A16 - Policy and regulatory responses to the use of electronic communication technologies by transnational communities in Europe

The main objective of the Action was to increase understanding of how internet-based media and communication technologies affect the formation and proliferation of transnational communities, and how public policies and regulation enable, or hinder, this process.

The Action successfully provided a platform for continuous communication and co-operation between researchers who already knew each other or who were getting in contact for the first time. It brought together different perspectives and led to better understanding of transnational communities and their relationship with media and policy. In this way, it created a more coherent and interconnected group of European researchers and research units in the field.

Over time, the Action developed from a predominantly legal perspective to embrace a sociological and social science based approach. It also proceeded from nationally and conceptually disparate analyses to common projects with a strong emphasis on generalising, comparing and theorising.
The Action has published significantly on such topics as civil society participation in international decision-making and the media cultures of diasporic and migrant minorities in the West. A forthcoming book will feature papers by Action members organised around the two main research themes of “transnational civil society communities” and “transnational diasporic communities”.
A successful final conference by the Action in Helsinki in May 2004 further contributed to future European research co-operation in the field.