[Air-L] CfP IPSA - RC10 Electronic Democracy (new deadline)

[Stephanie Wojcik]

*Call for papers
International Political Science Association (IPSA) World Congress - 
Research Committee 10 "Electronic Democracy"*

The 22nd World Congress of the IPSA will take place in *Madrid (Spain) 
from 8 to 12 July 2012.*

*Use www.ipsa.org <http://www.ipsa.org/events/congress/madrid2012> to 
submit a paper.*

NEW DEADLINE ! Deadline for paper proposals and abstracts is*_October 
17, 2011_*.

The call of paper is avalaible on the RC10 website : http://rc10.ipsa.org/

*Panel 1. Open government*

Chairs: Richard Engstrom, Duke University (USA) - richard.engstrom at duke.edu
Stéphanie Wojcik, University of Paris Est Créteil (France) -- 
stephanie.wojcik at u-pec.fr

Discussant: Albert J. Meijer, Utrecht University (A.J.Meijer at uu.nl) (TBC)

Calls for governments to provide open, easy-to-use and largely 
free-of-charge access to public data have grown in recent years - such 
as the 'Transparency and Open Government' programme initiated under 
Obama's presidency in the US or the Public Data Corporation supported by 
the UK Cabinet Office (2011) while the European Commission, through the 
SEMIC.EU platform, is promoting the idea of Linked Government Metadata 
(2010).Making public information and data more widely available is 
indeed thought to support democratic citizenship by increasing 
transparency and accountability in government, allowing individuals and 
groups to monitor and evaluate particular policies, services, and the 
performance of government in general. While little systematic research 
has been done on open government so far, initiatives associated with the 
term have generated opposing views. This panel issue is concerned with 
the concrete benefits and the downsides of the various opendata 
initiatives worldwide. Which public policies and strategies of 
implementation are known? Are European initiatives adopting such 
strategies or are there new instruments?

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

- Surveillance, data privacy and regulations

- Transparency, accountability and civic engagement

- Production of services and public goods and changing roles of 
government, public authorities, business, civil society and citizens

- Technological and organizational challenges of open government

*Panel 2. E democracy and deliberation*

Chairs: Raphael Kies, (University of Luxembourg) - raphael.kies at uni.lu
Norbert Kersting, (University of Münster, Germany), 
-norbert.kersting at uni-marburg.de

Dialogical deliberative instruments are vitalizing democracy. 
Participatory budgeting, deliberative polls, forums and other 
participatory instruments are implemented . These instruments are often 
combined with e-participation tools. Internet conference, open space 
online, participatory budgeting online, e-petitions, blogs, web forums 
etc. are implemented to support or to substitute traditional instruments 
for participation. This raises the question about the quality of 
deliberation in the internet. The panel will try to categorize, analyze 
and evaluate the different tools.

*Panel 3. Electronic voting re-vitalized?*

Chairs: Richard Niemi, (University Rochester, USA) - niemi at rochester.edu
Josep Reniu, (University of Barcelona, Spain) - jreniu at ub.edu

Discussant: Alexander Trechsel

Electronic voting and internet voting seems to be reinvigorated. This 
panel discusses strategies of national and supranational institutions 
such as Council of Europe regarding Electronic and internet voting. New 
experiments in Mexico, Argentina, new trends in India etc will be 
presented. Latest developments in Norway in the local election will be 
analyzed. New experiences in Estonia, Switzerland, USA, Russia evaluated.

*Panel 4. e-Revolution and Pluralism in Countries of the 2011 "Arab 
spring": Egypt and Tunisia
This is a joint panel with RC 16 Socio political pluralism and RC 10 
e-democracy*

Chairs: Rainer Eisfeld (RC 16) (University Osnabrueck, Germany) 
-rainer.eisfeld at uni-osnabrueck.de
Norbert Kersting (RC 10) (University of Münster, Germany), 
-norbert.kersting at uni-marburg.de

Discussant: Jason Abbott

A pluralist alliance of various civil society groups -- workers, women, 
urban professionals, moderate islamists, underemployed (particularly 
from among the youth) -- with different, sometimes overlapping, 
grievances, ousted the previous regimes in Tunisia and Egypt. Largely 
mobilised via the Internet, these groups have different interests and 
pursue differing political projects for their countries' 
post-revolutionary future. The panel will trace sources of several 
important Egyptian and Tunesian protest groups' politicization and 
subsequent mobilisation, also attempting to spell out implications of 
their projects for the post-Ben Ali and post-Mubarak eras. Are there 
lessons to be learned for the rest of the world?

*Panel 5. Scrutinizing mobilisation in networked politics*

Convenor: Jorge Luis Salcedo Maldonado (Univ. Autonoma Barcelona) 
jorgelsalcedo at gmail.com
Chair: Marta Cantijoch Co-Chair: Mayo Fuster Morell

Discussants: Camilo Cristancho, Jorge Luis Salcedo Maldonado

Internet use has expanded the mobilisation opportunities of organised 
political actors (political parties, social movements, interest groups) 
while giving prominence to non-organised individuals or individuals 
organised via flexible structures or mainly online-based formats (such 
as online communities). Digital tools like websites, blogs or social 
networking sites, among others, are reshaping communicational dynamics 
and mobilising strategies.

This panel calls for papers aiming at expanding our knowledge on the 
changes in mobilisation processes that are taking place as a consequence 
of the spread of internet mediated communication. We invite paper 
proposals addressing any of the following questions: Can we characterize 
online mobilization as comprising considerably different processes from 
those used in more traditional channels? What can we learn from 
differences between online mobilisation strategies by different type of 
actors in multiple contexts? What are the factors explaining the use of 
new media for political mobilisation? How can mobilisation effects be 
assessed in terms of collective outcomes such as turnout, or individual 
changes in attitudes and behaviours?

We encourage proposals that combine conceptual discussion and empirical 
analysis. We also welcome analyses of the changes occurring in the use 
of online methods of mobilisation across time and/or countries.