Information for all? : the emergence of UNESCO's policy discourse on the information society (1990-203)

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) is the only organisation of the United Nations with a clear mandate related to communication and information. This thesis closes a gap in research about UNESCO and its involvement in international communication debates by analysing the emergence of UNESCO's policy discourse on the information society between 1990 and 2003, the intermediary period between the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) and the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). Taking into account the historical, political and institutional background of UNESCO and its activities in the field of information and communication, the empirical analysis focuses on three different policy processes that contributed to UNESCO's policy discourse on the information society: the INFOethics conference series; the creation of UNESCO's intergovernmental Information For All Programme (IFAP); and the preparation of the Recommendation concerning the promotion and use of multilingualism and universal access to cyberspace. However, instead of assessing the discourse as it is reflected by the final output of these policy processes, the thesis aims to challenge traditional policy analysis by focusing on the interaction of policy actors and the practices and arguments they use in order to retrace the emergence of discourse during these processes...