[Air-L] CFP- Networking Democracy? New media innovations in participatory politics

[Dan Mercea]

Dear all,

Please see call for papers below. Apologies for cross-postings.

Best regards,

Dan

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Call for Papers:

“Networking Democracy? New media innovations in participatory politics”

A three day Symposium to be held at Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj, Romania

25-27 June 2010

Website:

http://www.brisc.info/NetDem/index.php?page=networking-democracy

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 


Democratic politics worldwide are increasingly being conducted and 
re-configured through the domain of digital communications networks. The 
socio-technical developments, such as Web 2.0, facilitating these 
media-saturated public spheres are in little doubt. What is highly 
contested however is the interpretation of what these profound changes 
offer for democratic governance in the twenty-first century. At its 
heart is the recognition that these new media networks are themselves 
the crucial site for a historical confrontation between opposing 
political and/or business interests and discourses intent upon forging 
new forms of social relations.

We will address questions such as:

What new forms and relations of power are produced in the digital 
network society?

Who are the key social actors shaping the new public sphere and what are 
their respective strategies, framing, and repertoires of action?

What is the democratic potential of Web 2.0 applications such as social 
networking, blogging and twittering?

What empirical evidence do we have to understand and assess these 
developments?

How is networked democracy influencing new democratic societies?

What are its consequences for human rights, social sorting, migration, 
e-government, community politics, surveillance, protest, participation, 
culture, identity, mobilization, representation, nationalism, security, 
citizen journalism, trust, regulation, both exogenous and 
self-regulation and much more?

Speakers include:

W. Lance Bennett <http://depts.washington.edu/bennett/about.html>, 
University of Washington, USA

Bruce Bimber <http://www.polsci.ucsb.edu/faculty/bimber/>, University of 
California at Santa Barbara, USA

Donatella Della Porta 
<http://www.eui.eu/DepartmentsAndCentres/PoliticalAndSocialSciences/People/Professors/Profiles/todump/bioDellaporta.aspx>, 
European University Institute, Italy

William H. Dutton <http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/faculty.cfm?id=1>, 
Oxford Internet Institute, UK

Brian Loader <http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/soci/about/s_load.htm>, 
University of York, UK

Rodica Mocan 
<http://www.plaxo.com/directory/profile/141734557021/4e737db5/Rodica/Mocan>, 
Babeş-Bolyai University, Romania

We invite papers from all disciplines which have addressed these topics. 
The paper title, an abstract of up to 500 words, a short bio and contact 
details should be sent to Dan Mercea, Department of Sociology, 
University of York, Heslington, YO10 5DD, dmm505 at york.ac.uk 
<mailto:dmm505 at york.ac.uk> before 7 December 2009. Notifications of 
acceptance will be sent out by 15 January 2010. For more details visit 
http://www.brisc.info/NetDem/

The event is supported by the Center for Political Analysis 
<http://www.polito.ubbcluj.ro/cpa/en/index.html>and the European Studies 
Department <http://www.euro.ubbcluj.ro/en/> (Babeş-Bolyai University), 
the Science and Technology Studies Unit 
<http://www.york.ac.uk/res/satsu/> and the Department of Sociology 
<http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/soci/degrees/resscitech.htm>(University of 
York)

Selected papers from the conference will be published in a special issue 
of the international journal Information, Communication and Society 
<http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/rics>


IMPORTANT DATES:

Submission deadline: 7 December 2009

Notifications of acceptance: 15 January 2010

Symposium: 25-27 June 2010