[Air-L] CFP Understanding and Examining the Digital Advocacy Pioneers - abstract deadline 30/03

James Dennis jameswilliamdennis at gmail.com
Mon Mar 26 01:43:33 PDT 2018


With apologies for cross-posting. A reminder that the deadline for this
workshop is on Friday.

*Understanding and Examining the Digital Advocacy Pioneers*

Dates: Thursday, 6 September — Friday, 7 September 2018
Location: University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom
Convenors: Dr James Dennis (University of Portsmouth) and Dr Nina Hall
(Johns Hopkins University)

Sponsored by the Transnational Civil Society Project at the University of
Portsmouth and the Political Studies Association Media and Politics Group.

*Description and Objective*

A new generation of digital advocacy organizations have emerged around the
world including: 38 Degrees in the UK, MoveOn in the US; GetUp! in
Australia and Amandla.Mobi in South Africa. These organizations all share
the same basic organizational form: they are progressive, multi-issue, and
membership-driven. These organizations are at the forefront of digital
campaigning. They are pioneering the use of new technologies — be it
WhatAapp, analytics, or Facebook — to rapidly mobilise people online and
offline.  The activism fostered by these groups has fundamentally changed
how groups mobilise and organize citizens for political engagement.

While research has been conducted on these campaigning groups independently
within a national context (Chadwick and Dennis, 2017; Karpf, 2012; Vromen,
2017), there has been no research on the global network within which they
operate: the Online Progresive Engagement Network (OPEN). Spanning six
continents and mobilising over 17 million citizens, this workshop will
bring together scholars researching these groups at the forefront of
innovations in online campaigning. From established netroots organisations
like Campact (Germany) and Leadnow (Canada), to newer groups such as Uplift
(Ireland), amandla.mobi (South Africa), ActionStation (New Zealand),
Skiftet (Sweden), #aufstehn (Austria), and Campax (Switzerland), this
workshop seeks to document the evolution of online organising and digital
campaigning across the world. This workshop marks the first gathering of
scholars working in this area.

We are delighted to host Andrew Chadwick (The Hybrid Media System), David
Karpf (The MoveOn Effect) and Ariadne Vromen (Digital Citizenship and
Political Engagement) for the workshop, three leading scholars in this area.

We are keen to attract new theoretical and empirical inquiries that examine:
• How these groups are shaping contemporary political participation (e.g.
the influence on campaigning tactics adopted by other political
organisations).
• The origins and evolution of new OPEN organisations, such as #aufstehn,
ActionStation, Uplift, and Campax.
• The OPEN Movement, and how these campaigning groups operate at the global
level.
• Case studies of particular campaigns, illustrating the working practices
of these activist groups.
• How and why citizens engage with these organisations, and what this means
for broader questions about democratic citizenship.
• How these organisations contribute to debates surrounding
slacktivism/clicktivism.
• The relationships formed between netroots organisations and political
parties, professional media, and legacy interest groups.
• What counts as “success” and “impact” for these organisations.
• The role of affect, emotion, and personal identity within campaigns.

Please email your proposals to james.dennis at port.ac.uk and nhall at jhu.edu.
Proposals should include the following: title and name, institutional
affiliation, and email address, together with a paper title and abstract of
not more than 500 words. Proposers should also indicate whether or not they
are current postgraduate students. No fees will be required for this
workshop.

*Key dates*

● March 30, 2018: 500-word paper proposals due. Please email your proposals
to james.dennis at port.ac.uk and nhall at jhu.edu
● April 27, 2018: Authors informed of selection and invitations issued.
● May 18, 2018: Send confirmation of willingness to participate.
● August 3, 2018: Full workshop papers emailed to James and Nina.
● September 6-7, 2018: Workshop
● December 2018: Request for revised papers for special issue.

*Outputs from the workshop*

We are in discussion with relevant journals for a special issue. If
successful, submissions for the workshop will be considered and full papers
invited in December 2018.

-- 
*Dr James Dennis*
Senior Lecturer in Political Communication and Journalism | University of
Portsmouth

*e* james.dennis at port.ac.uk
*t* @jameswilldennis <https://twitter.com/jameswilldennis>
*w*  jameswilldennis.com
*a* School of Social, Historical and Literary Studies, University of
Portsmouth, Milldam (LB 3.03), Burnaby Road, Portsmouth, PO1 3AS



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