[Air-L] Call for Abstracts on the Politics of Digital Media in the Balkans and the Middle East

[Helga Tawil Souri]

Apologies for cross-posting


  *Call for Abstracts on the Politics of Digital Media in the Balkans and
the Middle East.*

Editors: Helga Tawil-Souri (New York University) and Zala Volcic (University
of Queensland)



We invite abstract submissions for an edited book on the creation,
dissemination, interpretation, and role of digital media for political
purposes in the Balkans and the Middle East. The Balkan and Middle East
contexts provide interesting case studies because of their overlapping
patterns of national and regional identification combined with the tensions
these create.



The overall goal of the edited volume will be to consider the relationship
between a wide array of internet uses and forms of political deliberation,
taking into consideration both the ways in which interactive media help to
foster deliberation, discussion, and the coordination of collection action,
and the ways in which they may thwart public sphere ideals of rational
critical deliberation and public accountability. Our intent is to provide an
overview of the spectrum of political uses of new media in these two
regions.



Contributors may come from a range of disciplinary and methodological
perspectives, attending to how political groups, practices, and
communicative genres are underwritten and sustained via engagement with
digital technology, as well as to how the political realm itself is
transformed in the age of digital media.



Relevant topics include but are not limited to the following:

-         The political uses of digital media

-         The uses of digital media for purposes of organizing protest and
dissent and for the construction of forums for political deliberation.

-         How activists and (political) groups have used the internet to
hold state authorities accountable or challenge them, or to publish and
circulate information.

-         The creation, dissemination and/or interpretation of digital media
content by communities and individuals for political purposes

-         The kinds of politics that are created/expressed in the digital
media environment

-         How mediated expressions and spaces connect to politics ‘on the
ground’

-         The kinds of political challenges that arise from digital media
use in the regions

-         The shifting relationship between digital media and journalism

-         How  population groups use the internet to connect with one
another across national divisions (for example Serbs living in Bosnia,
Serbia, and Montenegro; Palestinians living in Israel, Lebanon, Jordan and
Syria).



-         Chapters may focus on different forms of digital media and spaces:
internet cafes, social networking sites, bulletin boards, blogs, twitter,
wikipedia, youTube, listservs, websites and other digital/social media.

-         Chapters may focus on one national context or sub-context, or may
be comparative in scope.

-         For the purposes of this project, the relevant geographic range of
the Balkans and the Middle East includes the following: Albania, Croatia,
Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Romania, Bulgaria,
Moldova, Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestinian Territories,
Israel, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen.

-         We particularly welcome contributions from scholars from the
relevant regions.



Please send a *short bio, a publication list,* and a *500 word
abstract* detailing
the topic of your article, the overall context, your material, methodology,
and theoretical argument by *March 1, 2010*. Authors will be notified by the
25th of March 2010 of the outcome of their submissions. If accepted, full
papers, of a maximum of 6,000 words, should be submitted by* September 1,
2010*. Papers will then be reviewed individually by the editors and in the
standard blind review process of the publisher.



Submissions and inquiries about this volume should be sent to both

helga at nyu.edu

z.volcic at uq.edu.au