[ecrea] CfP edited volume: When the Local meets the Digital - Implications and Consequences for Environmental Communication

*CALL FOR PAPERS: *

*When the Local meets the Digital: Implications and Consequences for 
Environmental Communication*

*Volume editors: *Joana Diaz Pont, Pieter Maeseele, Annika Egan 
Sjölander, Maitreyee Mishra, Kerrie Foxwell-Norton

*Publisher: *IAMCR/Palgrave Series

*RATIONALE*

Recent changes in territorial and digital capabilities of communication 
pose new challenges for environmental communication, with particular 
impacts and consequences at the local level. On one hand, a redefinition 
of environmental problems is called for from the well-known maxim “think 
globally and act locally” to the new “think locally and act locally”. On 
the other, social media and the emergence of collaborative platforms 
having an impact on the local level are exposing multifaceted realities. 
For example, the discourses on the multiple benefits of /SmartCities/, 
or platforms such as /AirBnB/, /Uber/ or /Amazon/, contrast with their 
physical and social consequences on the ground. In the intertwining of 
the local and the digital, new injustices arise. Shared are social and 
environmental impacts that trigger the emergence of social movements and 
local platforms to fight the effects of decisions taken at distant 
territorial levels and in digital spaces disconnected from the local. 
These distant decisions often support profits and extractivist interests 
that are the target of local protest.

The intersections of place and digital media raise new questions for 
environmental communication scholars. For instance, about how place and 
the digital effect local decisions and social relations. Individual 
attitudes and behaviors of citizens find their most direct expression at 
the local level, where ideologies are embodied in certain models of 
environmental behavior. The local becomes the digital, physical and 
ideological space for different modes of behavior, encompassing a 
continuum where participation and commitment to environmental issues can 
acquire a collective voice in the form of advocacy groups or social 
movements. Alternatively, digital spaces can result in the 
fragmentation, reformulation and creation of politics and political parties.

This edited book will explore the interplay of the local and the digital 
in environmental communication (research). Some questions that can guide 
contributions:

-How is environmental communication impacted by the intertwining of the 
local and the digital?

-How are digital media influencing environmental communication at the 
local level?

-What is/could be the role of environmental communication in the 
emergence of local environmental activism, networking, and political and 
social participation?

-What is/could be the role of journalism and news media - mainstream 
and/or alternative - in navigating the local and digital?

-What are the local experiences of digital collaborative platforms (eg. 
/AirBnB/, /Uber/ or /Amazon/) that in so many instances have become 
extractive platforms?

-How, if at all, are environmental or social movements created or 
redefined in response to these new injustices originating in distant 
digital spaces?

-How does the prevailing political economic system impact on the local 
experience of ‘Green Growth’ initiatives, such as SmartCities?

-Other questions are of course also welcome

The editors welcome papers from various theoretical, conceptual, and 
empirical approaches. Empirical studies should be based on quantitative 
and/or qualitative methods, including case studies and best 
practices.  Literature reviews are also welcome. Contributions must be 
in English. Submissions should have the form of extended abstracts, 
consisting of an outline of the chapter of about 1200 to 1500 words. 
Abstracts are due *15 February* 2018 to 
thelocalandthedigital[at]gmail[dot]com.

This edited volume is a joint initiative of the Environment, Science and 
Risk Communication Working Group of IAMCR and the Science and 
Environment Communication Section of ECREA. The authors of the accepted 
abstracts will be invited to present their proposal during a webinar 
taking place *15 March* 2018 14-16h CET (UTC+1). Authors will be 
notified of the acceptance by *26 February *2018 and the submission of 
draft chapters will be expected by *16 May* 2018.


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