Introduction: Global Communication Governance at the Crossroads

The current historical moment is characterised by a multitude of intersecting dynamics and challenges. The Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated the vulnerability of the social, economic and political foundations of contemporary societies across the world; recurring wars and geopolitical tensions point to the fragility of international relations; and the looming ecological breakdown questions the very future of human civilisation. Yet while right-wing populism is shaking up politics in many countries, there is growing recognition that these challenges require cross-border collaboration as well as perspectives that complement established (mostly Western) vantage points, and new movements and alliances to forge links to address multiple questions of social (and global) justice. Promises of globalisation and global governance that seemed to hold only a couple of decades ago now sound increasingly hollow, but the re-emergence of nationalisms and isolationist policies do not provide many promising answers. We are at a crossroads with regard to the very future of human existence, but also in the ways our media and communication systems are organised and may develop in the coming years and decades. The respective roles of different actors in shaping our communicative environment are in flux, and their configurations and power relations will have huge implications for our future possibilities for generating and sharing knowledge and contributing our voices to the necessary debates around existential and communication challenges.