbach (Contact Author)

Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society ( email )

Bebelplatz 1 | 10099
Berlin
Germany

Kirsten Gollatz

Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society ( email )

Bebelplatz 1 | 10099
Berlin
Germany

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