[ecrea] Call for Papers - Big Data Section, ECPR General Conference 2018

In occasion of the next ECPR General Conference (22-25 August 2018, 
Hamburg) we invite papers for any of the panels in the section 
"Political Sciences and the Big Data Challenge From Big Data in Politics 
to the Politics of Big Data". More detailed info on panels and the 
overall section can be found below.

Please submit paper proposals to (elena.pavan /at/ sns.it) 
<mailto:(elena.pavan /at/ sns.it)> and (alice.mattoni /at/ sns.it) 
<mailto:(alice.mattoni /at/ sns.it)> by *January, 30^th  2018* including the 
following info:

- papers titles, abstracts (no more than 500 words) and 3 keywords

- institutional affiliation

- institutional email address

We will then arrange the selected papers in panels and submit them to 
the ECPR via their electronic platform.

Please note that paper authors must be registered in the ECPR electronic 
platform with the email address they will include in the paper proposals.


***

*CALL**FOR PAPERS*

*ECPR General Conference – 22-25 August 2018, Hamburg*

**

*Section title: Political Sciences and the Big Data Challenge From Big 
Data in Politics to the Politics of Big Data*

*Section organizers*

Chair: Elena Pavan, Scuola Normale Superiore

Co-chair: Alice Mattoni, Scuola Normale Superiore

*Section outline and themes*

In continuity with the successful set of Panels organized during the 
2017 ECPR General Conference in Oslo, the Section aims to offer a space 
within the ECPR context to critically discuss the nexus between Big Data 
and political science. It will do so by promoting a theoretically 
informed and empirically sound discussion along three lines of 
reflection. First, the Section will deal with the potentialities and the 
limitations of using large-scale datasets and supervised and 
unsupervised analytic techniques for leveraging our understanding of 
political dynamics from party dynamics, to political communications, to 
social movements and digital activism. Second, by considering Big Data 
as a complex set of cultural, political and scientific knowledge 
practices, the Section will offer an occasion to engage with the modes 
in which Big Data become a “political object” that is critically 
addressed by contentious grassroots efforts but also dealt within more 
conventional governance processes. Finally, the Section confronts the 
outcomes of Big Data usages in the political realm oscillating between 
enhanced accountability on the side of institutions and the reduction of 
citizens and their will to objectified data-assemblages that are 
mechanically treated rather than constructively accounted for. The 
Section comprises a set of Panels that aim to foster the convergence of 
scholars and researchers currently working on the value of Big Data for 
studying politics but also on the forms and the impacts of the politics 
of Big Data employing different theoretical, empirical and 
methodological approaches on Big Data.

*1. Big data for the study of political participation
*Chair: Alexandra Segerberg
This Panel looks at how Big Data and related methodological and 
analytical practices can leverage our understanding of political 
mobilization and participation – from social movements to voting 
behaviours. While more traditional forms of collective action still 
exist, activists lean increasingly on web-based platforms and internet 
services that produce Big Data flows worldwide. Moreover, Big Data are 
increasingly considered a fundamental component of electoral campaigns, 
governmental and legislative dynamics as well as of the interactions 
between political leaders with their constituencies. To shed light on 
this complex context, the Panel hosts Papers that investigate to what 
extent Big Data are changing the way in which conventional and 
unconventional forms of political participation can be investigated from 
a broad array of methodological lenses, in different national contexts, 
transnationally or fluidly across the online/offline boundary.

*2. From data-activism to data justice. The contentious politics of Big Data
*Chair: Stefania Milan
Big Data are not a neutral field of practice and knowledge. When 
engaging with Big Data, political actors develop specific arrays of 
data-related practices that construct, manipulate, and even subvert 
their political relevance. In so doing, the same political actors evoke 
specific, and sometimes contrasting, understanding of what datafication 
processes means in and for politics, both today and in the near future. 
Thus, Big Data become an object of political contestation that fosters 
the emergence of new collective actors and, at the same time, intersects 
longer-term mobilizations in other fields - e.g. labour, women and 
environmental issues. To grasp the multiple lines of contention that 
characterize Big Data in grassroots politics, the Panel hosts Papers 
that investigate the relationship between Big Data cultures and 
practices in different arenas of contention from an empirical 
perspective in different national and transnational contexts relying on 
qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods approaches.

*3. Big data Governance and Policies
*Chair: Lina Dencik
Data increasingly regulate our lives. We are assessed, ranked, profiled 
and categorized according to data that is collected about us. These 
assessments enable - or limit - our access to services and our ability 
to cross borders; they define us as potential 'risk'; and they affect 
core aspects of citizenship. New publics are created and receive 
differential treatment based on data analysis. While data regulate 
society, the regulation of data is becoming a pressing concern. Policies 
are required for data collection, sharing and analysis, and struggles 
over policy development have picked up, not least, since the Snowden 
revelations. Against this backdrop, this Panel invites Paper addressing 
the role of big data as both tools for and objects of governance 
processes at different levels - from the national to the supranational ones.

*4. The outcomes of big data in politics: from the accountability of 
institutions to the invisibility of the citizens
*Chair: Alice Mattoni
In the past few years, a wide array of online services and platforms 
that rest on Big Data became available that promised to render citizens’ 
voices more visible within governmental institutions through the 
enhancement of different mechanisms: from citizens’ monitoring 
capabilities aimed at increasing accountability to participatory policy 
making including citizens’ viewpoints. In this respect, while Big Data 
might offer empowering opportunities, it is also likely that 
governmental institutions would ignore, silence or even reduce to 
objectified data-assemblages grassroots creative usages of Big Data. To 
cast light on the outcomes of Big Data usages at the crossroads between 
governmental institutions and grassroots citizens initiatives, the Panel 
hosts Papers that empirically address how Big Data might (or not) 
increase the accountability and transparency of political institutions 
at the local, national and transnational levels.

*How to submit a paper*

Please submit paper proposals to (elena.pavan /at/ sns.it) 
<mailto:(elena.pavan /at/ sns.it)> and (alice.mattoni /at/ sns.it) 
<mailto:(alice.mattoni /at/ sns.it)> by *January 30^th,  2018* including the 
following info:

- papers titles, abstracts (no more than 500 words), and 3-8 keywords

- institutional affiliation

- institutional email address

We will then arrange the selected papers in panels and submit them to 
the ECPR via their electronic platform. Please note that *paper authors 
must be registered in the ECPR electronic platform with the email 
address they will include in the paper proposals*.



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