[Air-L] CfP RC10 "Electronic Democracy" panels - IPSA Montreal, 19-24 July 2014

[Stephanie Wojcik]

Dear colleagues,

Please find below the list of panels run by the research committee 10 
"Electronic democracy" at the next International Political Science 
Association (IPSA) World Congress in Montreal (Canada) from 19 to 24 
July 2014.
The full call for paper is available on the RC10 blog : 
http://rc10.ipsa.org/
The deadline for abstract is*October 7, 2013*.

Best regards,
Norbert Kersting, University of Muenster (Germany)
Stéphanie Wojcik, University of Paris Est Créteil (France)


*Virtual inequalities*
Chair: Prof. Karen Mossberger (karen.mossberger at asu.edu)

Digital divide is still an important topic not only a problem on the 
global South. Large groups are excluded from broadband technology and 
online services. Digital inclusion is overlapped by economic, social and 
political exclusion. Papers focus on strategies overcoming that gap. 
These are not only technological infrastructural strategies but also 
educational policies.

*Digital Campaigning and Political Organizations*
Chair: Dr. Fabienne Greffet (Fabienne.Greffet at univ-lorraine.fr)
Discussant: Andrew Chadwick, Royal Holloway London (United Kingdom)

This panel invites papers not only on digital campaigning as such, but 
also on analysis of the consequences digital campaigning development 
might have on political organizations in a broad sense (political 
parties, trade-unions, NGOs...). Some scholars argue that organizations 
may become more and more professionalized and centralized, monitoring 
citizens through the development of information and targeting techniques 
(Howard). Others consider that a "citizen-initiated" campaign model may 
be emerging; this could transform organizations in a more expressive and 
participative way (Gibson). Forms of "organizational hybridity" may 
intertwine social movements and parties through their media activities 
(Chadwick). Are these approaches applicable to different countries and 
cases, whatever the political context and the institutional rules? And 
beyond, do digital campaigning and its consequences contribute to a 
redefinition of electronic democracy? If so, in what sense? These topics 
would be discussed in this panel at the IPSA conference in Montreal, in 
a comparative perspective.
*
Online Citizenship and the Reconfiguration of Democratic Practices. A 
comparative perspective*
Chair: Prof. Thierry Giasson (thierry.giasson at com.ulaval.ca)
Discussant: Dietlind Stolle, Centre for the Study of Democractic 
Citizenship, McGill University

This panel presents comparative studies dedicated to online democratic 
citizenship. Presentations will address the these three core questions: 
How do citizens use online resources and technologies, either through 
institutional devices or more informal networks and actions to express 
their citizenship? How are their online practices articulated to other, 
offline, forms of political expressions and activism? And, finally, does 
digital citizenship transform the way democracy works? Organizers 
welcome comparative work investigating these questions, however 
theoretically and methodologically innovative single case studies could 
also be presented.

*E-participation and democratic innovation*
Chair: Prof. Norbert Kersting (kerstinn at uni-muenster.de)
Co-Chair: prof Harald Baldersheim (harald.baldersheim at stv.uio.no)
Discussant: Harald Baldersheim

'Open Government' programme was initiated under Obama's presidency in 
the US. Besides open datra initiatives it reinvigorated new instruments 
for political participation. This allows individuals and groups to 
develop, monitor and evaluate particular policies, services, and the 
performance of government in general. New informations and commnication 
technologies bring in innovative partcipory instruments in the field of 
representative, demonstrative, deliberative and direct political 
particpation. These democratic innovations combine offlibne and online 
partcipation (blended democarcy) and they change the roles of 
government, public authorities, business, civil society and citizens.

*Social networks and e-deliberation *
Chair: Dr. Stéphanie Wojcik (stephanie.wojcik at u-pec.fr)
Co-Chair: Dr. Domagoj Bebic' (domagoj at edemokracija.hr)
Discussant: Domagoj Bebic'

Social media changed individual political participation dramatically. 
Social media seem to be crucial for these new social movements? What is 
the relationship between socio political pluralism and Internet? What is 
the reaction of political parties and civil society in democratic 
regimes. Papers focus on the evaluation of the quality of social networks.
This raises the question about the quality of these networks and the 
quality of deliberation in the internet. The panel will try to 
categorize, analyze and evaluate the different tools.

*E-voting:Internet voting, voting machines *
Chair: Dr. Thad Hall (thadhall at gmail.com)
Co-Chair: Prof. Alexander Trechsel
Discussant: Alexander Trechsel

Electronic voting and internet voting seems to be reinvigorated. This 
panel is open for discussion on 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 
should be presented. Latest developments and trends in Norway, Denmark, 
Switzerland in the local election and new experiences in Estonia, 
Switzerland, USA, Russia will be evaluated.

*Data protection and data security*
Chair: Dr. Shiru Wang (shiruw at gmail.com)
Co-Chair: Dr. Masahiro Iwasaki (iwasaki at mtj.biglobe.ne.jp)
Discussant: Shiru Wang

Surveillance, data privacy and regulations are becoming an important 
issue. 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 global 
initiatives adopting such strategies or are there new instruments?
Topics of interest include but are not limited to technological and 
organizational challenges.
*
**Catalyst or cacophony? The impact of the Internet on political opinion 
and participation in non-democratic regimes.*
Chair: Dr. Jason Abbott (jason.abbott at louisville.edu)
Co-Chair: Prof. Norbert Kersting
Discussant: Laurence Whitehead

This panel will provide a comparative analysis of the impact and 
implications of Internet use on political opinion and participation in 
authoritarian and quasi-authoritarian regimes. It is widely accepted 
that the Internet provides access to alternative sources of unmediated 
information, is a tool by which opposition and reformist voices can 
circumvent conventional forms of censorship and media regulation, and a 
means by which dissident groups can organize and mobilize. Such 
conventional wisdom however is drawn from a relatively small number of 
countries where authoritarian regimes have succumbed to reformist and 
revolutionary oppositions. To test whether the hypothesis is valid 
requires a much larger multi-country and multi-regional analysis. It is 
to this end that this panel will contribute. It is envisaged that the 
panel will present case studies and data from Latin America, Africa, the 
Middle East, Russia, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and 
Northeast Asia. To this end papers are invited from researchers 
investigating the impact and role of the Internet in these regions.

*Towards transparent societies? International Perspectives on Open 
Government, Open data & Transparency Research*
Chair: Dr. Sarah Labelle (sarah.labelle at sic.univ-paris13.fr)
Co-Chair: Mr. François ALLARD-HUVER
Discussants:
Prof. Yves Jeanneret
Dr. Claire Oger

Inspired by previous research on open government, transparency, public 
participation and governance practices in both Political Science and 
Information & Communication Sciences, this panel will discuss the 
current state of transparency research. From a historical and 
theoretical point of view to practical research focusing on policy 
implementations, proposals will explore how transparency redistributes 
powers and redefines relationships between stakeholders by examining its 
status as an ideological notion and as a model for action in the public 
sphere.
The panel will analyze how transparency refers to skills and expertise 
of public actors, in new frames of policies, especially those including 
the changing media environment (information society, open government, 
etc.). We aim to bring together different research traditions and 
geographic perspectives questioning the notion of transparency and 
related concepts like openness, accountability or empowerment. Topics of 
interest can pertain to varying scales and scopes of perspectives 
including organizations such as States, NGOs, IOs, etc., or themes such 
as governance, business, trust, etc.
Panel issues are concerned with the social operativity of the notion of 
transparency and the way it refers to concrete processes and political 
authority. Moreover, we form the hypothesis that transparency as a model 
leads to undervalue the role of communication and to occult tools, signs 
and socio-technical apparatuses.

*Voting advice application* (Possible joint panel with RC 23 Election)
Chair: Andre Krouwel (Vrije University) (a.p.m.krouwel-moredalaguna at vu.nl)
Discussant: Ali Carkoglu (Koc University)

Vote Advice Applications offer many potential opportunities to study the 
dynamics of elections over the course of the campaign. This panel brings 
together papers on VAA, its' use and impact on the electorate. Using 
novel technologies, such as eye-tracking, papers will explore what users 
focus on and how this impacts their use and retention of the data.