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In Coordinating Technology, Susanne Schmidt and Raymund Werle present three case studies that highlight the actors, the process, the politics, and the influence exerted by international organizations in the construction of standards. The case studies concern the standards for facsimile terminals and transmission, videotex (a service that, with the exception of the French Minitel service, largely failed), and electronic mail. Schmidt and Werle follow each story from the realization by certain actors of the need for a standard, through complex negotiation processes involving many economic, political, and social interests, to the final agreement on a standard. In their analysis of these cases, they emphasize the many ways in which the processes are embedded in institutional structures and argue for the value of an institutionalist approach to technology studies.
'. . . offers a fresh look at efforts to manage telecommunications and the emerging "information society" in Europe.ë _ Communication Booknotes Quarterly European countries have recently been involved in an extremely broad set of regulator
More than any other technology it is biotechnology that intervenes deeply in the original substance of life, the DNA. Particularly agricultural biotechnology, including its production of gene-food, plays a fundamental role for any kind of life and, therefore, for human societies. In this context, the interrelating dimensions of technology, economy, and politics have to be considered for doing justice to the high complexity of this research field. Pursuing this aim, this work elaborates the contingent necessities of agricultural biotechnology. At different levels of abstraction and complexity, occurrences are decoded as interplays of various different factors while reductionism and mono-causal explanations are fundamentally denied. This book is a comprehensive study of modern agricultural biotechnology that links current developments to relevant trajectories of past times. The author addresses political scientists, decision-makers and also natural scientists that are engaged in this field.
This timely book examines the field of European and global standardisation, showing how standards give rise to a multitude of different legal questions. It explores diverse topics in regulation such as food safety, accounting, telecommunications and medical devices. Each chapter offers in-depth analysis of a number of key policy areas. These multi-disciplinary contributions go beyond the field of law, and provide cross-disciplinary comparisons.
First published in 1990, The Political Economy of Communications explores the central theme of the relationship between politics and markets in policy development. The contributors show how governments have been drawn into increasing interdependency by technological and market developments, with international institutions like the European Community becoming more important in these policy areas. They argue that neither government ideologies nor market and technological forces offer an adequate account of the processes of change in communications policy. These conclusions lead to a critique of central theories of international political economy, notably neo-liberalism, and the authors advocate instead a neo-pluralist perspective for the study of political economy of communications – an approach that takes institutions much more seriously as a central unit of analysis. The book will be of interest to students of international relations, European studies, and media and telecommunication studies, as well as to political scientists and economists concerned with public policy.
Private Organisation in Global Politics is a groundbreaking study which brings together a broad range of case-studies to examine the role and character of private organisations in the process of political globalization. Focusing on areas such as human rights organisations, the international women's movement and the combating of disease, the panel of expert contributors investigate the function of these in relation to governance in the globalizing world.
Involving both integration and liberalization, the state of telecommunications in Europe has undergone radical change in the past few years. Natalicchi (political science, U. of Florence, Italy) examines the external and internal forces of change originating from international, national, and European Union levels. He argues that the EU is a polycentric and multilayered polity and that multiple mechanisms determine integrative steps and policy outcomes. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
This book provides an up-to-date account and analysis of the development of the European Union's regulatory framework for telecommunications in a globalising world. A key feature is its treatment of the EU's regulatory policy response to technological convergence in the information and communications sector, through its new Electronic Communications Regulatory Framework. The book explores in detail the dynamics of the complex relationship between technological and globalisation pressures, economic interests, and European and national policy responses. The authors also examine the achievements and limitations of over twenty years of EU efforts to liberalise markets and to harmonise regulation.
In this probing analysis of the European Union's transnational legal system, Lisa Conant explores the interaction between law and politics. In particular, she challenges the widely held view that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has, through bold judicial activism, brought about profound policy and institutional changes within the EU's member states. She argues convincingly that this court, like its domestic counterparts, depends on the support of powerful organized interests to gain compliance with its rulings. What, Conant asks, are the policy implications of the ECJ's decisions? How are its rulings applied in practice? Drawing on the rich scholarship on the U.S. Supreme Court, Conant d...