[ecrea] CfP. 2001-2011 Changing Internet Politics

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Call for papers
*2001-2011 Changing Internet Politics*

In the past decade, contrasting trends have alternately fuelled hopes
and fears concerning the potential of the Internet and then new digital
personal/social media for democratic participation.Despite the
persisting problem of the digital divide, Internet users have grown in
number from about 300 million to the 1.4 billion of today, and a new
generation of tools, providing mobile and simultaneous ‘community’
services, seems to have reshaped the way in which people connect and
communicate.

Whilst it is generally agreed that the new media have been important
resources for social movements since the end of the 1990s, it is also
apparent that they still to encounter obstacles against their systematic
entry into the general public sphere and effective influence on
political decision-making, with the exception of rare and brief
episodes/events. In parallel, in many countries, digital participation
seems to have gained a strong position in the rhetorics adopted by
governments and institutional actors (under the labels of e-democracy
and e-participation).

In spite of this institutional fascination with the Web, throughout the
past decade the claim for an Internet Bill of Rights on the global
multi-stakeholder agenda (WSIS) has had to face the ‘securitarian turn’
produced by the global terrorism alarm since the 11 September attacks.
Moreover, Internet ‘politics from below’, in their collective as well as
individual forms, like those emblematically practiced by bloggers and
social networks, has suffered from the increasing processes of market
colonization and corporate concentration deployed on the Net and their
implications in terms of the privatization of privacy and censorship
policies, with and without state intervention.

Nevertheless, there is considerable evidence for the Internet’s growing
libertarian political impact. This is the case of the global challenge
to state secrecy raised by WikiLeaks and also by the spring 2011
uprisings in the Mediterranean Arabian countries. But is also the case
of recent developments in the contentious politics of some European
countries (e.g. the Spanish ‘indignados’, or the successful Italian
referendum movement) where digital social networks have proved powerful
means to convey demands for a radical renewal of politics based on a
stronger and more direct role of citizens, and on a critique of
post-democratic functionings.

*Sociologica (www.sociologica.mulino.it)* invites scholars to analyze
this decade of Internet politics with its ambivalent dynamics. Equally
welcome are papers devoted to empirical analysis of specific aspects, or
which seek to draw a wider picture of Internet political trends
throughout the decade.

The final deadline for submission is December 20th 2011. The papers
selected will be published according to the order of their final
acceptance by the journal, and they will be commented on in the ‘Essay’
section.

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