[ecrea] Call for Papers - Special Issue on “E-Deliberation 2.0”

International Journal of Electronic Governance (IJEG, 
http://www.inderscience.com/ijeg)

Call for Papers - Special Issue on “E-Deliberation 2.0”

guest-edited by
* Dr. Dimitra Milioni, Cyprus University of Technology, email 
<(Dimitra.Milioni /at/ cut.ac.cy) <mailto:(Dimitra.Milioni /at/ cut.ac.cy)>>
* Dr. Vasiliki Triga, University of Zurich, email 
<(vasiliki.trigka /at/ zda.uzh.ch) <mailto:(vasiliki.trigka /at/ zda.uzh.ch)>>

The concept of deliberation has a powerful normative value for 
democracy that is seldom contested. Under deliberative conditions, 
opinion formation and decision-making is based on processes of 
public argumentation and reasoning among equal citizens. In the last 
decades, the advent of online communication technologies has removed 
some hitherto insurmountable constraints in the realization of 
large-scale political deliberation and has revived the deliberative 
ideal: governments increasingly include deliberative elements in 
their e-government projects, while unstructured political discussion 
is flourishing on the “wild” web. The so-called “web 2.0” 
communication applications (such as social networking media, blogs, 
twitter, wikis, collaborative filtering etc.) provide their users a 
whole new set of opportunities and different modes of processing 
information, networking and interacting. What is less clear is their 
potential for creating the conditions needed for true deliberation.

The special issue focuses on exploring the deliberative potential of 
web 2.0 technologies, and, at the same time, on the question whether we 
need to rethink the very notion(s) of deliberation, in view of the ways 
in which people put in use the online tools available to them.

Subject Coverage
----------------
Contributions are sought for research papers pertinent to 
E-Deliberation 2.0, on a set of themes that include, but are not 
exclusively limited to, the following topics:

* definitions and typologies: criteria and methods for evaluating 
and measuring the deliberative potential of web 2.0 technologies
* tensions between deliberation and equality, 
political activism/advocacy, identity politics: what advances, if any, 
are provided by the ‘participatory web’ in these respects?
* new media and the problems of like-mindedness, fragmentation and 
poor quality in online deliberation
* applications and design of online deliberation
* impact of online deliberation (in comparison to face-to-face deliberation)
* the question of scale: local, national, or transnational 
online deliberation? Challenges and opportunities
* aims and scope of online deliberation: opinion 
formation, community/identity building, decision-making?

Additionally, case studies, experience reports and 
impact/efficiency assessments are sought, based on operational findings 
from E-Deliberation 2.0 implementations with considerable impact and 
learning potential and documenting for each case the problems addressed 
and solution achieved; policy context and strategy; e-deliberation 
2.0 aspects of the solution; evaluation of effectiveness and 
impact assessment; as well as results and lessons drawn.

The aim of this special issue is to provide broad and 
international coverage.

Contributors may operate in a number of disciplines, in theoretical 
or applied research, while they may use various 
methodological perspectives, so that the notion of online deliberation 
is studied from different standpoints.

Notes for Intending Authors
----------------------------

Submitted papers should not have been previously published or 
be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. All papers 
are refereed through a double blind process. A guide for authors, sample 
copies and other relevant information for submitting papers are 
available on the IJEG Submission of Papers 
web-page (http://www.inderscience.com/papers).

All papers must be submitted online through the IJEG On-line 
Submissions System (http://www.inderscience.com/papers). If you 
experience any problems submitting your paper online, please contact 
<(submissions /at/ inderscience.com) <mailto:(submissions /at/ inderscience.com)>>, 
describing the exact problem you experience. Please include in your 
email the title of the Journal.

Important Dates
---------------

Deadline for paper submission:            June 30, 2011
Notification of review results:               September 30, 2011
Submission of revised manuscripts :    November 30, 2011

The special issue is scheduled for publication in Winter 2011.