Global media and technological change: Social justice,recognition and the meaningfulness of everyday life

This article argues that the technological development and globalisation of the media has important implications for questions of cultural citizenship. In particular these questions are explored through an enduring set of ‘cultural’ issues that might be connected to questions of social justice, recognition and hermeneutic concerns with meaningfulness. These questions arguably pose more fundamental questions for critical theory than those traditionally associated with either issues of media bias or the fragmentation of the post‐modern subject.     

EU update

This is the latest edition of the Bristows column on developments in EU law relating to IP, IT and telecommunications. This news article summarises recent developments that are considered important for practitioners, students and academics in a wide range of information technology, e-commerce, telecommunications and intellectual property areas. It cannot be exhaustive but intends to address the important points. This is a hard copy reference guide, but links to outside web sites are included where possible. No responsibility is assumed for the accuracy of information contained in these links.     

Law,culture and massively multiplayer online games

Massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) are now a major international phenomena. Millions of people can play together online, readily navigating boundaries between nations, languages and legal jurisdictions. The communities around some of these games are huge, of a size equivalent to a large city or small nation. This article explores three themes, labelled for conceptual purposes ‘games as legal spaces’, ‘games need lawyers’, and ‘lawyers need games’. It argues that games are inherently legal spaces, infused with legal-ness in a variety of ways; that more direct engagement from the legal community would be of tremendous value in making these systems, and the entertainment spaces which they regulate, ‘better’; and that we have a great deal to learn about law and about the regulation of the online space from games. The article concludes with the proposition that there is an opportunity for impactful knowledge exchange between legal scholars, MMOG developers and publishers, and the gaming community.     

Fukuyama Is Right about Measuring State Quality: Now What?

Much has recently been written about how to best measure governance or “state quality.” Should we evaluate government performance by looking at what government achieves (outputs) as Robert Rotberg and Craig Boardman recently suggested? Or should we focus on measuring state capacity and bureaucratic autonomy, as Francis Fukuyama concludes? This commentary argues in support of Fukuyama's approach by using a public administration lens to disaggregate the public sector into two domains: upstream bodies at the center of government and downstream delivery bodies that deliver, commission, or fund services under the policy direction of government. It goes further by recommending a measurement framework that focuses on identifying indicators that are behavioral and action worthy in relation to five public management systems ultimately owned and operated by the central, upstream agencies.     

Bombing at the Speed of Thought: Intelligence in the Coming Age of Cyberwar

The Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) puts new technology at the service of an old idea: the perfectability of intelligence. At least since the founding of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1947, defense and intelligence officials have entertained fantasies of an ideal information environment in which a complete, impartial, and accurate picture of events dispels the fog of politics and war. Amid the enthusiasm among military futurists for ‘total information dominance’, it is worth asking why the intelligence community has this recurring dream.