Mobile Technologies for Conflict Management Law, Governance and Technology Series
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Mobile Technologies for Conflict Management Law, Governance and Technology Series VOLUME 2 Series Editors: POMPEU CASANOVAS, UAB Institute of Law and Technology, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain GIOVANNI SARTOR, University of Bologna (Faculty of Law -CIRSFID) and European University Institute of Florence, Italy Scientific Advisory Board: GIANMARIA AJANI, University of Turin, Italy; KEVIN ASHLEY, University of Pittsburgh, USA; KATIE ATKINSON, University of Liverpool, UK; TREVOR J.M. BENCH-CAPON, University of Liverpool, UK; V. RICHARDS BENJAMINS, Telefonica, Spain; GUIDO BOELLA, Universita’ degli Studi di Torino, Italy; JOOST BREUKER, Universiteit van Amsterdam, The Netherlands; DANIÈLE BOURCIER, CERSA, France; TOM BRUCE, University of Cornell, USA; NURIA CASELLAS, Institute of Law and Technology, UAB, Spain; CRISTIANO CASTELFRANCHI, ISTC-CNR, Italy; G. CONRAD JACK, Thomson Reuters, USA; ROSARIA CONTE, ISTC-CNR, Italy; FRANCESCO CONTINI, IRSIG-CNR, Italy; JESÚS CONTRERAS, iSOCO, Spain; JOHN DAVIES, British Telecommunications plc, UK; JOHN DOMINGUE, The Open University, UK; JAIME DELGADO, Arquitectura de Computadors, Spain; MARCO FABRI, IRSIG-CNR, Italy; DIETER FENSEL, University of Innsbruck, Austria; ENRICO FRANCESCONI, ITTIG, Italy; FERNANDO GALINDO, Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain; ALDO GANGEMI, ISTC-CNR, Italy; MICHAEL GENESERETH, Stanford University, USA; ASUNCIÓN GÓMEZ-PÉREZ, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain; THOMAS F. GORDON, Fraunhofer FOKUS, Germany; GUIDO GOVERNATORI, NICTA, Australia; GRAHAM GREENLEAF, The University of New South Wales, Australia; MARKO GROBELNIK, Josef Stefan Institute, Slovenia; JAMES HENDLER, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA; RINKE HOEKSTRA, Universiteit van Amsterdam, The Netherlands; ETHAN KATSH, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA; MARC LAURITSEN, Capstone Practice Systems, Inc., USA; RONALD LEENES, TILT Institute, The Netherlands; ARNO LODDER, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands; JOSÉ MANUEL LÓPEZ COBO, Playence, Austria; PIERRE MAZZEGA, LMTG - UMR5563 CNRS/IRD/UPS, France; MARIE-FRANCINE MOENS, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium; PABLO NORIEGA, Edifici IIIA-CSIC, Spain; ANJA OSKAMP, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands; SASCHA OSSOWSKI, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain; UGO PAGALLO, Università degli Studi di Torino, Italy; MONICA PALMIRANI, Università di Bologna, Italy; ABDUL PALIWALA, University of Warwick, UK; ENRIC PLAZA, Edifici IIIA-CSIC, Spain; MARTA POBLET, Institute of Law and Technology, UAB, Spain; DANIEL POULIN, University of Montreal, Canada; HENRY PRAKKEN, Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands; HAI-BIN QI, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, P.R. China; DORY REILING, Amsterdam District Court, The Netherlands; PIER CARLO ROSSI, Italy; EDWINA L. RISSLAND, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA; COLIN RULE, University of Massachusetts, USA; MARCO SCHORLEMMER, IIIA-CSIC, Spain; CARLES SIERRA, IIIA-CSIC, Spain; MIGEL ANGEL SICILIA, Universidad de Alcalá, Spain; RUDI STUDER, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany; DANIELA TISCORNIA, ITTIG, Italy; JOAN-JOSEP VALLBÉ, Institute of Law and Technology, UAB, Spain; TOM VAN ENGERS, Universiteit van Amsterdam, The Netherlands; FABIO VITALI, Università di Bologna, Italy; MARY-ANN WILLIAMS, The University of Technology, Sydney, Australia; RADBOUD WINKELS, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands; ADAMWYNER, University of Liverpool, UK; HAJIME YOSHINO, Meiji Gakuin University, Japan; JOHN ZELEZNIKOW, University of Victoria, Australia For further volumes: http://www.springer.com/series/8808 Mobile Technologies for Conflict Management Online Dispute Resolution, Governance, Participation Edited by Marta Poblet Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain Editor Marta Poblet Faculty of Law Edifici B Campus de la UAB Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona 08193 Bellaterra Spain [email protected] ISBN 978-94-007-1383-3 e-ISBN 978-94-007-1384-0 DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-1384-0 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2011930255 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Foreword I am not always inclined to agree with academia on conflict transformation. Born into war, and having experienced it all my life, the complexity and immensity of, inter alia, the loss, collective trauma, desensitisation, madness, internal logic, spill- over effects, justifications, contested history, religious overtones and political reso- nance I find are far removed from much of the literature written on the management, resolution or transformation of violence. Arguably, much of this highfalutin writing comes not from any lived experience, but desk study, about as effective as learning to swim by studiously studying Powerpoint presentations. Others write after lim- ited, short-term engagement with violent conflict. This often yields valuable insights, but occasionally results in observations, recommendations and solutions far removed from complex, mutating ground realities. On the other hand, it is not always easy to escape the enduring violence of conflict, even when you are far removed from the theatres of war. Many who have experienced protracted violence can’t critically distance themselves from their actions, or the context they have endured, for years, and this applies equally to victims and aggressors. Honest reflection invariably brings with it unintended consequences, and these may range from the distressing inability to return home to increase in risks confronting family, friends or colleagues. At the risk of caricature, a peacebuilder, unlike the academic, risks disappointment to hope for change. The academic, often sans the experience of a peacebuilder, deconstructs complexity through a selective reading informed by a specific vector or lens of analysis, frequently highly specialised. Neither one alone gives a useful understanding of protracted violence or importantly, how to get away from it. Juxtaposed however, and in rare cases, when the two are combined in one individ- ual, one recognises immediately writing anchored but not hostage to experience that is meaningful, sensitive, progressive and probative yet not prescriptive. It is this timbre of writing that strongly recommends this volume to academics and practitio- ners alike. Marta Poblet, in her introduction to this collection avers that, “The risk of assign- ing some prescriptive direction to technology should be avoided… Technology does not transform conflictper se: humans do, and the question is which, when, and how technologies may facilitate their quest. In other words, transforming conflict might v vi Foreword be the ultimate goal, but if technologies can contribute to better manage it, it is already worth the effort to study how.” Based on this view of technology as essentially manipulable tools, I wonder if the converse isn’t equally if not truer – that violent conflict is often exacerbated by the increasing proliferation of technologies. Being an early proponent of the potential for Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) to deeply inform the theory, design and praxis of peacebuilding, I have also seen first hand how they can be used for propaganda, misinformation and disinformation. It is also possible to argue that some ICTs by design are intended to harm – programmes and malware such as trojans, key-loggers and viruses which are annoying to most can in fact endanger the lives of activists who are tracked and targeted through their pro- liferation and use. Repressive governments are waking up to the possibilities of Web 2.0, the web, the Internet and mobiles to drown out, curtail or censor dissent and inconvenient truths. Illiteracy of new media exacerbates this. At its simplest, this is a tendency to completely believe what is conveyed through, for example, web media or through SMS amongst populations unable or unused to critically question media. This is obviously advantageous for governments, which often command control of the widest reaching and most consumed media, and less rosy for pro- democracy activists working in a context of hate and harm. Importantly, there is also a political economy of peace, just as there is with war. The manner in which mobile phones and ICTs are used for social progress, democracy and peacebuilding enu- merated in these pages often occurs despite telecoms companies, private enterprise and government. Perceptions and projections of risk that undergird private enter- prise are often strongly averse to political dissent. This translates into telecoms investors, owners and those controlling the infrastructure, sometimes wholly inde- pendent of government, clamping down on users who produce, disseminate or archive content that risk investments or expose collusion. Dissent is far less profit- able, and far more risky than compliance. If this is all somewhat dystopic, it is with reason. The projection of ICTs as a means to facilitate short-term regime change that has gripped parts of academia as well as the incumbent US administration in particular is reductio ad