From “bringing-in” to “going-out”: transnationalizing China’s Internet capital through state policies

The exponential growth in China’s information and communication technology (ICT) sector has attracted increasing academic interest. Mainstream accounts have focused on issues of access and control, and critical scholars have examined the dynamic shaping forces. Building on the framework of political economy, this study adopts a historical approach to the Internet as a complex site of power interactions. The study examines the historical process by which China has opened its ICT industry to transnational capital. In tracing the policy changes related to this move, this study examines the historical stages that have been critical in the transnationalization of China’s Internet: the initial opening of China’s ICT sector; the introduction of financial capital; and the recent “going-out” initiatives. In doing so, the study addresses a gap in the current scholarship regarding the history of bridging China’s Internet to transnational capital, particularly the regulatory context. The findings of this study contribute to the understanding of the dialectical role of the Chinese state, which has been more constituting than containing in transnationalizing China’s Internet.     

China’s data localization

China has established a comprehensive cross-border data flow regulatory regime, the core of which is “local storage, outbound assessment.” This article offers a theoretical framework for exploring the forces that have driven China’s data localization. Under the guidance of technological nationalism and the ideology of the Holistic National Security Concept, practical security needs, industrial benefits, and technological development have been the main forces that have driven localization, which has been institutionalized by means of the proposed Internet sovereignty and the government-led regime. China’s data localization, which is a typical product of Internet sovereignty, is based on the external environment and its domestic endowments. By understanding China’s data localization, we can comprehend China’s Internet governance.     

From Cyber-Libertarianism to Neoliberalism: Internet Exceptionalism,Multi-stakeholderism,and the Institutionalisation of Internet Governance in the 1990s

Although it is often taken for granted that Internet governance should employ the principle of multi-stakeholderism and that existing governance structures are not suitable for the regulation of the Internet, this article places the emergence of such principles in the context of the 1990s. Drawing on international political sociology and neo-Gramscian scholarship, it explores how different elites were able to coalesce around basic principles of Internet governance to create the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). These principles were the common elements of distinct discourses and were instrumental in the unification of a power elite. They also helped to create a hegemonic discourse that was acceptable to a broader public. Based on the study of policy documents produced during the debates that led to the creation of the ICANN, this article outlines five different discourses on Internet governance and focuses on the principles of multi-stakeholderism and Internet exceptionalism as basic elements of a hegemonic discourse. The study of the origins of these principles in the 1990s can shed light on their status in current debates.     

Exploring the roles of government involvement and institutional environments in the internationalization of Chinese Internet companies

The interactions between government, institutions, and Internet companies have gained attention in the research on the globalization of China’s Internet. However, few studies have been conducted at the company level, and the knowledge about the roles of government and institutions remains limited. Drawing on institutional theory, this empirical study explored the roles and mechanisms of government involvement and the institutional environment in the internationalization of Chinese Internet companies. The results indicated that government involvement could improve these companies’ degree of international breadth through both state ownership and governmental affiliation. However, the results showed that state ownership had a restraining function on their degree of international depth. In the context of institutional transition in China, these effects could vary according to whether Internet companies operate in good or poor institutional environments. By revealing these relationships, this study contributes to both the theoretical and the empirical understanding of governmental influence and institutional roots in the globalization of China’s Internet.     

A history of Chinese global Internet governance and its relations with ITU and ICANN

The Chinese contribution to global Internet governance debate has been studied mainly by focusing on the governmental perspective. This study was aimed to provide a broader view by analyzing the participation of Chinese academics and civil society in two of the most important Internet governance international organizations: the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Based on historical material and in-depth interviews conducted in Geneva and Beijing, the findings show the evolution of Chinese Internet governance at the global level and suggest the following: first, the Chinese agents in the global debate on Internet governance support a multi-stakeholder perspective; second, although seldom engaged in the decision-making process, the Chinese agents involved in the global governance identify ITU as the more credible international organization in coordinating global governance; third, the Chinese agents have an ambivalent approach to Chinese participation both in ITU and ICANN. Finally, the findings of the study reported in this article contest the understanding that Chinese Internet governance is isolationist in nature.     

New governance of labour rights: the perspective of Cambodian garment workers’ struggles

Globalization has implied the transfer of industrial work to countries of the Global South, where labour rights are seldom effectively protected by legal frameworks. New forms of governance that go beyond state-centred legal regulation are presented as an alternative to fill in ‘governance gaps’. This paper analyses ‘new governance’ from the perspective of Cambodian garment workers and labour movements’ struggles. Drawing on the literature on governance and private regulation and research data from Cambodia, it argues that a technocratic approach makes governance initiatives ignore the economic conflict between labour and capital but also the possible political conflict between labour and government. By ignoring trade union rights, power-blind initiatives might end up weakening both the labour movement and democratic accountability, instead of complementing state’s regulatory roles. This might serve the overlapping interests of the powerful actors both in Cambodia and internationally.     

The politics of global youth participation

This article critically examines increased opportunities for youth participation in global political affairs created by the United Nations and its member states in the 2010s. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews at three global youth conferences, this study demonstrates the operationalization of participatory governance, a current mode of global politics, that seeks to engage multi-stakeholders in a seemingly more democratic and egalitarian process. It investigates how the structure and culture of participation mechanisms found in international political processes limited youth engagement. Young people expressed both dissatisfaction with what they perceived to be their inability to participate meaningfully and their desire to fulfill their human right to participation. The author argues that this reflects the construction an ideal global youth-citizen today as marked by an individual’s exercise of compulsory participation as a self-governing and responsible subject. Participation is employed as a mode of governance so that young people may instrumentally advance thier life chances against the insecurities of social risks imposed on them in the retreat of state provisions. The study underscores the need to critically examine the institutionalization of political youth agency.     

Assessing political participation on the Internet in contemporary China

Drawing on the resource model of political participation, this study examines the ways in which various resources, including money, computer and Internet access, Internet skills, and civic skills predict Chinese citizens’ political participation online. The results showed that income was a significant predictor of online political participation regardless of whether it was by using the Internet to contact governmental officials, monitoring public policies online, or participating in online protests. Civic skills also consistently predicted the three forms of online political participation. Computer and Internet access, as well as Internet skills, were significant predictors of some forms of online political participation, but not all of them. Political interest positively moderated the association between income and each of the three dependent variables. The theoretical and empirical implications of these results are discussed.     

Internet literacy and digital natives’ civic engagement: Internet skill literacy or Internet information literacy?

This study aims to show the role of Internet literacy in empowering digital natives’ civic engagement. Using a survey of 10th graders, we analyzed the effects of digital media use and Internet literacy on adolescents’ political and social interest, participation, and efficacy, controlling for their home and school environments. In doing so, we try to highlight the following points. First, we emphasize that there are two separate dimensions of Internet literacy: Internet skill literacy and Internet information literacy. Second, we adopt a broader concept of civic engagement reflecting the changing youth practices observed in the contemporary media environment. The study empirically found that Internet information literacy, not Internet skill literacy, is intricately related to adolescents’ civic engagement. It was also shown that adolescents’ Internet use contributed only to new and alternative forms of participation. Overall, the findings show that an adolescent who can critically understand and effectively evaluate online information is more likely to become an active civic participant than one who lacks such skills. The study concludes with a few policy suggestions.     

中东恐怖主义、全球治理与中国的反恐政策

中东反恐斗争是国际反恐中最关键、最具影响的组成部分,也是国际社会面临的全球治理问题之一。它与当代的国际体系转型和政治经济秩序的重建分不开,又同中东伊斯兰国家在经济全球化深入推进的形势下,如何处理现代化进程中的改革与发展、实现制度变迁和社会转型直接相关。从中东恐怖主义产生的根源、发展和蔓延的轨迹看,中东恐怖主义既蕴含着错综复杂的历史、社会、宗教、民族等内部因素,也掺杂着外来侵略、占领、干涉以及地区国家之间领土、资源和利益等方面的矛盾和冲突等外部环境因素。中国的反恐政策既出于保护海外利益的需要,也折射了中国独特的全球治理理念和治理模式。     

The Ethical Challenge for Sociology in the Face of Global Modernity: toward Solidarity-Oriented and Ethically Contextualized Practice

Sociology is facing difficult times: fragmentation within and between regional, national and international academic communities remains high while global interdependence and instability increase generating societal threats of unprecedented scale (progressing inequality, migration, ecological, political and economic crises). Ethical issues are very important for comprehending both: processes within sociology and transformations in the world around. Thus, we postulate the global ethical challenge for sociology, which requires: first, formulating the ethical stance of a sociologist towards the objects of disciplinary inquiry and the potentially involved social groups and, second, elaborating research tools adequate for studying the ethical dimension of the complex social reality. We demonstrate that dominating discourses in the current professional communities are largely inadequate and cannot effectively address this challenge. Drawing on Pitirim Sorokin’s theoretical heritage, as well as on John Meyer and Volker Schmidt ideas, we propose an alternative project of global sociology, emphasizing, first, solidarity-oriented and ethically contextualized sociological communication with various extra-academic audiences; and, second, sociologists’ ethical competence in exploring various localities and dimensions of global modernity with its progressively intersecting different (and sometimes contrasting) ethical systems.     

The missing politics of muscular liberalism

The article examines the idea of muscular liberalism, first invoked by David Cameron as a paradigm of assertive policymaking in opposition to ‘state multiculturalism’. The rhetoric of muscular liberalism is present across western Europe, but its political effects have not been convincingly explored. In scholarship on ethnic minority integration, a ‘stimulus–response model’ credits Muslim intransigence as the trigger for the muscular stance. Other commentators put muscular liberalism into a genealogical perspective but do little to consider the circumstances of its political deployment. Working towards an alternative account, the article examines two instances of muscular liberalism in Britain: the campaign against ‘Sharia Courts’ and the ‘Trojan Horse’ affair. Different from the concern with historical continuity or stable potentials of liberal normativity, it draws attention to political operations and strategic calculations that characterize the deployment of muscular liberalism in British politics.     

Online video sharing: an alternative channel for film distribution? Copyright enforcement,censorship, and Chinese independent cinema

Regarding piracy as the crime of stealing copyright holders’ rightful profits, many creative industries, such as the film, music, and gaming industries, are battling for stricter administrative and legal enforcement against copyright infringement. However, there is a counterargument that piracy could benefit copyright holders in the form of free promotion. Given China’s strict censorship of film content, this paper investigates how online piracy complicates the distribution of independent films in China. The advance of cyber technology and high-speed Internet access has not only fueled the spread of online film sharing, but has also encouraged public participation in the debate on the complex relationship between piracy, copyright, and censorship. Taking Jia Zhangke’s A Touch of Sin (2013) as a case study, this paper evaluates the alternative business models for Chinese independent cinema put forward by Chinese netizens.     

青年网民网络政治现状调查

网络现已成为公民政治关注和政治参与的重要平台。青年作为网民的主力军和国家的未来,他们在网络中对政治的关注度和参与度一定程度上关系着国家未来的社会政治文明的发展。当今,中国青年网民对网络政治资汛关注度高,信任主流媒介．但他们的政治参与度与政治关注度形成强烈反差,这需要从法规制度的健全、网民政治素养和能力的提升和网络政治参与途径的拓展等方面多管齐下,才能切实解决问题．从而在总体上保障人民当家作主管理国家和社会事务的权利得以实现。     

Technology and Counter-hegemonic Movements: The case of Nike Corporation

This paper examines ways in which the Internet and alternative forms of media have been employed to enhance political struggle in contemporary society, and are in fact redefining political struggle. It uses a case study of Nike Corporation to highlight that although the power and autonomy of transnational corporations operating within the global economy has been enhanced over the past few decades, there are accompanying modes of grassroots organizing which foster globalized resistance to such hegemonic tendencies. The analysis argues that the Internet provides the resources and environment necessary for cohesive organized resistance to corporate culture across the domains of production (labor issues) and consumption issues (marketing). The Internet and independent media have facilitated organizing strategies among emerging new social movements, such as the anti-sweatshop movement and the Culture Jammers movement. This paper draws on both modern and postmodern theory to explore ways in which marginal groups can utilize the new modes of technology for their own ends, and use micro-level forms of resistance to challenge macro-level trends.     

Navigating the COVID-19 pandemic in the contingency framework: Antecedents and consequences of public’s stance toward the CDC

This study applied the contingency theory of conflict management to examine how contingency factors influence the public’s perceptual and behavioral responses to COVID-19 and stance toward the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In particular, we tested political ideology as an important individual characteristic variable to examine its roles in the contingency theory framework. The findings revealed that two situational variables (i.e., threat appraisal and attitudes toward CDC) positively influenced the public’s contingency accommodation stance toward the CDC. Furthermore, greater conservatism was significantly associated with lower levels of threat appraisal and more negative attitudes toward the CDC, however it did not influence the stance toward the CDC. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.     

Internet risks and expert views: a case study of the insider perspectives of youth workers in Hong Kong

This study collects and analyses the viewpoints of front-line youth workers regarding the notion of ‘Internet risks’. Previous studies have examined and discussed various dangers of the Internet. Parental, school, and governmental interventions are often called for by those concerned. The implicit assumption is that these are the people who possess the expertise to tackle the problems at hand. Through participation in three forums focusing on ‘Internet risks’, and in-depth interviews with 10 such ‘experts’ in Hong Kong, the study examines if this is a valid assumption. It finds that experts perceive Internet risks rather differently. In addition to the more conventional views about content, contact and conduct risks, our interviewees are aware that a new order is quickly emerging in the new media environment. Despite being considered as ‘experts’, they do not necessarily know how to tackle the so-called ‘youth-at-risk’. Rather, they are exploring how they would capitalize on the opportunities offered by the developments. The key findings highlight the need to critically review the notion of ‘Internet risks’. As with other risk frameworks, the ultimate aim is to develop intervention programmes. In this regard, risks are often treated as concrete problems that can be solved. Youth experts, however, find that the changing scope, speed and persistence of communication in today's information society present the biggest challenge in youth work. The existing framework of risks was unable to describe and account for such risks. In response, Internet risk has to be reconceptualized so that more updated, relevant and imaginative intervention can be introduced.     

Reflexive modernization and the third way: the impasses of Giddens' social-democratic politics

In the light of a critical account of Giddens’ three recent books on politics (1994, 1998, 2000) this paper argues that it is possible to formulate a third way, that is different both form the ad hoc mixture of neo‐liberal and conventional social‐democratic recipes found in the Blair/Schröder type of discourse, as well as from Giddens’ utopianism that is blind to political economy realities. This alternative version of the third way, guided by a non‐economistic holistic framework should stress the continuous relevance of the Left‐Right divide, ie, the continuities between early and late modernity and between the old and new emancipatory struggles against tyranny, exploitation and cultural/symbolic manipulation. It should also attempt to elaborate new reform proposals (in the area of the work, welfare, democracy, the life world) that take seriously into account the contradictions and present distribution of economic, political and cultural power, both on the national and the global level.     

‘TODOS SOMOS PRESIDENTES/WE ARE ALL PRESIDENTS’

In light of recent discussions of Jacques Rancière's notion of the political in cultural theory and the ‘left turn’ in Latin America, exemplified in the election of Evo Morales as the first indigenous president, this essay discusses concepts of governance elaborated by Bolivian indigenous intellectuals and media activists. It engages in detail with three examples of thinking through what is arguably a broad de-colonial process: the work of the Andean Oral History Workshop (THOA) and the movement to reconstitute the ayllu; Pablo Mamani's analysis of the micro-governments in El Alto; and CEFREC-CAIB's indigenous media activism. Thinking from the perspective of a long-standing struggle against global capitalism and its colonial legacies, the political constitutes – paradoxically – a complex and dynamic process of institutionalized consensus governance. Levels of community, regional, and national governance are bound into a feedback loop where representation gives way to the ideal of ‘mandar obedeciendo’ (governing by obeying). The Bolivian ‘democratic revolution’ is hence not conceptualized merely as a widening of the citizen base – a form of inclusion that Rancière would call ‘police’-but rather as profoundly reshaping the relation between the social, the cultural, and the state, and thus of democracy itself.     

The romantic self and the politics of internet commercialization

This essay looks at some examples of ways that certain pre-existing imaginary forms of ‘selfhood’ have been culturally mapped onto historically pivotal moments in the Internet’s development. It focuses less on how technologies have shaped culture than on the reverse: on certain ways that culture has shaped society’s embrace of the Internet. What the Internet is and will come to be, the essay suggests, is partly a matter of who we expect to be when we sit down to use it. Specifically, it looks at two key examples of ways that certain pre-existing imaginary forms of selfhood – ways of understanding oneself as a self – have been culturally mapped onto historically pivotal moments in the Internet’s development: the initial explosion of the Internet in the early 1990s and its supporting ethos exemplified by Wired magazine, and the Open Source Movement in the late 1990s. The essay suggests that significant parts of the culture of computing have been not only individualist, but also composed of two distinct if intertwined strands of individualism, romantic and utilitarian, and that their difference has political significance. Like its ancestor, the 1960s counterculture, the case of the computer culture suggests that romantic individualism stands in a tangential relation to capitalist property relations (and the utilitarian ‘I’ they imply), sometimes working in concert with markets and privatization, as was the case in the early 1990s, and sometimes working to call them into question, as was the case towards the end of the 1990s.