The commercialization of the Internet has prompted an outpouring of creative scholarship on pre-Internet communications networks.  Much of this work has questioned the pronouncements of technology enthusiasts that we are entering a global age in which the nation is no longer a weighty political actor. Our papers are informed by this critique. To what extent have transnational communications networks been “tools of empire,” as Daniel R. Headrick famously contended? Might they, alternatively, have followed a space-transcending capitalist logic of the kind that Dwayne Winseck and Robert Pike has explored?  To what extent are these networks best understood through the lens of the firm?  How have they shaped vital nation-transcending institutions, such as the provisioning of news?

To engage these questions, the organizers have tapped both established and rising scholars. The participants hail from eight countries on three continents who are based at thirteen different institutions and range from graduate students to emeritus professors.

We decided to submit this paper in the second round, having noticed that no panel dealing specifically with communications networks had been accepted in the first round. We believe that this topic deserves to be included in a program whose theme is “waves of globalization” and set about assembling the strongest group of international scholars that we could.  Brief paper descriptions are included an appendix.

Each of the papers engages these questions from the standpoint of historical institutionalism.  That is, they emphasize the interplay between specific businesses, governments, and occupational groups.  An effort has been made to expand our ambit beyond the three countries that have often figured most prominently in recent scholarly debates on this topic—namely, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States. For example, two papers focus on Germany (one of which also deals with Latin America and Asia), a third is primarily concerned with institutional transformations originating in Africa, while a fourth analyzes recent Chinese investments in Africa.

Our session is divided into two ninety-minute segments, divided by topic. The first considers network governance; the second, the political economy of information.