[Air-L] Digital People, Digital Politics- extended deadline- 2nd April and speakers!

[Nayana Dhavan]

CALL FOR CONFERENCE: DIGITAL PEOPLE, DIGITAL POLITICS

*May 17, 2019*

*Bush House ( North East) ground floor, King's College London, Strand*

*Deadline: 2nd April, 2019*

We are delighted to announce that Dr. Tobias Blanke will be opening the
conference and Dr. Natalie Fenton will be presenting the keynote address.

Social media platforms and the internet have become a battleground for
ideas and political discussion. As the importance of these digital
intermediaries has grown, many questions about how to navigate the world of
digital politics in a meaningful and effective way have emerged. With the
controversies surrounding the 2016 United States Presidential election,
Brexit, the #MeToo movement, and other democratic conflicts across the
globe, it is becoming increasingly evident that these media have come to
play an essential role in structuring political discourse, social
movements, and collective identity.

When the internet emerged as a global commodity, it came with promises of
nascent forms of political engagement. Digital platforms gave people new
methods of voicing common grievances, starting social movements, and
creating an impetus towards a more just society. However, in recent years
there is evidence of increased polarisation and even hostility in online
networks. With curated news feed, echo chambers, and fake news, users can
shape their own isolated online politics.

This conference will investigate how social media platforms and the digital
are changing the nature of political discourse, online debate, and
collective action. These platforms have shaped and altered many traditional
forms of political involvement, such as campaign funding, candidate
representation, and pertinent debates remain as to what extent digital
media is enhancing or limiting democratic processes

Digital technologies have impacted politics and social engagement in a
myriad of ways, so we invite submissions that breach this theme from
multifarious critical and methodological approaches and from diverse
contexts. The academic implications or this broad topic are numerous, as we
begin to understand more deeply how digital technologies are adapting to
and transforming the political world.

Topics for discussion may include (but are not limited to):

• The role of digital media in elections across the globe

• Collective action and social movements online

• Online campaigns

• Alt-Right and populist politics

• Free speech and liberty online

• Regulation and data misuse of online political spaces

• Gender and online politics

• Big data and politics

Abstracts are to be submitted to digitalpeople.digitalpolitics at gmail.com by
2nd April, 2019. We are open to:

• Individual papers (250 word abstract with a short academic bio, plus any
specific requirements authors may have).

• Panel proposals (250 word abstract with a short academic bio for each
person, additional 250 word abstract for the panel as a whole, plus any
specific requirements authors may have).

• Workshops (1.5 hours – 250 word abstract with the aims and a description
of the proposed workshop, short academic bios of workshop organisers plus
any specific requirements organisers may have)

• Posters/ multimedia presentations/ art (250 word abstract with a short
academic bio, any relevant URLS, plus any specific requirements).

All applicants will be notified as to whether or not they have been invited
to present by 15th April, 2019.

For updated information on the conference, please see the website:
http://newperspectivesdh.com


Contact us at Digitalpeople.digitalpolitics at gmail.com for questions and to
send in your abstracts!