[ecrea] Call for participation – PhD Course: Citizenship in the Digital Republic 2014

Citizenship in the Digital Republic 2014:
Mundane counter publics in the digital age

March 12-14, 2014, at the IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Lecturers: Prof. Klaus Bruhn Jensen, Copenhagen University; Prof. Peter 
Dahlgren, Lund University, Prof. Maria Bakardjieva, University of 
Calgary, Associate Prof. Bjarki Valtysson, Copenhagen University; 
Associate Prof. Lisbeth Klastrup, IT University of Copenhagen; Assistant 
Prof. Jun Liu, Copenhagen University; Christina Neumayer, Postdoctoral 
Fellow, IT University of Copenhagen.

Organisation: Christina Neumayer, Maria Bakardjieva

Dates of the course: March 12-14, 2014

Course description:
This course is the second edition of the ‘Citizenship in the Digital 
Republic’ course with a focus on ‘Mundane counter-publics in the digital 
age’. Citizenship, broadly defined, includes any form of democratic 
participation in social systems – political, technological and expert. 
The digital republic, for its part, is understood as a political 
community where the governance of the people is performed by creative 
utilization of communication networks. How is such governance realized 
and how can it advance participatory democracy? What opportunities for 
involvement do citizens have in a densely mediated polis? Can 
technological development itself be democratically steered? The goal of 
the course is to critically explore the new forms of democratic 
participation that the pervasive presence of digital media in 
contemporary societies affords and requires. The course aims at 
attracting and giving a forum to students whose interests focus on 
participatory forms of design, political and civic engagement, 
counter-publics and social movements, technological politics, regulation 
and education. The themes comprising the course take up the concept of 
citizenship and counter-publics in four distinct contexts:

•

first theme: counter publics in the digital age
•

second theme: civic activism, participation, and digital media
•

third theme: mundane citizenship, digital media, and everyday life
•

fourth theme: co-creation and participation in policy development and 
technology design

Counter publics in the digital age
The focus of the first theme is on counter publics in a society 
characterized by the thorough penetration of digital information and 
communication technologies (ICTs). Counter publics refer to the 
individuals or groups marginalized or excluded from the mainstream 
public sphere who contest, negotiate, and struggle against the hegemonic 
discourse, form spaces of political opposition, or establish alternative 
forms of community and identity. With the growing presence of digital 
technologies in all areas of social life, the internet, mobile phones, 
and social media are transforming the way people express themselves, 
interact with each other, engage or form communities, and perceive the 
world. How are digital communication technologies generating and 
facilitating opportunities that allow for the establishment of 
alternative political and cultural identities and communities that 
define themselves in opposition to established norms? What are the 
characteristics of the counter-publics in the digital age and how do 
they differ from those of the past?

Civic activism, participation, and digital media
The second theme will look at the uptake and appropriation of digital 
media technologies for the purposes of civic action and political 
participation. It will review the advances made by social movements and 
civic activists in rallying support and making an impact on political 
life and the political establishment through the creative use of digital 
media. The new civic cultures emerging from these processes and their 
relation to digital technologies and uses will be examined. This theme 
includes notions of media practices, media-based agency, web journalism 
and civic cosmopolitanism, which are according to Dahlgren essential 
elements of civic cultures in the digital age.

Mundane citizenship, digital media, and everyday life
The third theme will be centred on the notion of ‘mundane citizenship’ 
and ‘mundane counter-publics’. So far a relatively large amount of 
research is devoted exclusively to use of new media in particular 
moments of alternative or antagonistic mobilization, failing to 
associate these specific uses with a larger living context—the mundane, 
everyday experiences of new media users. In particular, current 
approaches largely neglect the power dynamics in the mundane use of new 
media technologies. Consequently, the heavy emphasis on the role of new 
media in specific eruptions of contentious politics overlooks the 
cumulative changes in civic agency associated with the mundane use of 
new media. Accounts narrowly focused on specific events fail to capture, 
reflect, and assess the political potential embedded in the new 
practices of civic engagement furnished by new media (e.g., 
"subactivism") that are submerged in everyday life.

Co-creation and participation in policy development and technology design
The fourth theme takes the notion of citizenship to the terrain of 
cultural and educational institutions, and cultural practices. It 
discusses the liberating and repressive forces at play in the way users 
co-produce culture online both within and outside formal cultural 
spheres. Co-creation and participation became buzzwords in policy 
development, technology design and use of digital media, in particular 
the so-called ‘social web’. Despite the creative potential and the 
possibility for engagement, a critical perspective on these developments 
also needs to take unintended consequences such as privacy issues, 
surveillance and limitations for the development of counter-publics and 
cultural practices into account.

By looking beyond “eye-grabbing” events (e.g., revolutionary moments), 
this course probes into the political implication of mundane use of new 
media in people’s everyday life. Addressing mundane use of new media in 
people’s everyday experience will help us to understand the cumulative 
effects of new media and their gradual evolution, but also shed light on 
the deeper impact of digital communication technologies on social and 
political changes both today and in the years to come.

How to sign up:
Sign up by sending an e-mail to Christina Neumayer (chne[at]itu.dk). All 
students must submit with their application to the course a short 
abstract of their work as it relates to the course (not more than 500 
words). Applications should be submitted by January 27, 2014. Enrolment 
is limited to 20 participants.

Please find more information about ECTS, etc. here: 
https://learnit2.itu.dk/course/view.php?id=1974436
and at the PhD school website of the IT University of Copenhagen: 
https://www.itu.dk/en/Forskning/Phd-uddannelsen/PhD-Courses/PhD%20Courses%202014




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