[ecrea] Cfp (Mis)understanding political participation

Reminder and Deadline Extension (May 31th)

Call for papers ECREA conference

(Mis)understanding political participation

Munich (Germany), 11-12 October 2013.

Organised by the ECREA’s Communication & Democracy, Gender & 
Communication sections. Supported by the Media and Communication 
sections of the German Communication (DGPuK) and Sociology Association 
(DGS) and YECREA.

It is commonly accepted that political participation and civic 
engagement are cornerstones of a healthy democracy. Going beyond 
established academic discourses about the decline of citizens’ political 
participation in institutional politics, and the rise of alternative 
forms of political participation, this conference aims to explore the 
issues, the platforms, the actions, the locations, and the motivations 
of politically active citizens today.

Political participation is nowadays characterised by ambiguities: 
Despite the evidence of growing disenchantment with institutional 
politics, electoral turnouts in some countries are increasing; despite 
increased possibilities for participation through online media, these 
are often dismissed as ‘clicktivism’; despite celebratory discourses on 
the uses of social media in the Arab spring, the Occupy movement, in the 
Pussy Riot case, the same-sex marriage debates in France and the UK and 
in recent LGBT+ protests, they were grounded and performed in particular 
physical spaces; despite their possibilities for challenging the 
mainstream, online media technologies are mostly profit-driven.

We need to discuss the opportunities and challenges that these 
conditions entail for the ways in which digitally-mediated social 
interactions, practices and environments shape everyday participation, 
engagement or protest, and to analyse their implications for politics, 
culture and society. This includes asking whether “clicktivism” is 
eroding the physical or embodied participation constituting traditional 
offline activism, and if new ‘digital divides’ and political, social and 
cultural inequalities will result from mediated participation and 
engagement. Crucially, it also warrants critically re-assessing the 
relations and interplays between institutional and non-institutional 
politcs, and traditional definitions of what is considered ‘political’.

We invite paper and panel proposals from a wide range of disciplines 
(media and communication studies, cultural studies, gender studies, 
sociology, political sciences etc.) related to the central theme of the 
conference, including (but not limited to) the following topics:

· Mediatisation of political participation and civic engagement

· Media practices and mediation of political participation, engagement 
and protest

· Relationships between national media systems and participation

· NGOs, mainstream media and social media

· Media representations of engagement, protest and new masculinities

· Feminist protest and new media

· Intersectionality and media

· Gay and lesbian rights, the queer movement and the media

· Issues of surveillance and data privacy

· Digital divides, hierarchy and marginalisation in civic engagement

· Historical accounts of mediatisation of participation and engagement

We specially invite empirical case studies (comparative and/or 
single-case studies). Panel and paper proposals from PhD students and 
early career scholars are also very welcome. We also encourage authors 
to submit policy papers, applied case studies or artistic reflections 
for a special poster session.

Extended abstracts should be no longer than 700 words, written in 
English and contain a clear outline of the argument, the theoretical 
framework, methodology and results.

Panel proposals should consist of a rationale for the panel (max 400 
words), abstracts for individual panel presenters (max 200 words each), 
name of panel chair/organiser, name and affiliations of participants.


All proposals should be submitted by May 31th, 2013 to 
https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ecreapepms2013.

Notifications of acceptance will be sent out after June 15th, 2013.

The conference proceedings will be published after the conference. 
Papers selected for the proceedings volume should be prepared for a book 
publication until January 2014.

Confirmed Keynote Speakers (more to come)

Bart Cammaerts (LSE), Christiane Scharff (King's College London), more 
to be announced

Local Conference Organisers: Cornelia Wallner, Jeffrey Wimmer

Conference venue: The conference will take place at the Department of 
Communication Science and Media Research at 
Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany.

Conference date: October 11-12th, 2013.

Go to http://www.ecrea-symposium.ifkw.uni-muenchen.de for more 
information on the conference venue and registration (between 40 and 60 
Euro).

Scientific Committee: Marian Adorf, Tina Askanius, Carla Cerqueira, 
Iñaki Garcia-Blanco, Frederik Dhaenens, Tanja Thomas, Iolanda Tortajada, 
Julie Uldam, Cornelia Wallner, Jeffrey Wimmer, Rainer Winter, Nicole Zillien

The conference is supported by the Chair for excellence in communication 
Rovira i Virgili University (URV)-REPSOL

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