[Commlist] CFC: Memes, Netroots, and the Individualization of Political Communication

Call for book chapters:
Edited volume “Memes, Netroots, and the Individualization of Political 
Communication”.
Editors: Víctor Hernández-Santaolalla y Salomé Sola-Morales (Universidad 
de Sevilla).
Publisher: IGI Global.

Contemporary political communication increasingly unfolds within a 
hybrid media environment in which the algorithmic logic of digital 
platforms, popular culture, and practices of citizen self-expression 
intersect and mutually reinforce one another. In this context, processes 
of individualization and personalization have progressively displaced 
political parties and collective actors from the center of public 
attention, shifting the focus toward political leaders, their 
communicative styles, emotional performances, and everyday lives. This 
transformation goes beyond stylistic change. It entails a broader 
reconfiguration of political representation characterized by the 
aestheticization of politics, the expansion of political celebrity, and 
the growing strategic relevance of authenticity, intimacy, and affect in 
networked communication environments. These dynamics are deeply 
entangled with gendered norms and expectations, as leadership 
performances, emotional displays, and claims to authenticity are 
differentially evaluated depending on gender, race, class, and other 
axes of inequality.
At the same time, political participation is being reshaped through 
digitally mediated, issue-driven, and networked forms of engagement. 
Declining trust in traditional institutions often coexists with the 
expansion of non-institutional and platform-based repertoires of action. 
Within this landscape, netroots—the digital counterpart of grassroots 
mobilization—have gained renewed relevance, fostering distributed, 
horizontal, and highly mediatized forms of collective action.
Within this landscape, political memes have emerged as a central 
component. Memes function simultaneously as cultural artifacts, 
rhetorical devices, and participatory practices, enabling citizens to 
appropriate, remix, and circulate political meanings through humor, 
irony, and affect. Memetic communication plays a crucial role in 
processes of personalization, the politicization of popular culture, and 
digital activism, while also reproducing—or contesting—gender 
stereotypes, symbolic exclusions, and power relations.
This edited volume proposes an integrated and interdisciplinary analysis 
of the relationships among memes, netroots, and the individualization of 
political communication. Particular attention will be paid to humor, 
creativity, affect, platform governance, and the algorithmic dynamics 
shaping the visibility and circulation of political content. The volume 
seeks theoretical, empirical, and comparative contributions that explore 
how digital culture and platform infrastructures are reshaping political 
discourse and democratic participation in contemporary societies. 
Contributions are welcome from diverse disciplinary and methodological 
perspectives.

Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:
- Personalization and individualization of political communication in 
digital environments.
- Political memes as forms of expression, persuasion, and participatory 
politics.
- Netroots, digital activism, and grassroots political mobilization.
- Participatory culture, prosumers, and digital citizenship.
- Humor, irony, creativity, and affect in political communication.
- Politainment and the aestheticization of politics on social media.
- Personalized leadership, authenticity, and identity narratives online.
- Gender, power, and representation in digital political communication.
- Feminist, queer, and intersectional approaches to memes and digital 
activism.
- Online misogyny, hate speech, and gendered political harassment.
- Digital platforms, algorithms, and the visibility of political discourse.
- Youth, digital culture, and emerging forms of political participation.
- Comparative studies of digital political communication across regions.
- Methodological approaches for the analysis of political memes and 
digital content

Submission Procedure
Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit a chapter proposal 
(1,000–2,000 words) by March 15, 2026, clearly outlining the objectives 
and contribution of the proposed chapter.
Authors will be notified by March 29, 2026. Full chapters (minimum 
10,000 words, including references) are due by June 28, 2026.
There are no submission fees or chapter processing charges for accepted 
contributions.
For further information, please contact the editors at: 
vhsantaolalla[at]us[dot]es and ssolamorales[at]us[dot]es.


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