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[ecrea] CFP "Social Media, Governance and Political Reform", Democracy & Society, Volume 8, Issue 2
Wed Feb 09 18:08:13 GMT 2011
Call for Submissions: Democracy & Society, Volume 8, Issue 2
"Social Media, Governance, and Political Reform"
We are seeking well-written, interesting
submissions of 1500-2000 words on the themes
below, including summaries and/or excerpts of
recently completed research, new publications,
and works in progress. Submissions for the issue are due Friday, March 4, 2011.
Over the past few years, many technophiles,
activists, and political observers have been
lauding the potential of social media platforms
such as Facebook, SMS, Twitter, and YouTube to
improve governance and foment political change.
To date, we possess largely anecdotal data on
the impact of new media and technologies on
political reform. For example, many argue that
Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have played
critical roles in organizing the recent protests
in Egypt, Iran, Moldova, and Tunisia. Moreover,
anecdotal evidence suggests that cell phone
technologies can play an instrumental role in
revealing electoral fraud by improving election
monitoring and reporting techniques. Yet, in
spite of the anecdotal evidence that supports
these developments and their use in specific
instances, there is a dearth of empirical
analysis on the subject. We lack studies that
trace the causal impact of these technologies on
political reform and improved governance. As a result, a number of ope
n questions remain. Some areas that mandate more
serious inquiry are the following:
? Evidence of Political Change. While we know
that social media can play an important role in
publicizing political activities such as
protests, do we have evidence that such actions
have led to substantive political change? Is it
possible to develop a set of indicators to more
effectively gauge the impact of new technologies
and media on questions of political change?
? Technology and Governance. That social media
can help coordinate large and discrete
activities, such as protests and election
observation, is clear. Is there any evidence
that these technologies can help to improve
day-to-day governance and improve political
accountability? Moreover, as a transparency
instrument, mobile governance relies on outflows
of information from citizens to each other, and
to governments and NGOs. Therefore it is
important to consider how citizens can be
persuaded to adopt such technology. What
incentives do citizens have to participate in
mobile governance, and how can new technologies
be employed to complement advocacy efforts already underway?
? Questioning Access and the Digital Divide.
Many social media technologies, such as
Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, require access
to functional Internet connections, however most
people in developing countries lack access to
such technologies. Rather, the most common
technology in developing countries is a basic
cell phone. Since the countries with the worst
governance tend to be the poorest ones as well,
how relevant are these advanced technologies to
the people living in the countries with the worst forms of governance?
? Dictators versus Demonstrators. How quickly
are regimes opposed to the spread of these
technologies learning how to block them and/or
employ them to suppress political dissent more
effectively? For governance projects, technical
questions relating to how data will be managed,
and by whom, are worth considering. U.S. policy
in this area also seems to work in contradictory
ways: while the U.S. State Department has
emerged as strong advocate for Internet freedom,
the U.S. Department of Defense is building more
effective programs to monitor the use of the Internet.
? Substitute versus Complement. Is social media
a complement to direct political action or a
substitute for it? Does it pose problems to the
nature of direct political action today, and if
so, how? Are people who use social media for
political purposes more likely to take direct
action, such as participating in a protest, or
are virtual protests becoming substitutes for actual ones?
This issue of Democracy and Society will take a
broad and analytical perspective to the impact
of social media on political reform and improved
governance. We seek to gain leverage not on
anecdotal or circumstantial evidence of these
impacts, but to demonstrate causal effect. We
are also interested in exploring how we can
employ such technologies away from large scale
and discrete events, such as protests and
elections, to more everyday issues of
governance. Finally, we are interested in
studies that illuminate how we can employ more
modest technologies, such as SMS, to improve
governance and catalyze political change.
To make a submission, please go here and follow
the instructions:
<http://www.democracyandsociety.com/blog/category/call-for-papers/>http://www.democracyandsociety.com/blog/category/call-for-papers/
For additional information, please visit
<http://www.democracyandsociety.com>www.democracyandsociety.com
or contact Deborah Brown or Ayesha Chugh at
<mailto:(democracyandsociety /at/ gmail.com)>(democracyandsociety /at/ gmail.com).
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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
T: ++ 32 (0)2-629.18.56
F: ++ 32 (0)2-629.36.84
Office: 5B.401a
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European Communication Research and Education Association
Web: http://www.ecrea.eu
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E-mail: (Nico.Carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
Web: http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/
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