[ecrea] Call for Papers: ICA 2017 Preconference - The Consequences of the Internet for Authoritarian Politics: Comparative Perspectives

Call for Papers: ICA 2017 Preconference**

*The Consequences of the Internet for Authoritarian Politics: 
Comparative Perspectives*

*Time & Venue***

Date: May 25, 2017

Time: 9 am – 5 pm

Location: San Diego Hilton Bayfront (onsite, conference hotel of the ICA 
annual conference 2017)

*Rationale***

Over the past decade, a vibrant body of academic literature has emerged 
on the political consequences of the Internet for non-democratic 
politics. However, the majority of extant studies have focused on 
phenomena of political communication in one authoritarian regime only. 
By contrast, very few studies have aimed at comparing empirical findings 
from across different authoritarian contexts. Against this backdrop, 
this preconference explicitly aims at providing a forum for scholars 
from across the globe to discuss, and develop, comparative perspectives 
on the consequences of the Internet for authoritarian politics.

In order to pursue this goal, we have invited a number of well-respected 
scholars in the field to contribute to the event. Invited speakers 
include Muzammil Hussain (University of Michigan, USA), Paolo Mancini 
(University of Perugia, Italy), Sarah Oates (University of Maryland, 
USA), and Katrin Voltmer (University of Leeds). In order to supplement 
the preconference program, we would like to invite at least three types 
of additional submissions. Firstly, we explicitly welcome submissions 
that compare empirical data across different authoritarian contexts. 
Secondly, we are also interested in papers that present empirical 
findings from only one country, but that, at the theoretical level, 
explicitly aim at embedding them into a wider regional or global 
context. Such theoretically informed comparisons can be achieved, for 
instance, by referring to the lively recent debates around new types of 
responsive and competitive authoritarianism, or to the literature on 
authoritarian institutions. As a third type of submission, we also 
invite purely theoretical contributions.

Moreover, as a number of scholars have recently lamented, extant 
research on the conference topic has largely focused on either how 
oppositional activists leverage new digital tools to challenge 
authoritarian rule or how authoritarian elites suppress and censor 
online dissent. Against this backdrop, we are particularly keen to also 
discuss questions around how authoritarian elites pro-actively deploy 
the Internet to expand their communicative power. Why, how, and with 
what consequences, for instance, do authoritarian leaders across the 
globe reach out to their citizens via social networks? Why do they open 
up virtual participatory spaces that host, for example, online polls, 
online petitions, or virtual deliberative forums?

The topic of the preconference is situated at the intersection of two 
divisions of the ICA, the Political Communication and the Global 
Communication & Social Change divisions, which are cosponsoring the 
event. At a more abstract level, a key goal of the preconference is thus 
also to bring together scholars from these two communities, encouraging 
intellectual exchange across manifold disciplinary and methodological 
borders. Participants who would not like to contribute but would still 
like to attend the event are welcome to sign up on the ICA registration 
website as audience members. The participation fee, which is being 
charged to cover the two coffee breaks, is 50 USD.

The conference is organized by the Emmy Noether research group 
“Mediating (Semi-)Authoritarianism: The Power of the Internet in the 
Post-Soviet World,” of Freie Universitaet Berlin. All news regarding the 
conference, including its finalized program, will be published on the 
research group’s website, 
http://www.mediating-authoritarianism.net/ica-2017-pre-conference/.**

**

For additional information, please contact Anna Litvinenko 
((anna.litvinenko /at/ fu-berlin.de) <mailto:(anna.litvinenko /at/ fu-berlin.de)>) or 
Florian Toepfl ((f.toepfl /at/ fu-berlin.de) <mailto:(f.toepfl /at/ fu-berlin.de)>).

Please email submissions – which can be of any format, from extended 
abstracts (800 words) to full papers (up to 10,000 words in length) – to 
our student assistant Daria Kravets ((daria.kravets /at/ fu-berlin.de)) 
<mailto:(daria.kravets /at/ fu-berlin.de))>.

*The deadline for submission is December 11, 2016. Notifications of 
acceptance will be sent out before January 1, 2017.***

---------------
ECREA-Mailing list
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier and ECREA.
--
To subscribe, post or unsubscribe, please visit
http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
URL: http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/
--
ECREA - European Communication Research and Education Association
Chaussée de Waterloo 1151, 1180 Uccle, Belgium
Email: (info /at/ ecrea.eu)
URL: http://www.ecrea.eu
---------------