[ecrea] calls for panel and papers for the next ECPR conference (section Internet & Politics), Reykjavik (Iceland), 25-27 August 2011

>
>Please find below a call for panel proposals for 
>the section Internet & politics at the next ECPR 
>General Conference and the calls for papers for four panels :
>
>- Internet and Politics : bridging current 
>research and oulining future directions 
>(Calderaro, Kavada) - deadline : 1st september 2010
>- New frontiers in studying online politics 
>(Lorenzo Mosca) - deadline : August 30, 2010
>- Digital media and participatory democracy : 
>Bridging the Political Gap ? (Yanina Welp and 
>Clelia Colombo) - deadline : August 27
>- Digital politics : Collective action born in 
>and from the Internet (Mayo Fuster and Johanna Niesyto) - deadline : August 30
>
>
>
>CALL FOR PANEL PROPOSALS
>
>6th ECPR General Conference
>University of Iceland, Reykjavík
>25 - 27 August 2011
>Section Internet & Politics
>
>Within the framework of the next ECPR General 
>Conference, the Standing Group Internet and 
>Politics is supporting the organization of the following section :
>Title of Section : Internet and Politics : 
>bridging current research and outlining future directions
>
>Deadline : 1st September 2010
>
>Section Directors
>Andrea Calderaro, European University Institute
>Anastasia Kavada, University of Westminster
>
>Abstract
>In the last two decades, Information and 
>Communication Technologies have generated an 
>extensive debate on whether and how they affect 
>the political sphere. While the field was 
>initially divided into cyber-optimist and 
>cyber-pessimist accounts, today a growing body 
>of empirical research has moved away from this 
>binary opposition by rendering a more balanced 
>and nuanced account of the link between digital 
>technology and democratic politics.
>Expanding on some of the themes addressed in the 
>Internet and Politics section in Potsdam, the 
>proposed section aims to enhance 
>cross-fertilization in this fast-moving field of 
>research. The purpose is to establish clear 
>lines of dialogue between diverse theoretical 
>and methodological approaches by bringing 
>together scholars who are studying the role of 
>the internet for different actors (political 
>parties, social movements, non-governmental 
>organizations etc.). This section will link 
>panels that explore how key concepts in 
>political science  such as activism, political 
>participation, public opinion, and campaigning  
>are affected by the growing integration of 
>Information and Communication Technologies in Politics.
>Thus, this section invites panels that address : 
>1. Conceptual and theoretical frameworks, which 
>help to provide a solid basis for this enquiry,
>2. Methodological issues, discussing the 
>challenges encountered by researchers in the 
>field and the solutions, both quantitative and 
>qualitative, that they can employ
>3. Empirical results that advance our 
>understanding of the connection between the 
>Internet and political engagement, campaigning and organizing.
>
>How to propose a panel
>Panel proposals should be submitted no later 
>than 1st of September 2010, through the formal 
>process and propose a panel on the ECPR website 
>: 
><http://www.ecprnet.eu/conferences/general_conference/Reykjavik/propose_a_panel.asp>http://www.ecprnet.eu/conferences/general_conference/Reykjavik/propose_a_panel.asp. 
>
>
>Please find here further and detailed 
>information on the process here : 
><http://www.ecprnet.eu/conferences/general_conference/Reykjavik/documents/Panel_Chair_Guidelines_and_Deadlines.pdf>http://www.ecprnet.eu/conferences/general_conference/Reykjavik/documents/Panel_Chair_Guidelines_and_Deadlines.pdf 
>
>
>Panel proposals should include :
>1) Title of the proposed panel
>2) Chair, and (if applicable) (Co-Chair, name, 
>institution and contact details)
>3) Panel abstract (about 200 words)
>
>The section will include a minimum of 3 and 
>maximum of 8 panels. The process of selecting 
>panels will be based on the following criteria : 
>1) relevance of the panel proposal to the 
>section topic ; 2) balance of the various topics 
>in the field covered by the section ; 3) balance 
>of academic institutions represented in the proposal.
>
>----------
>
>
>PANEL : New frontiers in studying online politics
>
>
>
>CHAIR : Lorenzo Mosca (European University 
>Institute) <mailto:(lorenzo.mosca /at/ ymail.com)>(lorenzo.mosca /at/ ymail.com)
>
>DEADLINE : August 30th, 2010
>
>ABSTRACT :
>During the past decade online politics has 
>become an important field of studies, which has 
>grown dramatically. However, the attention for 
>methodological aspects has often been weak and 
>unsystematic. Our goal thus lies in illuminating 
>such issues, both in term of theoretical paradigms and research techniques.
>As for the former, we will consider both more 
>consolidated theory-guided paradigms and 
>emerging and explorative perspectives. As for 
>the latter, we will address both quantitative 
>and qualitative methods. Especially since the 
>emergence of web 2.0, scholars of political 
>participation are getting more and more 
>interested in online politics. We need to 
>understand what such research tells us about the 
>second generation of web applications in order 
>to understand if these phenomena are at all new.
>As a new portion of the public sphere, we are 
>especially interested in the discursive dynamics 
>taking place in cyberspace and in the new 
>research tools developed to study dialogical 
>processes. Some of the questions we want to 
>raise are as follows : are explorative 
>perspectives (i.e. grounded theory approach) 
>able to uncover new political phenomena in 
>cyberspace that go beyond our existing 
>theoretical lenses ? Are consolidated 
>theoretical paradigms of political participation 
>capable of shedding light on the black box of 
>online politics ? Which are pros and cons of 
>different research techniques applied to online politics ?
>
>----------
>
>
>PANEL : Digital media and participatory 
>democracy : Bridging the Political Gap ?
>
>
>
>Chair :
>Yanina Welp
>Center for Research on Direct Democracy (C2D), 
>Zentrum für Demokratie Aarau (ZDA)
>
>Co-Chair :
>Clelia Colombo
>Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB)
>
>First deadline : August 27th, 2010
>Send proposals to 
><mailto:(yanina.welp /at/ zda.uzh.ch)>(yanina.welp /at/ zda.uzh.ch) 
>and/or <mailto:(ccolombo /at/ gencat.cat)>(ccolombo /at/ gencat.cat)
>
>Abstract
>Since the 1980s has been an intensive promotion 
>of participatory experiences in different areas 
>of the world. Some of these experiences were 
>associated with the restoration of democracy 
>and/or a new discourse from the left. New 
>participative practices arise with the aim of 
>approaching political representatives and 
>citizens, making the politics more transparent. 
>Information and communication technologies 
>(ICTs) have reinforced the trend with the goals 
>of revitalizing democracy, increasing 
>transparency in public management and spreading 
>new political communication and participatory 
>spaces. ICTs are facilitating participatory 
>practices with more extense and direct 
>information and a bigger communication between 
>political representatives and represented.
>The aim of this workshop is to explore to what 
>extent information and communication 
>technologies facilitate participatory practices 
>in the public sphere and in particular, analyse 
>what fosters citizen e-Participation experiences 
>promotion ? Which factors determine its 
>development ? What does its functioning depends 
>on ? The panel wishes to attract empirical, 
>comparative and also theoretical papers which 
>deal with the issue of Information and 
>Communication Technologies incorporation into participatory democracy.
>
>----------
>PANEL : Digital politics : Collective action born in and from the Internet
>
>Deadline first round of call for papers abstracts : 30st August 2010
>Send papers proposal to : <mailto:(mayo.fuster /at/ eui.eu)>(mayo.fuster /at/ eui.eu)
>
>Panel abstract
>
>So far, political science research has focused 
>on the use of the Internet by collective 
>political actors that had their main operational 
>base in the offline realm. First studies on the 
>Internet and politics mainly concentrated mostly 
>on well-established and traditional actors such 
>public administration and political parties. 
>Then the cope of research widened to include 
>interest groups, NGOs and social movements 
>looking at the impact of the Internet and the 
>type of Internet use carried out by those 
>groups. In particular, given the growing 
>importance of political campaigns and other 
>forms of collective action that are launched and 
>carried out by networks of political actors, 
>that mainly, if not completely operate and 
>mobilize for their issues online, the debate on 
>the Internet and politics could benefit further 
>from considering actors who mainly operation 
>with an online base. Interestingly, the 
>emergence of collective action in online 
>environments apparently follows new forms of 
>"networked" forms of action and collaboration 
>that are said to be different from political 
>actors with a mainly offline base.
>The panel "Digital politics" aims to iniciate a 
>discussion on the main organizational and 
>democratic logic of the collective action born 
>in and from the Internet addressing questions 
>such as : What are the main characteristics of 
>participation in online base collective action ? 
>How are boundaries drawn between the individual 
>and the collective in such forms ? How can we 
>deal with the dialectics of individualization on 
>one hand and the effects of de-personalization 
>on the other hand that are inscribed in online 
>spaces ? How is the online space governed and 
>how does its architecture structure online 
>interaction ? Finally, which methods are best 
>suited to analyze the practices and dynamics of 
>collective action online adequately ?
>
>Co-chairs : Mayo Fuster Morell (European 
>University Institute) and Johanna Niesyto (University of Siegen)
>Discussant : Sigrid Baringhorst (University of Siegen)
>
>About the co-chairs
>
>Mayo Fuster Morell did a doctoral research on 
>The Governance of platforms of participation 
>for the building of digital commons supervised 
>by Prof. Donatella della Porta at the European 
>University Institute. She explores the 
>democratic logic of the Internet in 
>knowledge-making processes and the relationship 
>between governance model and community growth. 
>She compares World Social Forum, Flickr, Wikihow 
>and Wikipedia governance models 
>(<http://www.onlinecreation.info>http://www.onlinecreation.info). 
>Last year she was visiting researcher at the 
>School of Information  UC Berkeley and provided 
>teaching assistance at the Communication 
>Department  Stanford University. She co-wrote 
>the books Rethinking political organisation in 
>an age of movements and networks (XL Editorial 
>: Rome 2007) ; Activist research and social 
>movements (Spanish) (El Viejo Topo : Barcelona 
>2005) ; and Guide for social transformation of 
>Catalonia (Catalan) (Edicions Col.lectives : 
>Barcelona 2003). Mayo Fuster Morell is promotor 
>of the International forum on free culture and 
>access to knowledge 
>(<http://www.fcforum.net>www.fcforum.net) and 
>Networked Politics Collaborative research 
>(<http://www.networked-politics.info>http://www.networked-politics.info).
>
>Johanna Niesyto is PhD student in political 
>sciences. She works as research fellow in the 
>project Changing Protest and Media Cultures at 
>the Collaborative Research Centre Media 
>Upheavals at the University of Siegen 
>(Germany). Her key interests cover 
>globalization, public spaces, democracy, 
>political campaigns, contentious politics, 
>political consumerism, cyber culture and social 
>web. In her thesis she looks at Wikipedia as 
>translingual public space of political knowledge 
>production. Johanna is co-editor and author of 
>"Politik mit dem Einkaufswagen" (Politics with 
>the shopping trolley) and "Political Campaigning 
>on the Web". Also, she has helped organizing 
>several conferences such as CPOV 
>(<http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/cpov/>http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/cpov/). 
>For more information see : 
><http://transnationalspaces.wordpress.com>http://transnationalspaces.wordpress.com 
>
>
>About the discussant
>
>Sigrid Baringhorst (Prof. Dr. phil.) is working 
>as professor at the department of social 
>sciences in the field of comparative political 
>studies and political sociology. She is director 
>of the research project Changing Protest and 
>Media Cultures at the Collaborative Research 
>Centre Media Upheavals at the University of 
>Siegen (Germany). Her key interest cover 
>political communication, social movement studies 
>and politics and policies of migration. She is 
>co-editor and author of numerous publications 
>such as "Politik mit dem Einkaufswagen" 
>(Politics with the shopping trolley), "Political 
>Campaigning on the Web" and "Politik als Kampagne" (Politics as campaign).
>
>

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Nico Carpentier (Phd)
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Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Free University of Brussels
Centre for Studies on Media and Culture (CeMeSO)
Pleinlaan 2 - B-1050 Brussels - Belgium
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Office: 5B.401a
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