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ABDC-A*
Pandey, N., Dé, R., & Ravishankar, M. N.
(2021). Improving the governance of
information technology: Insights from the
history of Internet governance, Journal of
Information Technology, 1-22.
PAGE 1
Governance of the Internet is a matter of global importance and
concern. The multistakeholder (MS) and multilateral (ML) forms have
been presented as two competing and plausible models of Internet
governance. Drawing on Actor Network Theory (ANT) and building on
an interpretive case study of rich archival data, this paper examines
how the focal actor’s (i.e., the U.S. government’s) beliefs influence the
choice of Internet governance form. It further explores the strategies
of the focal actor to translate the interests of the ML network’s
supporters, with a view to enrolling them in the MS governance
network. The analysis shows how the focal actor has established the
MS governance form through the Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers (ICANN) as an Obligatory Passage Point to keep
the Internet successfully operational. The analysis also illuminates
the combination of structural and collaborative strategies employed
to allay the growing dissatisfaction with the MS governance form.
The paper suggests that whilst the protocols and technical standards
of the Internet are increasingly relegated to the background, the
social and political network that Internet artefacts draw together in a
meta-form has grown in prominence. It also argues that there may
be a hierarchy of beliefs, which influence how actors enact their
translation strategies. Finally, the paper discusses parallels between
the MS/ML forms of Internet governance and IT governance in
organizational contexts.