Strange as it may seem I have never actually written an abstract for my thesis. The title is Regulating Disruptive Technologies…the rattling you hear is the dried up remnants of a brain which seem to shake inside my skull when I write.
Different groups claim to be superstitous. I think deep down inside all Phd students are superstitious (a bit like Pascal’s gambit – the odds are better on believing!). So I will say that the date is closing fast but I will not utter the actual calender date.
Abstract
The main point of this thesis is to show that the regulation of technology is the regulation of democracy. To understand how the regulation of technology effects the regulation of democracy this thesis will study the regulatory activities of the regulator and the reactions of those being regulated. The driving force is the understanding of the effect of technological change upon social institutions. This work will examine the technological challenges to central social institutions and show that the technological change has far outpaced the evolution of the social concepts in these areas and as a result the technology can be viewed as being a disruptive force in society.
The understanding of the concept of disruption within this work is important. Disruption is as an agent of change in society. Change is a semi-autonomous driving force in society brought about by disruption. Therefore, disruption is the motor of change, change is what pushes, or pulls, society forward. Therefore the basis of this thesis is that disruption is good.
The locus of this work is the Internet. The study is on the regulation and over-regulation of Internet based activities. The measure of whether a technology has been regulated or over-regulated will depend upon the democratic effects of the regulation. If the implemented regulation tends to not only regulate unwanted/undesirable behaviour but regularly criminalises or frustrates many types of legitimate behaviour then the situation is one of over-regulation.
It is therefore the purpose of this thesis to look at the use of power through the regulatory structures. While the study of the creation and adaptation of regulation shows the movements and flows within structures, the reactions towards regulation shows the human actors desires to adapt and negotiate the new social orders being created. To better understand these processes it is necessary to look at the way in which technology can be seen as a disruptive force and the way in which technology and democracy are being linked together in rhetoric and practice. This thesis will exemplify, discuss and analyse the democratic effects of the disruptive effects being brought about by technology and the attempts to regulate information and communications technology (ICT).
The development of understanding of the way in which we regulate disruptive technology helps us to understand the regulation of that which is new and which threatens that which is established. The results of such a study can then be applied to all domains where regulation of disruptive technology may occur. This may be within an organisation, a family group, a multi-national corporation or a state.