From system to society : The international affaires of Internet.

More than ever, the Internet is the topic of the day. It is the theme of many hot-tempered debates and loosely written articles. Lacking,however, are more profound studies that gauge the underlying mechanism of this very system of communication. Basically, Internet is an anarchic system through wich millions of users interact or communicate with each other. The main question, then, is: " How is order maintained in a similar system? Is it all possible to regulate an anarchic system with so many users as the Intrenet? "In the proposed project we want to answer this fundamental question through an application of the constructivist structural theory as it was developed within the discipline of international relations. This theory indicates how actors on the basis of shared knowledge and material resources are able to develop rule systems via concrete processes of interaction. Among others, the theory shows how anarchic systems develop themselves into communities or societies. Starting from the constructivist structural theory and applying it to several case studies, we expect to deduce general propositions as the way in wich rule systemsare generated within the Internet. The basic assumption is that in this way it will be possible to get a better grasp of the functional aspects of the Internet.