[Air-l] Moscow COST conference call for papers: Politics Online

[Jankowski]

Please find below a CFP for a EU COST conference, 
to be held in Moscow, 23-25 May 2007:

Politics Online: Comparative Perspectives, 
Theories & Methodological Innovations

Feel free to redistribute as you deem 
appropriate, and apologies for any cross-posting.

Best,

Nick Jankowski

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Visiting Fellow
Virtual Knowledge Studio for the Humanities and Social Sciences
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
nickjan at xs4all.nl
www.virtualknowledgestudio.nl
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Politics Online:
Comparative Perspectives, Theories & Methodological Innovations

Contributions are invited for two conference 
sessions devoted to recent theoretical 
developments in online politics and 
methodological innovations for investigating 
these developments. ‘Politics Online’ should be 
conceived broadly to include both traditional 
politics such as ‘top-down’ government-driven 
activities as well as ‘bottom-up’ citizen-based initiatives.

Session 1: Comparative Perspectives

For Session 1, comparative contributions as well 
as single-country case studies are invited, 
independent of geographical region. These papers 
may be either primarily theoretical or empirical 
studies. The site of the conference in Moscow 
provides opportunity to explore developments 
regarding online politics in post-communist 
countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia 
and other CIS countries as well as China and 
Southeast Asia from the perspective of 
comparative post-communism. Contributions from 
elsewhere – including North America, Western 
Europe and other regions – are also welcome.

Suggested topics for Session 1 include:
    * use of mobile telephones (e.g., SMS 
exchanges) and e-mail during election campaigns, 
political and social movement actions;
    * web presence (websites and blogs) by political actors;
    * online discussion and chat forums oriented 
towards politics, public affairs and social movements;
    * Internet censorship and authoritarian measures regarding new media;
    * online privacy;
    * theoretical conceptualizations (such as social-shaping of technologies).

Session 2: Methodological Innovations

For Session 2, we invite 
methodologically-oriented papers concerned with 
conducting research in the online environment. As 
with the papers for Session 1, online politics 
should be seen as encompassing traditional 
political communication as well as citizen and 
social movement oriented political initiatives.

Suggested methodologically oriented topics include:
    * comparative online research;
    * content and discourse analysis techniques 
for studying political websites;
    * ethnographic exploration of online political engagement;
    * link analysis;
    * mixed-method research designs.

The sessions are planned as part of a larger EU 
COST Action 298 conference, to be held 23-25 May 
2007 in Moscow. This conference, entitled The 
Good, the Bad and the Unexpected: The user and 
the future of information and communication 
technologies, is hosted by the Institute of the 
Information Society, Moscow, Russian Federation. 
For further details, see the conference site 
<http://conference.cost298.org/>http://conference.cost298.org. 
These two sessions about online politics are 
co-organized by COST Action A30, which is 
concerned with establishing a new media research 
agenda for East and Central Europe. For further 
details, see 
<http://www.cmcs.ceu.hu:8080/cmcs/a30cost/>http://www.cmcs.ceu.hu:8080/cmcs/a30cost/.

Interested persons are encouraged to contact the 
session organizers as soon as possible regarding 
ideas for papers. The deadline for submission of 
abstracts is 10 January 2007. Authors will be 
notified by 31 January regarding acceptance. Full 
papers are to be submitted no later than 15 May 
2007. Plans are being made for a journal theme 
issue and submissions will be considered for inclusion.

The sessions are co-organized by:
    * Miklos Sukosd (Central European 
University), Chair, COST Action A30: <mailto:sukosdm at ceu.hu>sukosdm at ceu.hu
    * Nicholas Jankowski (Virtual Knowledge 
Studio, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and 
Sciences), COST Action A30, Working Group 1 
leader: <mailto:nickjan at xs4all.nl>nickjan at xs4all.nl
    * Chantal de Gournay (France Telecom R&D), 
COST Action 298, chantal.degournay at orange-ftgroup.com

Please send abstracts to:
    * Miklos Sukosd, Chair, COST Action A30: 
<mailto:sukosdm at ceu.hu>sukosdm at ceu.hu
    * the organizational address for the 
conference: <mailto:costconference at fub.it>costconference at fub.it.