[Commlist] CfP PACO Re-connecting voices in the framework of open government. The strategic role of public sector communication

CALL FOR PAPER, PACO 13(2): 2020
PARTECIPAZIONE E CONFLITTO,  issue 2, 2020

Call for paper for the Special issue on:
*“Re-connecting voices in the framework of open government.*
*The strategic role of public sector communication”*

Guest Editors:

Alessandro Lovari (University of Cagliari, Italy)

Lucia D’Ambrosi (University of Macerata, Italy)

Shannon A. Bowen (University of South Carolina, U.S.)


Call for paper:

The overall goal of this special issue is to investigate the strategic 
role of public sector communication (Canel, 2012; Canel & Luoma-aho, 
2018; Faccioli, 2000) to re-connect voices in the framework of open 
government (Lathrop & Ruma, 2010). In contemporary society, 
characterized by a growing sense of distrust in institutions (Edelman, 
2018; Rosanvallon & Goldhammer, 2008) and by the impact of digital 
technologies and social media, different actors are enabled to raise 
their voices to contribute to policies and public debate, to create and 
to delivery of public services, but also to protest or obstruct 
government actions (Bennett & Segerberg, 2012; Coleman & Shane, 2011). 
This plurality of voices is not only spread and made visible via the 
Internet and the social web, but also portrayed in media coverage, and 
integrated throughout public sector communication strategies and 
initiatives.

Re-connecting voices means intentionally and strategically aiming at 
creating flows, platforms and environments where these voices can meet, 
fertilize and face each other, enabling participation and innovative 
digital communication practices, fostering civic engagement or 
revitalizing forms of democracy. Some scholars refer to this area of 
communication as instilling symmetry or dialogical feedback loops 
(Grunig, 2000).

In this context, public sector communication can have a strategic role 
to manage voices and relations with citizens, media, and collectivity 
(Bartoletti & Faccioli, 2016; Harisson & Wessels, 2013). The use of 
social media platforms in the institutional communication mix has deeply 
transformed and rearticulated these relationships and practices (Lovari 
& Valentini, 2019; Haro-de-Rosario et al., 2018; Warren et al., 2014). 
The participatory potential of every citizen/user is constantly 
increasing, so as the opportunities of inclusion and listening of 
digital and traditional publics for public administrations are wider and 
often unexplored (Bowen 2013; Massoli & D’Ambrosi, 2014). Nowadays, 
social media represent one of the most important areas to experiment and 
improve new forms and practices of public sector communication 
(Dahlgren, 2009; Kent, 2013; Ducci, 2015).

The special issue aims at investigating the plurality of voices and the 
re-articulation of communication strategies and practices around open 
government. The issue will critically reflect the strategic role of 
public sector communication in building an open government approach, 
considering the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) 
to enable innovative processes and/or to influence citizens’ behaviors 
in order to achieve specific policy objectives (Capano & Pavan, 2018). 
In this prospective, open government is investigated also in respect to 
contexts in which data are produced and disseminated, in order to ensure 
the effective voices from citizens to be integrated in public policies 
(Harris &Fleisher, 2017). At the same time, this increased transparency 
and citizens’ participation could foster digital surveillance. The 
production of communication enabled by digital platforms makes 
everything more transparent and controlled, evolving in a digital 
panopticon in which everyone can be observed and controlled. 
Surveillance of digital publics, data collection and their manipulation 
are related problems, and they represent an ethical challenge for public 
sector organizations and threats for citizens (Lyon, 2018; Zavattaro & 
Sementelli, 2014).

Moreover, the special issue will focus on how different voices 
intertwine or conflict in a hybrid, fragmented and corporatized media 
system characterized by the increasing spreading of problematic information.

 From one side, the public sector voice will be taken into 
consideration, focusing on offline and digital communication implemented 
by public organizations, investigating ethical, sociological, and 
political implications. Many questions arise in this context. What are 
the ethical responsibilities of public sector organizations with regard 
to citizen engagement? Are public sector organizations prepared to face 
these challenges? With trust in government at an all-time low, 
communication can represent a key to building open and accessible 
discourse, as well as helping to make government both responsible and 
reflexive? How do public sector communicators can give visibility to 
citizen voices? What are the skills required to address the challenges?

On the other side, this special issue will focus on citizens’ voices, 
investigating grassroots communication practices and dynamics of 
participation in conventional or protest-oriented ways. For instance: 
how do citizens’ voices engage (or disengage) with governmental and 
public sector organizations? How do citizens perceive public sector 
organizations’ communications? What are the effects produced and enabled 
by open government’s initiatives in different countries? What are the 
threats of adopting an open government approach in citizens’ perception? 
What measures should be taken with regard to information, privacy, and 
the ethical responsibilities of the public sector with 
digitally-collected information?

Furthermore, other voices, such as NGOs, non-profit associations, and 
news media, will be taken in consideration for the special issue.

Articles, employing different theoretical, empirical and methodological 
approaches, should explore one or more of the following thematic areas:

The evolution of public sector communication models and strategies in 
the open government framework;
The value and the role of public sector communication in the 
participatory processes;
Strategic communication practices for listening and engaging with 
citizens’ voices;
Social media as enabling platforms for trust and participation;
Rhetoric of technological innovation, misalignments between public 
sector communication’s strategies and policies, and citizens’ 
expectations and needs;
Civic hacking practices, between dissent and proactive communication 
behaviors;
Media representation of open government’s value and practices;
Unheard voices and grassroots communication practices;
The ethical responsibilities of public sector communication, often in 
relation to data and privacy in the digital realm.
References

Bartoletti R., Faccioli F. (2016), Public Engagement, Local Policies and 
Citizens' Participation:  An Italian Case Study of Civic Collaboration, 
in «Social Media + Society», July-December.

Bennett W. L., Segerberg A. (2012), The logic of connective action, in 
«Information, Communication & Society», 15:5, pp. 739-768.

Bowen S. A (2013), Using classic social media cases to distill ethical 
guidelines for digital engagement, in Journal of Mass Media Ethics: 
Exploring Questions of Media Morality, 28(2): 119-133.

Capano G., Pavan E. (2018), Designing anticipatory policies through the 
use of ICTs', in «Policy and Society», pp. 1-23.

Canel M. (2012), Government communication: an emerging field in Political 
Communication research. In H. Semetko & M. Scammell (Eds), The Sage 
handbook of Political Communication (pp. 85–96), London: Sage.

Canel M., Luoma-aho V. (2018), Public sector communication. Closing gaps 
between citizens and public organizations. Hooboken, US, Wiley and Sons.

Coleman S., Shane P. M. (2011), Connecting democracy. Cambridge, MA, The 
MIT Press.

Dahlgren P. (2009), Media and Political Engagement: Citizens, 
Communication, and Democracy, New York, Cambride University Press.

Ducci, G. (2015), Public communication in the Processes of Transparency 
and Accountability in the Era of Open Data, in «Sociology Study», Vol. 
5, n. 2, February, David Publishing Company, EL Monte CA, USA, pp. 83-90.

Edelman (2018), Trust Barometer, https://www.edelman.com/ trust2018/

Faccioli F. (2000), Comunicazione pubblica e cultura del servizio, Roma, 
Carocci.

Grunig J.E. (2000), Collectivism, collaboration, and societal 
corporatism as core professional values in public relations, in «Journal 
of Public Relations Research», 12(1), pp. 23–48.

Harris P.,  and Fleisher CS (2017), (Eds.) The Sage Handbook of 
International Corporate and Public Affairs, Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

Harrison J., Wessels B. (2012), Mediating Europe. New Media, Mass 
Communications and the European Public Sphere Oxford, Berghahn Books.

Haro-de-Rosario A., Sáez-Martin A., and Caba-Pérez M. (2018), “Using 
social media to enhance citizens engagement with local government: 
Twitter or Facebook?”, in «New Media & Society» 20, 1, pp. 29-49.

Kent M. (2013), Using social media dialogically: Public relations in the 
reviving democracy, in «Public Relations Review», 4, pp. 337-345

Lathrop D., Ruma L. (2010), Open Government. Collaboration, 
Transparency, and Participation in Practice. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media.

Lyon D. (2018), The culture of surveillance, Polity Press, UK.

Lovari A., Valentini C. (2019), Public sector communication and social 
media: Opportunities and limits of current policies, activities, and 
practices, in Luoma-Aho V., & Canel, M.J (Eds), Handbook of Public 
Sector Communication, Wiley -Blackwell.

Massoli L., D’Ambrosi L. (2014), Environmental Movements, Institutions 
and Civil Society: A New Way to Preserve Common Goods in «Partecipazione 
e Conflitto», n. 7, Lecce, University Publishing Home, pp. 657 – 681.

Warren A. M., Sulaiman A., and Jaafar N. I. (2014), Social media effects 
on fostering online civic engagement and building citizen trust and 
trust in institutions in «Government Information Quarterly» 31, 2, 
pp.291–301.

Rosanvallon P., Goldhammer A (2008), Counter-Democracy: Politics in an 
Age of Distrust, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Stewart K., Lee M. & Neeley G. (2012) (Eds.), The practice of government 
public relations, London: Taylor & Francis.

Zavattaro S. M, Sementelli A. J. (2014), A critical examination of 
social media adoption in government: Introducing omnipresence, in 
«Government Information Quarterly» 31, pp. 257-264.


*Timeline:*

Submission of Long Abstracts: *10th November 2019*
Submission of Full Articles: 10th March 2020
Provision of peer reviewed feedback: 15st May 2020
Submission of revised accepted articles: 19th June  2020
Publication of the Special issue: 15th July  2020

Articles should be no longer than 10,000 words, including notes and 
references. A maximum of 10 articles will be published.

Please refer to the editorial guidelines available at 
http://siba-ese.unisalento.it/index.php/paco/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions 
<http://siba-ese.unisalento.it/index.php/paco/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions>

Abstracts must be sufficiently detailed to allow the PACO editorial 
board to judge the merits of the paper, including:


(1) A description of the topic,
(2) The theoretical framework,
(3) Empirical data, time frame and research methods,
(4) Findings.

Abstracts lacking these information will be immediately rejected.


Please address any queries to the Editors

Proposals and papers have to be sent to the guest editors:

(lucia.dambrosi /at/ unimc.it) <mailto:(lucia.dambrosi /at/ unimc.it)>

(alessandro.lovari /at/ unica.it) <mailto:(alessandro.lovari /at/ unica.it)>

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