[ecrea] Political Agency in the Digital Age. Media, Participation and Democracy

CfP

ECREA Communication and Democracy Conference 2015
9-10 October 2015, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark

Political Agency in the Digital Age. Media, Participation and Democracy

Research on media and politics has traditionally tended towards 
separating the sphere of politics from political processes in other 
societal spheres, focusing on parliamentarian politics and formal, 
institutionalised interest group politics (e.g. unions). At the same 
time, there has been a tendency to focus on elites, whether political, 
corporate, media or cultural. With the emergence of digital media, the 
research agenda within the field of media and politics research is 
shifting towards exploring interrelations between institutionalised 
politics and political processes in other societal spheres, and moving 
beyond elites to also include “ordinary” people. The personalization of 
digital media and the rise of user-generated content have led to an 
increased interest in personal self-expression of citizens at an 
individual level as a political act. While this represents an important 
development, it also warrants fundamental questions about what counts as 
politics and who co
unt as
political actors. At the same time euphoric accounts of the potential of 
digital media for political agency are questioned critically both in 
terms of actual potential and the wider structures in which they are 
embedded. The conference aims to gather papers that provide a 
differentiated analysis of political agency in the digital age.
We are seeking for contributions that address questions of shifting 
agency in connection with changing media technologies, while considering 
a dialectical relationship between social and media-related change. 
Contributions could address - but are not limited to - the following topics

•    Social movement/radical/alternative media
•    Digital activism
•    Materiality of media participation
•    Spaces of participation and protest
•    Civic resilience in times of crisis
•    Digital media uses in extra-parliamentarian and 
non-institutionalized politics
•    Digital media representations of extra-parliamentarian and 
non-institutionalized politics
•    Digital media at the intersections of traditional politics and 
social movements
•    DIY citizenship and digital media
•    Performance and political agency
•    Everyday life and civic culture
•    Popular culture and civic engagement
•    Digitization and individualisation


Confirmed keynote speakers

Nick Couldry, London School of Economics and Political Science
Anastasia Kavada, University of Westminster
Guobin Yang, Annenberg School of Communication


Submission details

Individual presentations
Please submit a 300 Word anonymised abstract
Panel proposals
Panel proposals should include a 300 word panel rationale plus 
individual 200 word abstracts from a minimum of four speakers
Please submit your abstract here: 
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=cd2015
Deadline for submission is 1 May 2015.
Notifications of acceptance will be issued by 1 June 2015

See also: https://communicationanddemocracy.wordpress.com/





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