[Air-L] Chinese (or other non-Western) objections to Internet Freedom...

Tue Aug 6 00:41:41 PDT 2013

Dear Medealine

I am sure that you already familiar with the Asian Values, unfortunately my readings about this topic are quite out of date.

  *   Theodore De Bary Asian Values and Human Rights: A Confucian Communitarian Perspective Willia, Harvard University Press (1998)
  *   Bauer, J. -Bell, D.A. The East Asian Challenge for Human Rights, Cambridge 1999.
  *   Cauquelin, J.- Lim, P.- Mayer-König, B. , Asian Values. Encounters with Diversity, Richmond, Surrey 2000
  *   Langguth Gerd, Asian values revisited, Asia Europe Journal, Feb. 2003 Vol. 1 Issue 1 pp 25-42

Thanks to Charles for the references, I do not know if 2011 can be considered the year of revolution. From a legal perspective individual privacy rights are limited by the 'state security', on the other hand the failure of projects like the real name implementation show how the Chinese legal system is gradually shifting form the 'rule by law' to to 'rule of law'. Hope to share with you a paper that should be published by the end of September.

Best
Gigi

Gianluigi Negro - PhD Candidate
University of Lugano - Faculty of Communication Sciences Institute of Media and Journalism
(IMeG 210.1) Via Buffi, 13
6904 Lugano - CH

Tel. Office: +41(0)586664510
Mobile +393803147098

www.cineresie.info<http://www.cineresie.info>
Twitter giginegro<http://twitter.com/giginegro>
Linkedin gianluiginegro<http://it.linkedin.com/in/gianluiginegro>

Skype Gianluigi Negro
________________________________
Da: madelinemcarr at gmail.com [madelinemcarr at gmail.com] per conto di Madeline Carr [madeline.carr at aber.ac.uk]
Inviato: lunedì 5 agosto 2013 11.46
A: Charles Ess
Cc: Air list; Negro Gianluigi
Oggetto: Re: [Air-L] Chinese (or other non-Western) objections to Internet Freedom...

Gianluigi, thank you so much for those sources. I should have contacted you directly in the first place. Much appreciated!

And Charles, you have gone to the essence of what I am interested in conveying to the students. I have only a few lectures to deal with this in the module but I want to at least introduce them to the complexity of debates about a) human rights and universality and b) competing notions of communitarianism and cosmopolitanism in global politics. I think that is essential for any kind of critical engagement with concepts of Internet Freedom.

Fascinating work on individualism and data privacy in China, thank you Charles. I was not aware of those legal developments, though I guess you are, Gianluigi?

Interesting times, indeed.

Madeline

Dr. Madeline Carr
Lecturer in International Politics and the Cyber Dimension
Department of International Politics
Aberystwyth University
Penglais, Aberystwyth
SY23 3FE Wales
+44 01970 621955
mob: 0752 867 2088
madelinemcarr at gmail.com<mailto:madelinemcarr at gmail.com>

On 5 August 2013 06:32, Charles Ess <charles.ess at gmail.com<mailto:charles.ess at gmail.com>> wrote:
In hopes this does not confuse matter, but you also noted that you want

> students to critically analyse state policies and the underlying arguments
> that shape them.

>From my perspective, insofar as "Internet freedom" (positive freedom?
negative freedom? - both, I assume?) rests on specific assumptions / beliefs
/ hopes about the nature / characteristics of selfhood and identity (i.e.,
much of high modern Western notions of freedom rest on squarely individual
and strongly rational notions of selfhood) -
It is worth noting as well, I think, that there are strong trends towards
what might be called individualization in these otherwise strongly
collective societies and the relational selves they implicate.  See:

Yunxiang Yan. The Chinese path to individualization. The British Journal of
Sociology 61 (3: 2010): 489-512.
Mette Halskov Hansen and Rune Svarverud (eds.), The Rise of the Individual
in Modern Chinese Society, Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies,
2010.

As well, though I only have a conference presentation to document it -
others here may well have better resources - what I find especially
staggering is the introduction of _individual_ privacy rights in the
constitution of the P.R.C. in the past few years:

Suli Sui. The law and regulation on privacy in China. Paper presented at the
Rising Pan European and International Awareness of Biometrics and Security
Ethics (RISE) conference, October 20-21, 2011. Beijing, China.

Cf. Graham Greenleaf, Asia-Pacific data privacy: 2011, year of revolution?
UNSW Law Research Paper No. 2011-29, 2011.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1914212

There is even discussion among legal scholars in the P.R.C., I am told, of
introducing due process rights - i.e., the rights that have been largely
lost in the U.S. (and elsewhere) following 9/11, as the recent NSA
revelations underline.

Interesting world we live in.  In all events, best of luck with your course!

- charles ess

Professor in Media Studies
Department of Media and Communication

Director, Centre for Research on Media Innovations
<http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/research/center/media-innovations/>

University of Oslo
P.O. Box 1093 Blindern
NO-0317
Oslo Norway
email: c.m.ess at media.uio.no<mailto:c.m.ess at media.uio.no>

On 03.08.13 12:49, "Madeline Carr" <madeline.carr at aber.ac.uk<mailto:madeline.carr at aber.ac.uk>> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> It seems we're all working to get our syllabi together for next semester
> and the hunt for quality sources begins. I'm writing a new module on
> Internet Freedom and I would like to provide the students with a balanced
> account of objections raised by some states like China. There is plenty
> available from a Western perspective that critiques Chinese approaches but
> I want something that challenges the students to consider alternative
> perspectives. This might include the argument about cultural imperialism,
> language preservation, social cohesion etc... Could anyone point me to a
> good article or chapter that looks at non-Western objections to Internet
> Freedom in a balanced way?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Madeline
>
> Dr. Madeline Carr
> Lecturer in International Politics and the Cyber Dimension
> Department of International Politics
> Aberystwyth University
> Penglais, Aberystwyth
> SY23 3FE Wales
> +44 01970 621955
> mob: 0752 867 2088
> madelinemcarr at gmail.com<mailto:madelinemcarr at gmail.com>
> _______________________________________________
> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org<mailto:Air-L at listserv.aoir.org> mailing list
> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at:
> http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
>
> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
> http://www.aoir.org/

_______________________________________________
The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org<mailto:Air-L at listserv.aoir.org> mailing list
is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org

Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
http://www.aoir.org/