This article discusses the idea of “civil society” and its relationship to the developing global movement for communication rights.  The article reviews the work of a wide range of civil society theorists and applies them to recent developments such as the United Nations’ World Summit on the Information Society.

The essays in this issue are based on a research colloquium that took place on 5±7 May

2003 in the cities of Padova and Venice, Italy. Sponsored by the University of Padova,

the colloquium theme was `Information Society Visions and Governance: the World

Summit on the Information Society and Beyond'. The event was intended to serve as

an opportunity for communication policy researchers to gather and re¯ect on research

and policy agendas for global communication, in anticipation of the ®rst phase of the

World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), which took place in December

2003 in Geneva.