Global Multi-Stakeholder Networks

Description

Don Tapscott: The network seeks to improve the state of the world by helping to solve a problem, develop new policies or new solutions, influence states and institutions, or otherwise contribute to economic and social development, human rights, sustainability, democracy, global cooperation and global governance." (http://de.slideshare.net/webgoddesscathy/don-tapscotts-new-solutions-for-a-connected-planet-mars-global-leadership)

Typology

See slide 33 at [1].

Details slide 34 to 56.

"A literature review and initial investigation has produced the first comprehensive taxonomy to describe these new networks. We used a functional perspective to identify the different “species” of problem-solving networks. The taxonomy is “comprehensive” in that all networks can be included. The categories are not completely mutually exclusive and any given network may overlap with other networks types. However, any network can be said to fall primarily or principally in one of the categories. Networks can also change. As our collaborator and Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Center for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) Mark Raymond says, “It is important to bear in mind the possibility that a network’s purpose can shift (say, from knowledge to advocacy, for example) over time.” This is a good topic for further investigation. ”Understanding the conditions under which networks undergo what might be called ‘purpose shifts’ is a key question to understanding their social dynamics”

The 10 categories (also summarized in the chart below) are:

• Knowledge Networks which develop new thinking, research, ideas and policies that can be helpful in solving global problems. Their emphasis is on the creation of new ideas, not their advocacy.

• Operational and Delivery Networks actually deliver the change they seek, supplementing or even bypassing the efforts of traditional institutions.

• Policy Networks create government policy even though they are not networks of government policy makers.

• Advocacy Networks seek to change the agenda or policies of governments, corporations or other institutions.

• Watchdog Networks scrutinize institutions to ensure they behave appropriately.

• Platforms create the capability for other networks to organize.

• Global Standards Networks are non-state based organizations that develop technical specifications and standards for virtually anything, including standards for the Internet itself.

• Governance Networks have achieved or been granted the right and responsibility of non-institutional global governance.

• Networked Institutions provide a wide range of capabilities even similar to state-based institutions but with a very different modus-operandi.

• Diasporas are global communities formed by people dispersed from their ancestral lands, but who share a common culture and strong identity with their homeland."

(http://gsnetworks.org/ten-types-of-global-solution-network)