IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/socarx/a2utr.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Rebooting the global consensus: norm entrepreneurship, data governance and the majority world

Author

Listed:
  • Taylor, Linnet
  • de Souza, Siddharth P.

Abstract

Over centuries, globalisation has led to the adoption of norms as a strategy for governing actions that have implications beyond the national level. This paper explores the potential of international norm-making for scaling up the governance of digital technologies and infrastructures, which have trans- and supra-national effects but are currently only governed within national jurisdictions. We chart the international neoliberal consensus currently being formalised, which affirms that data is primarly an economic commodity and must be treated according to free-market principles. We argue that this is inadequate because it cannot address interests beyond the commercial, namely data’s connections to bodies, land, community and labour. We then explore the history of norm-making and offer two assertions: first, that a norm-making lens can frame challenges to the primacy of market logics in law and governance, and second, that the conceptual exclusion of civil society actors as norm-makers is an obstacle to the recognition of counter-power in data governance. We therefore outline the features of existing norm-making work by civil-society movements with regard to data and its uses (including AI). Naming this as norm-making – in the form of the norm ‘nothing about us without us’ – answers the urgent need to foreground civil society actors’ agency in relation to the international governance of data. The main function of this norm is to place consent, or refusal, squarely in the gift of those groups represented (rather than identified) in the data, and to channel negotiation and permission through structures of democratic representation.

Suggested Citation

  • Taylor, Linnet & de Souza, Siddharth P., 2024. "Rebooting the global consensus: norm entrepreneurship, data governance and the majority world," SocArXiv a2utr, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:a2utr
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/a2utr
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/66d5b198f0bc77f36b5face9/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/a2utr?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Louise Marie Hurel & Luisa Cruz Lobato, 2018. "Unpacking cyber norms: private companies as norm entrepreneurs," Journal of Cyber Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(1), pages 61-76, January.
    2. Zeynep Gulsah Capan, 2017. "Decolonising International Relations?," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(1), pages 1-15, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Levinson, Nanette S., 2021. "Idea entrepreneurs: The United Nations Open-Ended Working Group & cybersecurity," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(6).
    2. Kerstin Awiszus & Yannick Bell & Jan Luttringhaus & Gregor Svindland & Alexander Vo{ss} & Stefan Weber, 2022. "Building Resilience in Cybersecurity -- An Artificial Lab Approach," Papers 2211.04762, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2023.
    3. Radu, Roxana & Kettemann, Matthias C. & Meyer, Trisha & Shahin, Jamal, 2021. "Normfare: Norm entrepreneurship in internet governance," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(6).
    4. Ananya Sharma, 2021. "Decolonizing International Relations: Confronting Erasures through Indigenous Knowledge Systems," International Studies, , vol. 58(1), pages 25-40, January.
    5. Daniel W. Woods & Jessica Weinkle, 2020. "Insurance definitions of cyber war," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 45(4), pages 639-656, October.
    6. Inocent Moyo, 2020. "On Decolonising Borders and Regional Integration in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Region," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-12, March.
    7. Rosa, Fernanda R. & Anastácio, Kimberly & Pereira de Jesus, Maria Vitoria & Veras, Hemanuel Jhosé A., 2024. "Citation politics: The gender gap in internet governance," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(5).
    8. Khan, Haider, 2023. "Ecological Imperialism: A 21st Century Circuits Approach," MPRA Paper 116844, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Florent Frasson-Quenoz & Aldo Olano Alor & Erli Margarita Marín-Aranguren & Francisco Daniel Trejos-Mateus & Martha Isabel Gómez Lee & Gisela da Silva Guevara & Martha Ardila & Javier Garay & Pío Garc, 2018. "Teorías sobre las relaciones internacionales. Perspectivas y lecturas desde América latina," Books, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Facultad de Finanzas, Gobierno y Relaciones Internacionales, number 128.
    10. Nanni, Riccardo, 2021. "The ‘China’ question in mobile Internet standard-making: Insights from expert interviews," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(6).
    11. Tobias Liebetrau & Linda Monsees, 2023. "Assembling Publics: Microsoft, Cybersecurity, and Public‐Private Relations," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 11(3), pages 157-167.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:a2utr. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://arabixiv.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.