[ecrea] Call for papers, 2001-2011 Changing Internet Politics - Sociologica

 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.
> The journal 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 has been extended until March 10, 
2012. 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 ‘Essays’ section.
>
> More details about the journal :
> www.sociologica.mulino.it
> (info.sociologica /at/ mulino.it)
>
> Anna Carola Freschi
> Co-editor of Sociologica
> www.sociologica.mulino.it
>

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