[ecrea] CFP: International Journal of Communication: Special Section on Network Neutrality

*/International Journal of Communication

/*

*/Call for Papers
Special Section on Net Neutrality

/*

The Work of Internet Freedoms: Network Neutrality

and the Labors of Policy Advocacy in the U.S.

*//*

Special Section Editors

Becky Lentz, McGill University
Allison Perlman, University of California, Irvine

/Deadline for submissions:  August 31, 2015/

//

When the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted in February 2015
to reclassify broadband under Title II of the Telecommunications Act,
and thus to secure Network Neutrality and the principle of
nondiscrimination at its center, it delivered an important victory to
the millions of people who had insisted that strong Network Neutrality
protections were crucial for an open, democratic Internet. This victory
owed in part to the tremendous outpouring of public support for Network
Neutrality, which itself owed to the ongoing labors of community
organizers, issue campaigners, funders, scholar activists, public
interest lawyers and many others to make visible how issues of media
policy fundamentally affect issues of social justice and political change.

For this special section of the /International Journal of
Communication/, we seek articles that foreground the /multiple/ labors
involved in achieving policy victories like the Network Neutrality
Order. In this section, we aim to make visible the often /invisible/
work required to effect lawmaking, judicial rulings, and regulations in
the public interest.

We specifically wish to publish historically and theoretically informed
articles that are attentive to examples of multiple forms of advocacy
work that include but are not limited to the following: strategic
research, community organizing and mobilizing, popular education, issue
campaigns, donor advising and support, lobbying, legal interventions,
regulatory filings, and public education campaigns. Also of interest are
historically and theoretically-informed papers on the political economy
of policy advocacy, especially those attentive to the multiple forms of
capital (financial, informational, reputational, cultural) required for
advocacy work. Of particular interest is research that documents the
multiple challenges involved in advocacy work on the Network Neutrality
issue. In addition, we seek analyses of the materials and artifacts used
in organizing, mobilizing, and lobbying for Network Neutrality,
including studies of the rhetorical appeals and visual culture deployed
by advocates.

We additionally seek theoretically informed analyses of how news
sources—especially non-corporate, civil society outlets—reported on and
framed the Network Neutrality issue, as a strategic feature of advocacy
work.

Finally, we seek ideas for book reviews relevant to the topic of the
special section (maximum 1,500 words including references; guidelines
available).

*Note*: For this special section, we will /not/ be seeking legal
interpretations and policy analyses of the Network Neutrality debate
itself; sufficient work already exists in this area in media and
communication studies journals as well as law journals. Nor are we
seeking normative papers advancing solutions to achieve Network
Neutrality. Instead, our focus is on scholarship that foregrounds the
varieties of work required to intervene /on behalf of/ the public interest.

If interested, please submit full articles by *August 31, 2015*.
Articles should be no more than 8,000 words (all-inclusive) and should
follow the APA-6^th Edition style guide. Articles should be submitted to
http://ijoc.organd specify “Net Neutrality Special Section” in your
entry.  For author guidelines, see
http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/about/submissions#authorGuidelines.

Please direct any questions about topics, formats, article length and
expected submission standards to the special section editors Becky Lentz
((becky.lentz /at/ mcgill.ca) <mailto:(becky.lentz /at/ mcgill.ca)>) or Allison
Perlman ((aperlman /at/ uci.edu) <mailto:(aperlman /at/ uci.edu)>).  Be sure to
specify “Net Neutrality Special Section” in your email subject line.




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