[ecrea] call for papers: The non-government and voluntary sector, ICT, and democracy

> Last call for papers to special edition of International Journal of
> Public Information Systems (IJPIS)
>
> The non-government and voluntary sector, ICT, and democracy

> Deadline for extended abstracts: March 1st 2014

> The recent award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Organisation for the
> Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has again focused international public
> attention on the role and importance of Non-Governmental Organisations
> (NGOs) in social and political life.  NGOs, together with other groups
> which rely to a greater or lesser extent on volunteers such as Local
> Voluntary Organisations (LVOs) often provide services to the community
> and undertake tasks which government cannot or will not do. The use of
> Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the governance and
> activities of such organisations is a topic of growing interest.

> The nature, scale and activities of NGOs and LVOs vary enormously both
> within countries and across countries. In countries with highly developed
> and extensive welfare states, which include many European countries, the
> role of NGOs and voluntary or part voluntary organisations will be
> different than it will be in, say, countries like the USA or in the
> developing world.  Such organisations range from well-funded,
> well-resourced and formally structured international organisations such
> as the Red Cross or the World Wildlife Fund to small local, even ad hoc,
> loose networks of individuals organised around anything from fund raising
> for the local school to community gardening or even crowdsourcing.

> The field of Community Informatics is one in which the use of ICT by LVOs
> and similar organisations is studied, but there has been little research
> to date on how and to what extent organisations across this spectrum use
> ICT for member or citizen engagement and the promotion of internal
> democratic governance. A particularly interesting question is whether,
> and if so how, NGOs and LVOs use ICTs internally and externally?  For
> example, are there instances of such organisations making extremely
> effective use of ICT for (say) lobbying whilst failing to use it
> effectively for internal engagement or vice versa?  Are such
> organisations better at using ICT to promote their values externally than
> they are at practicing them internally?

> For this special issue we are seeking contributions from
> interdisciplinary research that examines, in different ways, how
> volunteer spheres use the tools of e-democracy, i.e. how they use ICT to
> strengthen the organisation's internal democratic structures. We are also
> calling for applied studies such as usability or design studies of the
> development of tools for e-democracy for non-governmental organisations.
> A majority of research in this area is carried out in English­speaking
> countries and in urban settings, which is why we welcome studies from
> other perspectives. As the field of Community Informatics and E-democracy
> continues to be an emerging field we especially welcome studies that show
> engagement with theory and method.

> POSSIBLE TOPICS

> Possible themes included (but are not limited to):
> ·      Studies of the use of e-democracy tools in NGOs and LVOs;
> ·      Evaluations of commonly used open-source systems in NGOs and
> citizen engagement, from a democracy perspective;
> ·      Technology-enhanced cooperation in NGOs and LVOs;
> ·      Use of technology for lobbying and mobilizing campaigns;
> ·      ICT support for knowledge management in NGOs and LVOs;
> ·      On-line democratic culture;
> ·      Processes of inclusion and exclusion in e-participation;
> ·      ICT and gender equality in NGOs and LVOs;
> ·      ICT supported organization of global democratic movements;
> ·      Security issues in tools and practices for e-democracy in NGOs and
> LVOs;
> ·      The use of or potential for e-voting in NGOs and LVOs;
> ·      Use of pseudonyms in e-citizen engagement;
> ·      Anonymity and e-democracy;
> ·      The sociology of ICT use in such organizations;
> ·      ICT impacts on the internal democratic processes in NGOs and LVOs;
> ·      Comparative studies of NGOs ICT supported communication practices;
> ·      ICT supported interaction between NGOs;
> ·      NGOs internal democratic norms and practices in relation to ICT;
> ·      Case studies of models and prototypes in e-democracy/e-engagement
> projects in NGOs and LVOs.
>
>
> EDITOR
>
> Karin Hansson, Dept. of Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm
> University&  Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm ((khansson /at/ dsv.su.se))
>
> EDITORIAL BOARD
>
> ·      Rowena Cullen, Professor Ph.D. Associate Dean, Research, Victoria
> Business School, University of Wellington
> ·      Johannes W. Pichler Professor Ph.D. Chair Professor for European
> Legal Developments. Head of the Department, Dept. for European Legal
> Developments, Law Faculty, University of Graz
> ·      Love Ekenberg Professor Ph.D.
Head of Department
, Dept. of
> Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University
> ·      Jeremy Rose Professor Ph.D. Dept. of Communication and
> Information, University of Skövde
> ·      Frank Bannister, Associate Professor Ph.D. School of Computer
> Science and Statistics, Trinity College Dublin
> ·      Jakob Svensson, Associate Professor Ph.D. Dept. of Geography,
> Media and Communication Studies, Karlstad University and Informatics and
> Media, Uppsala university
> ·      Peter Parycek, Ph.D. Head of Centre, Centre for E-Governance,
> Danube-University Krems
>
>
> IMPORTANT DATES
>
> 2014
> March 1st                     Submission deadline for extended abstracts
> April 1st                       Notification of acceptance of extended
> abstract
> May 1st                       Submission of full paper
> July 1st                        Submission of final versions
> September 1st             Planned publication date
>
> SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
>
> ·      Extended abstracts should be no more than 2-3 pages.
> ·      Full Papers should be in the range 6000-8000 words. Longer
> submissions may be considered in exceptional circumstances.
> ·      Authors are asked to follow the format guidelines at:
> http://www.ijpis.net/ojs/index.php/IJPIS/about/submissions#authorGuideline
> s
>
> The International Journal of Public Information Systems is listed in
> Cabell's Directory of Publishing Opportunities, The Directory of Open
> Access Journals, and EBSCOhost.
>
> Further information is available at:
> http://www.ijpis.net/ojs/index.php/IJPIS/index  .



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