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[ecrea] CfA International Symposium: Digital Participation and the Politics of Inclusion and Exclusion

Wed Mar 21 16:58:43 GMT 2018






*Call for Paper Abstracts*

*International Symposium: Digital Participation and the Politics of Inclusion and Exclusion*

*Wednesday 18 July 2018*

*Ann Harding Centre, University of Canberra*

*Co-hosted by News & Media Research Centre and Institute for Governance & Policy Analysis*


In information societies, inequalities are significantly structured by exclusions: exclusion from access to technology, exclusion from data, exclusion from knowledge production and circulation, and subsequently exclusion from the networks of decision-making. Digital participation is no longer a supplemental set of activities but has become a key component of modern citizenship. With government, educational and commercial services increasingly provided online, requiring citizens to have internet access, those who are digitally excluded are experiencing deeper disadvantages. The adoption and use of digital devices reinforces the existing socioeconomic factors where social exclusion transfers to digital exclusion.


This symposium is concerned with the political aspects of inclusion and exclusion in information societies within three contexts: political parties and electoral contestation, news and information inequalities reinforced by levels of online engagement, and exclusionary practices that emerge as a product of asymmetry in the collection and analysis of personal data.


Themes of the symposium:

*Political parties and electoral competition*: With the growth of professionalization within political parties we have seen a greater decoupling between citizens and political parties. The party roles once performed by amateurs have been ceded to professionalised communication staff guided by advanced poling, focus groups, and data analytics. Long since gone are the days when parties functioned as the organised expression of social cleavages. Instead, political parties are increasingly mining social media and pushing microtargeted ads based on online profiles. On the other hand, social media may enable dispersed citizens to participate in construction of party strategies, tactics, and policies.

**

*News and information inequalities*: The term ‘fake news’ has received considerable attention in recent times. We have witnessed the proliferation of fake news during the closing days of the 2016 US election campaign and the Brexit referendum in the UK. The term ‘fake news’ has a long and varied history in journalism, referring to misinformation, disinformation campaigns, satire, and sometimes as a political retort to any claims one disagrees with or wishes to delegitimise. In an age of information abundance, the ability to filter fact from fiction is becoming an important aspect of civic participation.


*Data justice*: As aspects of political and social life are increasingly rendered in forms of digital traces, wide varieties of political actors are finding ways to utilise these data to push for political and social change. Both commercial and public entities make use of digital data to better understand and inform their end-users, using advanced technologies such as low-cost satellite imagery, drones, and machine learning to detect and monitor the environment. Aggregate forms of personalised digital data and exclusion from the information and tools have implications to what it means to participate in the digital world.

We invite papers investigating any aspect of the three themes, with an aim to critically examine the broader issue of digital participation and its complexity in international and transnational contexts. We will examine the intricate relationship between digital exclusion, social exclusion and the politics of digital participation in information societies.


Hosted by News & Media Research Centre and Institute for Governance & Policy Analysis, at the University of Canberra, the Symposium will bring together international scholars, practitioners and activists to engage with the contemporary issues in digital participation.


Our guest speakers include:

John Keane, University of Sydney

Karen Mossberger, Arizona State University

Eli Skogerbø, University of Oslo, Distinguished Visitor at the University of Canberra


Key dates:

Closing date for abstracts: 1 May 2018

Author notifications: 31 May 2018

Program announcement: 15 June 2018

Registration: 1 May – 30 June 2018


Submission guidelines:

Send the following in PDF to (digitalparticipation /at/ canberra.edu.au) <mailto:(digitalparticipation /at/ canberra.edu.au)>


Choice of theme: Political parties and electoral competition, news and information inequalities, or data justice

Title

Abstract: Up to 800 words

Author(s) short bio: 150 words for each author

‘Digital Participation’ will take place in Canberra, shortly before the 25th World Congress of Political Science (July 21-25, 2018 in Brisbane, Australia). Brisbane is 1 hour 40 min flight from Canberra.


‘Digital Participation’ is a free event sponsored by News & Media Research Centre and Institute for Governance & Policy Analysis. Registration is required for seating and catering purposes.


Symposium organisers:  Sora Park & Michael Jensen


Contact: (digitalparticipation /at/ canberra.edu.au) <mailto:(digitalparticipation /at/ canberra.edu.au)>


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