Rethinking Regulation: international norms and local realities

Briefing
  • Published 28/08/11

Technologies are finding their way to more remote and diverse corners of the globe, bringing with them significant opportunities for human development, but also risks – to individuals, the environment, and society as a whole. The ESRC STEPS Centre’s Regulation project investigated the challenge of regulating technology across very different local settings within an interdependent and globalising world.

The way people use technology often operates far beyond the view of those who negotiate international regulations. We wanted to see how the ‘proper’ use of technologies assumed in regulatory goals compares with situations on the ground – especially the realities of how poorer communities use technology.