On research 'representativeness' Re: [WSIS CS-Plenary] LAUNCH of INTERNET GOVERNANCE PROJECT

[Michael Gurstein]

Without getting into the ins and outs of this particular research
project it certainly goes in opposition to most of the recent
discussion/analysis in the philosophy/sociology of science to ignore the
broader (social, political, cultural) context of "research" and of the
"researchers" and including their nationality, gender, intellectual
history (what 'school' they belong to for example) and the
representativeness of the perspectives that are "suggested" by these
circumstances.  

It should be surprising to no one that the more political/policy
sensitive the subject matter the more these contextual circumstances are
broadly (and politically) seen as being of relevance with respect to the
research, its conduct, its outcome and its likely significance.

So let's not be too outraged at having folks somewhat less than
uniformly sympathetic (ie. somewhat suspicious) of a research project
which appears to the outsider to be uniformly northern, Eurocentric, and
male.

MG

-----Original Message-----
From: plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org [mailto:plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org] On
Behalf Of Meryem Marzouki
Sent: July 20, 2004 2:19 AM
To: plenary at wsis-cs.org
Subject: On research 'representativeness' Re: [WSIS CS-Plenary] LAUNCH
of INTERNET GOVERNANCE PROJECT


Hi all,

Le mardi, 20 juil 2004, à 04:30 Europe/Paris, Milton Mueller a écrit :

[...]
> Bottom line: If the research we produce is considered by others to be 
> unrepresentative of South perspectives or other perspectives, then
> educate us - criticize it and reject it. Or, better yet,
> form a group that can do it better. IGP enjoys no
> special monopoly on the topic and anyone else can set up
> something similar. Thus, while longer term we do
> intend to expand if possible, I would have to reject
> the implication that no university can publish or do
> research on Internet governance unless it first
> sets up an apparatus of global representation
> (the representativeness of which could always be
> contested anyway).

Let me add that I've been quite amazed to read the comments after the  
announcement of this IG project: it has clearly been presented as a  
scientific research project, and since when scientific research should  
be considered or assessed against such criteria as 'representativeness'

? There are many other criteria, scientific and non scientific (though  
still relevant, like who's funding the research, the researchers'  
perpectives, their personal positions, etc.), which do apply for such  
assessment. But I never heard of (and would never accept, as both a  
scientific researcher and an activist) something called 'representative

research'. This would be nothing but a fake, and a very dangerous one.  
Almost as dangerous as a so-called 'civil society representativeness'  
:-)
Although I have absolutely nothing against wearing both research and  
activism hats - specially since this is also my own case - I feel very  
concerned about what seems to be a totally inappropriate mix ('mélange  
des genres', in French).

What would be relevant, and very useful, however, is to keep track of  
different research projets on this issue, to exchange information,  
etc., and this list could be one of the means used for that. Although a

formal collaboration and exchange process would indeed require funding,

such a loose network and/or database of resources (existing projects,  
people working on IG, papers, reports, study data and results,  
comments, criticisms, etc.) may be started at very marginal costs.  
Moreover, as a researcher working on IG issues in France (with other  
colleagues), I would be pleased to contribute to the definition and set

up of such a - multilingual - database, and provide tools for an  
ongoing 'electronic colloquium' (starting only from September, I'm  
afraid).

I've been glad to learn that this IG project has been launched by our  
colleagues in the US, and I would also be pleased to learn of any other

similar project anywhere in the world : the more perspectives we can  
show, the richer the research results would be. We could  use all the  
opportunities to meet, like international conferences, etc., to discuss

this scientific network setup possibility, if anyone is interested. I  
hope that the session on 'Internet Political Governance and Technical  
Government' I'm co-organizing during the next 4S/EASST Conference in  
Paris (August 25-28, 2004) will provide such an opportunity (see  
Session S7 at:  
http://www.csi.ensmp.fr/csi/programme_4S/jour/ 
programme_jour.php?jour=FRI).

Best regards,
Meryem
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