Networking Democracy?

New Media Innovations in Participatory Politics

A three day symposium to be held at Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj, Romania

25-27 June 2010

 

The call for papers is now closed. Many thanks to everyone who has submitted an abstract.

 

Authors of accepted paper proposals please use the following guidelines to format your paper:

Papers should be in English, typed in double spacing (including all notes and references).

English or American spelling is acceptable provided usage is consistent.

An abstract of the paper, of up to 250 words, should accompany the paper.

Papers should not normally exceed 7000 words in length.

Notes should be kept to a minimum and placed at the end of the article before the references; footnotes should be avoided.

For more detailed advice on editing and formatting your paper we encourage you to use the guidelines for contributors of the journal  iCS (Information, Communication & Society)

Completed papers should be submitted by 31 May 2010.

 

 

Call for papers:

Democratic politics worldwide are increasingly being conducted and re-configured through the domain of digital communications networks. The socio-technical developments, such as Web 2.0, facilitating these media-saturated public spheres are in little doubt. What is highly contested however is the interpretation of what these profound changes offer for democratic governance in the twenty-first century. At its heart is the recognition that these new media networks are themselves the crucial site for a historical confrontation between opposing political and/or business interests and discourses intent upon forging new forms of social relations.

This short conference is intended to focus upon the nature and practices of this contested domain and addresses questions such as:

• What new forms and relations of power are produced in the digital network society?
• Who are the key social actors shaping the new public sphere and what are their respective strategies, framing, and repertoires of action?
• What is the democratic potential of Web 2.0 applications such as social networking, blogging and twittering?
• What empirical evidence do we have to understand and assess these developments?
• How is networked democracy influencing new democratic societies?
• What are its consequences for human rights, social sorting, migration, e-government, community politics, surveillance, protest, participation, culture, identity, mobilization, representation, nationalism, security, citizen journalism, trust, regulation, both exogenous and self-regulation and much more?

 Speakers include:     

                                 W. Lance Bennett , University of Washington, USA

                                 Bruce Bimber, University of California at Santa Barbara, USA

                                 Donatella Della Porta, European University Institute, Italy

                                 William H. Dutton, Oxford Internet Institute, UK

                                 Brian Loader, University of York, UK

                                 Rodica Mocan, Babeş-Bolyai University, Romania

We invite papers from all disciplines which have addressed these topics. The paper title, an abstract of up to 500 words, a short bio  (both in English) and contact details should be sent to Dan Mercea, Department of Sociology, University of York, Heslington, YO10 5DD, U.K., dmm505@york.ac.uk. The call for papers is now closed.