Journal of Power, Politics & Governance

Digital Divide in Global Internet Governance: The “Access” Issue Area
Slavka Antonova

Abstract
Digital divide has been routinely defined in terms of the disparities in access to the Internet for populations in the affluent West and the impoverished South. In this paper, it is proposed that the global “digital divide” reappears at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), where differing agendas and interpretations of what constitutes “access” to the Internet divide the participants.As a result, the opportunity for the participants to share expertise about the technological, legal, economic, and policy issues of Internet Governance is reduced. The “access” discussion area is a representative case of the diversity of stakeholder notions on: what constitutes the governance aspects in that area, which the levels of responsibility and generating solutions are, and which the priority issues are to be included in the IGF agenda. The applied critical discourse analysis reveals some important dynamics, which pertain to strategic definitions, identifying concerns, sharing “best practices”, imposing expert opinions, and adopting the dominant vocabulary and discourse strategies. After a brief overview of the developments in the field of global Internet governance, theoretical insights are presented from the interorganizational and management studies (theory of multistakeholder collaboration), and political philosophy and international studies (Foucault’s interpretation of power and governmentality).

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