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Gates, Sluices, Dams, and Leaks: Power and the Control of Information Flows
Unformatted Document Text:  1 Gates, Sluices, Dams, and Leaks: Power and the Control of Information Flows Ren J e E. Marlin-Bennett American University Prepared for delivery at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, September 2 - September 5, 2004. Copyright by the American Political Science Association. Note: This paper is a draft and represents some preliminary work on the topic. I welcome comments and criticism. Please contact me: ## email not listed ## . How is information linked to power? In this paper I try to answer that question by focusing on the control of information flow. Powerful agents, be they governments, firms, individuals, or groups, are able to act effectively as gatekeepers, keeping secrets, preventing the intrusion of unwanted information, disseminating information at will, and acquiring desired information. Controlling information flows for individuals and groups is closely connected to notions of privacy; for firms, it involves trade secrets and proprietary data; and for governments, it ties into national security. Since the flow of information is mediated by information and communications technologies, having access to them, along with the intellectual capital required to use them effectively, have become important prerequisites for having power. How do current political economic structures reinforce or ameliorate disparities of power by creating opportunities and constraints for agents as information gatekeepers?

Authors: Marlin-Bennett, Renee.
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1
Gates, Sluices, Dams, and Leaks: Power and the Control of Information Flows
Ren
J
e E. Marlin-Bennett
American University
Prepared for delivery at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association,
September 2 - September 5, 2004. Copyright by the American Political Science Association.
Note: This paper is a draft and represents some preliminary work on the topic.
I welcome comments and criticism. Please contact me:
## email not listed ##
.
How is information linked to power? In this paper I try to answer that question by focusing on the
control of information flow. Powerful agents, be they governments, firms, individuals, or groups, are able
to act effectively as gatekeepers, keeping secrets, preventing the intrusion of unwanted information,
disseminating information at will, and acquiring desired information. Controlling information flows for
individuals and groups is closely connected to notions of privacy; for firms, it involves trade secrets and
proprietary data; and for governments, it ties into national security. Since the flow of information is
mediated by information and communications technologies, having access to them, along with the
intellectual capital required to use them effectively, have become important prerequisites for having power.
How do current political economic structures reinforce or ameliorate disparities of power by creating
opportunities and constraints for agents as information gatekeepers?


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