Towards a Sustainable Information Society

The Information Society is one of the recurrent imaginaries to describe present-day structures, discourses and practices. Within its meaning is enshrined the promise of a better world, sometimes naively assuming a technological deus ex machina, in other cases hoping for the creation of policy tools that will overcome a diversity of societal divides.
With the two-phased World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the United Nations attempted to stimulate the development of such tools.
Simultaneously, the WSIS is a large-scale experiment in multistakeholderism. The objective was to create a more balanced decision-making process that would allow the voices of civil society and business actors to be heard in international politics.
This book aims to evaluate the potentialities of both the Information Society, and the WSIS in supporting and constructing more democratic, just and developed societies. It is the second book arising from the intellectual work of European Consortium for Communications Research members.

Nico Carpentier is codirector of the Research Center for Studies on Media and Culture at the Free University of Brussels.

Bart Staes
Foreword: Towards a New Democratic Lingua Franca
 
Jan Servaes & Nico Carpentier: Introduction
Steps to Achieve a Sustainable Information Society 5
 
Bart Cammaerts & Nico Carpentier
1: The Unbearable Lightness of Full Participation in a Global Context: WSIS and Civil Society Participation 
 
Claudia Padovani & Arjuna Tuzzi
2: Communication Governance and the Role of Civil Society. Reflections on Participation and the Changing Scope of Political Action
 
Divina Frau Meigs
3: Civil Society’s Involvement in the WSIS Process. Drafting the Alteragenda
 
Ned Rossiter
4: WSIS and Organised Networks as New Civil Society Movements 
 
Stefano Martelli
5: How Civil Society Can Help Civil Society