[ecrea] CFP for a Special Section on "Weber and the Digital Divide: Class, Status, and Power in the Digital Age"

My colleague Glenn Muschert (Miami Univ.) and I are editing a special 
collection of articles on Max Weber and the Digital Divide. We are 
organizing a special journal section for the International Journal of 
Communication (http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc), which will examine how 
Max Weber’s theories may be used in studying digital inequalities. 
Indeed, this project builds (in part) on some of the ideas explored in 
our previous volume on The Digital Divide: The Internet and Social 
Inequality in International Context (Routledge 2013): 
http://books.google.com/books?id=OgYx8URCnU4C.

Please see the attached Call for Proposals for details on the scope, 
timing, and mechanics of this project.

Also, please feel welcome to post this call for papers widely and to 
forward it to interested colleagues and students. We hope to see some 
proposals from many of you, and for now, please feel welcome to be in 
contact if you have any questions for us.

Call for Proposed Abstracts for a Special Section on

“Weber and the Digital Divide: Class, Status, and Power in the Digital Age”

International Journal of Communication - http://ijoc.org

Special Editors: Massimo Ragnedda, Northumbria Univ. (UK) & Glenn W. 
Muschert, Miami Univ. (USA)

Much of the literature on stratification in the digital sphere (i.e., 
digital divides) has focused on the fundamentalmaterial relations of 
inequality present in the digital divide, often relying on 
Marxist/conflict schools of thought. To broaden the scope, the current 
project turns to Max Weber for new perspectives on stratification in the 
digital sphere. The project will stimulate scholarly exchange about how 
social stratification in the digital age is reproduced not only based on 
class dynamics (economic aspects), but also by status/prestige (cultural 
aspects), and in group affiliations (political aspects). Access to the 
economic means of production can indeed limit digital participation; 
however, Weber also posits that the process of stratification expresses 
itself in two other forms, namely “status” and “party.”Potential 
contributors are invited to explore the importance of status and 
political influence in a liquid society, such as the importance of 
prestige in digital participation (or exclusion), or the influence of 
political affiliation upon digital divides. Papers may be theoretical 
and/or analytical in nature, and should examine digital divides in 
relation to dynamics social class (lifestyle and culture), social status 
(prestige and market influence), and/or power (political 
impact/legitimacy). Submissions are welcomed from scholars at all stages 
of their careers, and from various relevant disciplines (sociology, 
communications, media studies, etc.). Possible topics for articles 
include, but are not limited to:

· Interplay among economic (class), cultural (status), and/or political 
(party) factors of digital divides.

· The role of digital participation/exclusion on individual and/or group 
life chances.

· The relevance of skills (digital literacy), certifications, and and 
legitimating credentials in digital divides.

· The role of status and prestige hierarchies in digital 
participation/exclusion (or vice versa).

· Cultural meanings (including religious and/or secular value systems) 
and digital divides.

· Political life (i.e., power relations) and dynamics of digital 
inclusion/exclusion.

· Bureaucratic/institutional relationships and digital divides.

· Forms of rationality in the digital (e.g., Zweckrationalität 
vs.Wertrationalität / ends vs. means rationality).

· The influence of worldview (Weltanschauung) on digital 
participation/exclusion.

Submissions should be in the form of extended abstracts of around 750 
words in MS Word, sent as an email attachment to Massimo Ragnedda 
((ragnedda /at/ gmail.com)) and Glenn Muschert ((muschegw /at/ MiamiOH.edu)).

The deadline for submissions is 1 April 2014.

Abstracts will be judged on criteria of relevance and originality of topic.

Notification of initially-approved abstracts will be announced in 
mid-April, after which contributors will be asked to move forward to the 
peer-review submission phase. Contributions of 7000 words (maxi mum 
including abstract, footnotes, tables/figures with captions, references, 
and appendices, if any) will be due 1 July 2014. All submissions must 
adhere to APA (6th edition) formatting to include:

· Any endnotes should be converted to footnotes.

· Authors must include their profile, including affiliation and rank, 
when submitting a manuscript.

· All articles should include an abstract of 150 words.

· All articles must include a bibliography at the end that conforms to 
the most current APA style.

· All spellings must be rendered in American English. To change British 
or Commonwealth spellings to their

American equivalents, please see the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary.

· Only one submission per author will be considered at a time.

Contributions will be subject to double-blind peer review, and to 
encourage coherence in the special section, all contributors will be 
requested to act as a peer reviewer for at least one other article. 
After all necessary revisions and editing, the special section is 
scheduled to publish in 2015.

Also, please feel welcome to post this call for papers widely and to 
forward it to interested colleagues and students. We hope to see some 
proposals from many of you, and for now, please feel welcome to be in 
contact if you have any questions for us.

With best regards,

Massimo Ragnedda and Glenn Muschert
--
Massimo Ragnedda
Lecturer in Mass Communication
Northumbria University (Newcastle, UK)
mragnedda.wordpress.com
http://notizie.tiscali.it/opinioni/Ragnedda/184/
skype: massimo.ragnedda

http://northumbria.academia.edu/MassimoRagnedda



---------------
ECREA-Mailing list
---------------
This mailing list is a free service from ECREA and Nico Carpentier.
--
To subscribe, post or unsubscribe, please visit
http://www.ecrea.eu/mailinglist
--
ECREA - European Communication Research and Education Association
--
Postal address:
ECREA
Chaussée de Waterloo 1151
1180 Uccle
Belgium
--
Email: (info /at/ ecrea.eu)
URL: http://www.ecrea.eu
---------------