Changing Modes of Participation and Communication in an Inter-National Political Environment. Looking at the World Summit on the Information Society as a Communicative Process.

The present work is part of a broader research project which attempts to identify features of governance dynamics developing at the global level, and focuses on the process leading to a UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), to be held in Geneva (December 2003) and Tunis (November 2005). The aim of our overall project is to investigate communication modes of different actors – at the intersection between information and communication technologies and interpersonal/face-to-face relations – in an ongoing struggle that ultimately concerns the possibility of democratic participation in a global political environment. The basic idea is that the analysis of communication processes offers insights for a better understanding of governance in the global sphere; an exercise which, at the end, may contribute to identifying peculiar features of the present age of political communication in an inter-national political environment. The present paper is therefore a stage in the research process: we have tried on one side to master our theoretical understanding of changes in governance brought about by different institutional levels and non-governmental actors’ participation in global political processes; on the other side we have looked at the written documents and contributions that are inputs and outputs to different phases in the WSIS preparatory process. We have tried to develop a methodology for the study of documents and written materials, adopting a content analysis approach. This piece of research is, therefore, characterized by a strong methodological focus, which will allow further and more politically-oriented analysis in the future; indications of which are offered in our conclusive remarks.