Global civil society and deliberation in the digital age

摘要

This paper examines how global civil society, mediated mainly across internet-based activist 'dotcauses', transcends the geographical and other barriers associated with mainstream media and conventional public and political deliberation. In so doing, it examines how global civil society is capable of influencing and impacting political deliberation through the decisional, discursive and regulatory attributes of its activities. In addition, it also examines how recent developments, such as 'e-government' and the transformation of news (mobile-phone footage, social networks) despite their threats and problems, can provide global civil society with more opportunities to intervene in the public deliberation spaces opened by governments and the media.