The Net and the Nation State: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Internet Governance

This book investigates the sharpening conflict between the nation state and the internet through a multidisciplinary lens. It challenges the idea of an inherently global internet by examining its increasing territorial fragmentation and, conversely, the notion that for states online governance is business as usual. Cyberborders based on national law are not just erected around China’s online community; cultural, political and economic forces, as reflected in national or regional norms, also spur virtual borders in the West. The nation state is asserting itself. Yet, there are also signs of the receding role of the state in favour of online corporations wielding influence through de-facto control over content and technology or multistakeholder governance fora. This book tackles the highly contested question of internet jurisdiction and its overlap with debates on censorship, free trade, code, democracy, national and others identities and the role of cartographic maps. In short, it is about online governance and its ripple effects far beyond the internet.