[ecrea] [SUSPICIOUS MESSAGE] CFP Understanding and Examining the Digital Advocacy Pioneers

*Understanding and Examining the Digital Advocacy Pioneers*

Dates: Thursday, 6 September — Friday, 7 September 2018
Location: University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom
Convenors: Dr James Dennis (University of Portsmouth) and Dr Nina Hall 
(Johns Hopkins University)

Sponsored by the Transnational Civil Society Project at the University 
of Portsmouth and the Political Studies Association Media and Politics 
Group.

*Description and Objective*

A new generation of digital advocacy organizations have emerged around 
the world including: 38 Degrees in the UK, MoveOn in the US; GetUp! in 
Australia and Amandla.Mobi in South Africa. These organizations all 
share the same basic organizational form: they are progressive, 
multi-issue, and membership-driven. These organizations are at the 
forefront of digital campaigning. They are pioneering the use of new 
technologies — be it WhatAapp, analytics, or Facebook — to rapidly 
mobilise people online and offline.  The activism fostered by these 
groups has fundamentally changed how groups mobilise and organize 
citizens for political engagement.

While research has been conducted on these campaigning groups 
independently within a national context (Chadwick and Dennis, 2017; 
Karpf, 2012; Vromen, 2017), there has been no research on the global 
network within which they operate: the Online Progresive Engagement 
Network (OPEN). Spanning six continents and mobilising over 17 million 
citizens, this workshop will bring together scholars researching these 
groups at the forefront of innovations in online campaigning. From 
established netroots organisations like Campact (Germany) and Leadnow 
(Canada), to newer groups such as Uplift (Ireland), amandla.mobi 
<http://secure-web.cisco.com/1rXnwMrNZyW1gG1aha25QRWCsoXdzMFjLYGnqQVbH32XPd8AC3OQytRTU-z9TiPAzVnJn0lNiUqH7z9EO03OQsySTLJcutXhwBSfj5dZV0ZDR-6J-sggoFBR1GCFiP4u_Rmspv3bEhoJiBLqBi21i57-xE7kTxd4MrJ9dSoNlbIc5zdV3RtQosqrxy3I5Qt10oLKzhwEzKdf8msC6GnMyLcONK4U8iPVISIUVkpDCpr2P1Ke374TShQ8U0s8fzvnm/http%3A%2F%2Famandla.mobi> 
(South Africa), ActionStation (New Zealand), Skiftet (Sweden), #aufstehn 
(Austria), and Campax (Switzerland), this workshop seeks to document the 
evolution of online organising and digital campaigning across the world. 
This workshop marks the first gathering of scholars working in this area.

We are delighted to host Andrew Chadwick (The Hybrid Media System), 
David Karpf (The MoveOn Effect) and Ariadne Vromen (Digital Citizenship 
and Political Engagement) for the workshop, three leading scholars in 
this area.

We are keen to attract new theoretical and empirical inquiries that examine:
•How these groups are shaping contemporary political participation (e.g. 
the influence on campaigning tactics adopted by other political 
organisations).
•The origins and evolution of new OPEN organisations, such as #aufstehn, 
ActionStation, Uplift, and Campax.
•The OPEN Movement, and how these campaigning groups operate at the 
global level.
•Case studies of particular campaigns, illustrating the working 
practices of these activist groups.
•How and why citizens engage with these organisations, and what this 
means for broader questions about democratic citizenship.
•How these organisations contribute to debates surrounding 
slacktivism/clicktivism.
•The relationships formed between netroots organisations and political 
parties, professional media, and legacy interest groups.
•What counts as “success” and “impact” for these organisations.
•The role of affect, emotion, and personal identity within campaigns.

Please email your proposals to (james.dennis /at/ port.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(james.dennis /at/ port.ac.uk)> and (nhall /at/ jhu.edu) 
<mailto:(nhall /at/ jhu.edu)>. Proposals should include the following: title 
and name, institutional affiliation, and email address, together with a 
paper title and abstract of not more than 500 words. Proposers should 
also indicate whether or not they are current postgraduate students. No 
fees will be required for this workshop.

*Key dates*

●March 30, 2018: 500-word paper proposals due. Please email your 
proposals to (james.dennis /at/ port.ac.uk) <mailto:(james.dennis /at/ port.ac.uk)> 
and (nhall /at/ jhu.edu) <mailto:(nhall /at/ jhu.edu)>
●April 27, 2018: Authors informed of selection and invitations issued.
●May 18, 2018: Send confirmation of willingness to participate.
●August 3, 2018: Full workshop papers emailed to James and Nina.
●September 6-7, 2018: Workshop
●December 2018: Request for revised papers for special issue.

*Outputs from the workshop*

We are in discussion with relevant journals for a special issue. If 
successful, submissions for the workshop will be considered and full 
papers invited in December 2018.