Internet governance as 'ideology in practice' – India's 'Free Basics' controversy

Artikel

The paper examines the recent Free Basics controversy in India, which triggered a national level policy debate on the appropriate regulatory response to differential pricing of data services, employing the theoretical framework of 'ideology in practice'. Unpacking 'openness' in design, 'inclusion' in provisioning and 'empowerment' in use as contested concepts in the policy process, the paper demonstrates a paradoxical conflation of oppositional interpretations of access. Tracing the material-discursive practices of actors in the debate and scrutinising everyday practices of the internet for their moral claims, the paper examines if and how hegemonic discourses of economic globalisation are challenged, and alternative meanings of the internet etched in contemporary political agenda on internet governance in India.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Journal: Internet Policy Review ; ISSN: 2197-6775 ; Volume: 5 ; Year: 2016 ; Issue: 3 ; Pages: 1-17 ; Berlin: Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Sozialwissenschaften, Soziologie, Anthropologie
• Subject: Internet governance ; Net neutrality ; Facebook ; Internet access

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Gurumurthy, Anita ; Chami, Nandini
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society
• (where): Berlin
• (when): 2016

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.14763/2016.3.431
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/214026
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET