Research Colloquium by Nadia Tjahja

Research Colloquium paper proposal on “A Social Network Analysis of the Internet Governance Ecosystem” by Nadia Tjahja

In June 2020 the UN Secretary General published the Roadmap for Digital Cooperation, which seeks to provide an overview of the current status of Internet Governance and presents action points on the road forward. Specifically, the report emphasises to take a “multi-stakeholder “systems” approach for cooperation and regulation that is adaptive, agile, inclusive and fit for purpose for the fast-changing digital age.” (United Nations, 2020). A part of this report focuses on the design of a new internet governance structure of which there was a choice of 3 architectures. In 2019 they reached out to the community which wanted to design the IGF+ model. Now consultations have re-opened on how to develop the structure of the IGF+ model and discussions continue regarding the future of multistakeholderism in Internet Governance. Yet, at the same time, there is no overview of how the internet architecture looks. (Multi)stakeholderism, actors and the internet  infrastructure are taught through lists of organisations and pictures (see Internet Society, DiploFoundation and World Wide Web infographics). Notably, these pictures do not reflect the dynamic interactions between stakeholders, lacking an insight on how stakeholders impact and influence each other within the system.

This research therefore seeks to investigate the dynamic interactions among internet governance actors by providing a social network analysis map which focuses on four types of relationship flows: legal, information, financial and participation. This social network analysis map will then be further discussed under the lens of regime complexity, which is helpful to conceptualise and map international regimes and thus provide an insight into our current ecosystem that can better inform policymakers about the redesign of the Internet architecture.

Research Colloquium Speaker: Nadia Tjahja, UNU-CRIS PhD Fellow

Research Colloquium Chair: Diana Potjomkina, UNU-CRIS PhD Fellow

Research Colloquium Discussant: Dr. Samuel Standaert, UNU-CRIS Professorial Fellow

Please click here if you would like to register, for further information please contact Nadia Tjahja (ntjahja@cris.unu.edu)