[Commlist] cfp PlatGovNet2025 conference

# *PlatGovNet2025: Transitions, Frictions, and New Realities in Global 
Platform Governance (December 1-2, online)*

Platform governance continues to grow in importance and intellectual 
vibrancy as an interdisciplinary field of research. A changing mix of 
competing platform companies faced with various efforts to regulate, 
influence, or control them and their offers has become an ever more 
central feature of many societies. As monolithic services begin to 
fracture and decentralized platform infrastructures, some governments 
assert their power and authority, and new constellations of actors 
emerge, we witness more than mere technical transitions and instead 
realignments in the political economy of platforms and societies. These 
changes manifest through multiple frictions across state, market, and 
civil society – between digital sovereignty and transnational platform 
operations, established market leaders and nascent alternatives, context 
and consistency, regulatory intent and practice, and between pragmatic 
appraisals and normative aspirations. Understanding these transitions 
demand empirical analysis and may require new conceptual and 
methodological approaches.

The 2025 Platform Governance Research Network (PlatGovNet) online 
conference seeks submissions focused on these issues. We welcome a wide 
range of different perspectives and interests, including, but not 
limited to, submissions that focus on the complex and contentious 
politics of platforms, for example new (geo)political tensions, 
developments around generative artificial intelligence, and the wider 
diversity of rarely examined actors including smaller platforms, 
non-state actors, and middleware initiatives.

This is the third PlatGovNet international online conference, which 
brings together researchers engaging with the social and political 
questions posed by the transformation and emerging realities of the 
platformized societies. We seek to fostercutting-edge interdisciplinary 
research that critically engages with the social and political questions 
posed by a broad range of digital platforms. Beyond showcasing current 
research and getting feedback, the conference helps participants build 
community and find collaborators.

This conference is open to all interested researchers and members of 
civil society and will have **no registration fee**.

# *Relevant Research Topics*

- Empirical studies of platform governance in all of its forms, 
including investigations into the emerging platform infrastructures, the 
labor practices, technologies, and institutional arrangements that 
characterize new governance configurations, and the implications for 
users, platforms, communities, and society;
- Conceptual contributions that may describe and interpret current 
changes in platform governance, namely (but not exclusively): 
decentralization; middleware; bridge-building, “prosocial” or 
“community-based” moderation techniques and philosophies;
- Policy-oriented analyses of private and governmental efforts to govern 
platforms, including comparative studies of governmental interventions 
across different geopolitical contexts, through both formal regulatory 
frameworks and informal governance mechanisms;
- Normative, conceptual, or theoretical insights into aspects of 
platform governance, especially those that highlight gaps in current 
public or scholarly discourse;
- Historical analyses and temporal perspectives on platform governance 
and speech moderation more widely;
- Methodological innovations for studying platform governance in 
transition, particularly in the absence of affordable or stable platform 
APIs;
- Research on the meta-aspects of platform governance scholarship, 
examining how the relationships between industry, government, academia 
and civil society are being reconfigured, and how these shifts impact 
knowledge production and policy development in the field.

We are keen on incorporating multiple perspectives from researchers 
located all around the world, so we encourage submissions from 
under-represented groups and diverse cultural and geographic 
backgrounds. We are especially interested in perspectives outside of 
U.S. and European contexts and will strive to accommodate multiple 
participant time zones in the conference program.

# *Submission Guidelines*

Extended abstracts of 800-1000 words: 
https://easychair.org/cfp/PlatGovNet2025

Abstracts will be blind peer-reviewed and should include:

- a short section framing the context/problem being addressed;
- a clear research question;
- conceptual framework;
- details about how the submission seeks to address that question, 
including its research design; and
- a brief discussion of the paper’s contributions to the literature 
and/or ongoing policy debates.

Authors of selected abstracts will present their ongoing work at the 
online conference. Submission of a complete paper before the Conference 
will not be required, although the organizers and PlatGovNet will, where 
useful, seek to help advise participants on possible avenues for 
publication.

# *Timeline*

- Deadline for abstract submission: end of day September 2, aka 00:00:00 
anywhere on earth time
- Accepted submissions announced: mid-October 2025
- Online conference: December 1-2, 2025

# *Conference Organizing Committee*

Pranav Bidare, Center for Internet and Society
Robert Gorwa, WZB Berlin Social Science Center
Ivar Hartmann, Insper São Paulo
Clara Iglesias Keller, Weizenbaum Institute, WZB Berlin Social Science 
Center
Emillie de Keulenaar, University of Copenhagen
Diyi Liu, University of Copenhagen
João C. Magalhães, University of Manchester
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, University of Copenhagen



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