[governance] Reconstituting MAG (Tech/admin language)

Meryem Marzouki marzouki at ras.eu.org
Wed Feb 20 12:18:13 EST 2008


Le 20 févr. 08 à 17:37, Jeanette Hofmann a écrit :

> Meryem Marzouki wrote:
>> Jeanette,
>> What I can read from your previous post of Feb 12 is this excerpt:  
>> "As I have probably said before, I think we should stick to 3  
>> groups (govs, biz, cs) instead of adding another group."
>> So, could please clarify in which sense you agree with Bill, who's  
>> saying that he's opposed to "membership should (ideally) divided  
>> equally among governments, civil society and the business  
>> sector" (with the rest of the paragraph).
>
> I said also this:
>
> This discussion on how to properly define civil society won't lead  
> anywhere as there is as yet no common definition of the term.

Well, that's true since the 18th century. Or even since the Romans  
and the Greeks, if we really want to include all understandings over  
time.
But can't we at least stick to the modern acception of this concept,  
the Gramscian one? (BTW, I find it quite relevant, in terms of CS as  
being the sphere where consent can be manufactured.. and challenged  
as well). I understand IGF and the like is quite a post-modern  
construct, but still, am I asking for too much?

[...]
> I think what really matters is substantive proposals for the next  
> IGF meeting. As usual, we all got wound up in procedural matters  
> instead.

Do you mean that these procedural matters - transparency,  
accountability.. in one word democracy - are futile? And that we  
should all be acting simply as experts/advisors/consultants/ 
entrepreneurs?

> Precisely because the causus is composed of such a broad variety of  
> people, it constitutes a very good space to try out ideas for main  
> sessions or workshops. Why don't we make better use of it?!?

Because the IGF is not simply yet another conference or workshop? Or  
at least shouldn't be? And is supposed to be a global intergovernance  
forum instead?

But back to your position w.r.t. IGC statement: am I right in  
understanding your position as "status quo is fine" and "let's get  
busy with other matters"?

Meryem____________________________________________________________
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