| ID | 081209 |
| Title Proper | Opening other windows |
| Other Title Information | a political economy of 'openness' in a global information society |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | May, Christopher |
| Publication | 2008. |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | Although analysis in IR and IPE has increasingly started to focus on non-state actors and the information society, the role of the legal architecture of the Internet has been relatively under-analysed in terms of the structural power around communication interfaces. In this article I suggest the work of Lewis Mumford offers a useful lens for thinking about the political economy of technological change in an information society. I set out the role of intellectual property rights as the legal form of the global information society, and suggest a major challenge to this legal form is the idea of 'openness', specifically in the realm of open-source and/or free software. I examine this issue in the realm of (so-called) informational development, where major proprietary players (predominantly Microsoft) have been confronted by an increasingly vibrant open-source alternative. The open-source and free-software movements can be analysed as an emerging example of a globalised 'double movement', seeking to re-embed the tools of informational development in a societal realm of information, establishing in Mumford's terms a 'democratic technics' as a reaction to the programme of information and knowledge commodification spurred by the TRIPs agreement. |
| `In' analytical Note | Review of International Studies Vol. 34, Special; Jan 2008: p69-92 |
| Journal Source | Review of International Studies Vol. 34, Special; Jan 2008: p69-92 |
| Key Words | Information Technology ; International Relations ; Communication |