[ecrea] call for abstracts: social media and civic engagement: contesting the mainstream

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: SOCIAL MEDIA AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT: CONTESTING THE 
MAINSTREAM

http://nsice.org/events/

Network on Social Innovation and Civic Engagement (nSICE) will be 
hosting a workshop to take place in Denmark on November 15-16. The nSICE 
workshop will be embedded in the biannual conference of the Danish 
Association of Media Researchers (SMID), the theme of which this year is 
‘Media and Civic Engagement’. The conference is organized around three 
sub themes: (1) ‘Media and Mobility’, (2) ‘Governance, Political 
Communication and Journalism’ and (3) ‘Social Media and Civic 
Engagement. Contesting the Mainstream’. The third is organized by nSICE.

Under the heading ‘Social Media and Civic Engagement: Contesting the 
Mainstream’ nSICE wishes to investigate civic engagement beyond the 
requirements of liberal citizenship. Taking dissent and protest against 
the establishment (government, international governance, multinational 
corporations, etc.) as crucial to the construction of an alternative 
social and political imaginary, the workshop will discuss the potential 
of social media for fostering, stimulating and sustaining 
counter-discourses as well exploring actual such practices of various 
forms of social actors.

We invite abstracts addressing civic engagement as protest from a range 
of disciplines, including communication and media studies, cultural 
studies, political science, development studies and 
organization/management studies. We welcome abstracts that address 
issues including, but not limited to:

* Using social media to mobilize for anti-establishment action

* Social media, political dissent and disclosure

* Social media for political consumption and consumer protest

* Social media for challenging discourses of Corporate Social Responsibility

* Protest and Agenda Setting. Interrelationships between social media 
and the mainstream press

* Online mobilization repertoires for dissent and resistance

As keynote speaker within our theme, as well as participant throughout 
our workshop, we are fortunate enough to be joined by Lance Bennett 
<http://www.com.washington.edu/faculty/bennett.html>, who will talk 
about social media and the waves of protest politics that have swept the 
Middle East, Spain and the US in recent years. Other invited speakers 
will be announced in the near future.

The conference takes place in beautiful hotel Vejle Fjord 
<http://www.hotelvejlefjord.dk/da/moede-og-konference>, in the center of 
Denmark, a three hour train ride from Copenhagen. The conference fee of 
320 EUR covers a single room at the hotel as well as lunches, breakfast, 
dinner, coffee, etc. As members of nSICE, you are invited to apply for 
funding towards covering travel expenses. Funding will be competitive 
and based on the relevance and quality of the abstracts received (PhD 
students and postdocs who are members of nSICE will be prioritized).

To participate in the conference and the nSICE workshop, please

1. Submit a 300 word abstract to Anne Vestergaard at (av.ikl /at/ cbs.dk) 
<mailto:(av.ikl /at/ cbs.dk)> by September 15, 2012.

2. If funding is requested, please include a short bio as well as an 
indication of travel expenses to be covered by nSICE.

For questions of any kind, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Best regards,

Julie Uldam (network coordinator) and  Anne Vestergaard (local organizer 
and hub coordinator)