Uncertainty, agency, and the future context of internet governance: a foresightful conversation

This paper is a structured dialogue between its authors around the question “How might future scenarios nourish our thinking about internet governance?” A scenario set developed by Australia’s domain name regulator auDA is used as the prism for this conversation. Each author has a distinct disciplinary and professional background, and four of them initially explore the question from their own angle. The second part of this paper comprises reflection on these individual contributions, with authors pairing off so that two authors comment on the inputs by the other two, and vice versa. This exemplifies the discursive nature of scenarios work, understood as “the art of strategic conversation.” The article models ways in which policymakers and researchers might use scenarios to explore internet governance in times of uncertainty.