RC 10 - Electronic Democracy

Open panels in RC10 Electronic Democracy

This list is not finalized and is subject to change. Please check back often to view updates.

• All Equal before Data? New Skills and Literacies in Democracy

Chair: Prof. Claire Oger

• Digitalizing the Vote

Chair: Dr. Uwe Serdült

• Online Forms of Participation and their Impact on Political Activism

Chair: Prof. Jean-Gabriel Contamin

• Open Data: Cross-National Trends and Impacts

Chair: Prof. Karen Mossberger

Planned Closed panels:

Futures of Eletronic democracy

VAA

Internet  voting

Crowd monitring

CALL FOR PAPERS
IPSA-RC 34, IPSA-RC 22, IPSA-RC 10
"Communication, Democracy and Digital Technology"
Hotel “Lone”, Rovinj, Croatia, 2 - 3 October 2015

The conference is organised by a committee formed from IPSA RC10 (Electronic Democracy), RC22 (Political Communication) and RC34 (Quality of Democracy). The conference is going to take place in cooperation with the Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb.

The conference theme focuses on the intersection between the work of three strands of political science, all of which ask questions of vital importance for the well-being of democracy globally. These questions revolve around measures, standards and analyses of the quality of democracy, the role of political communication in enhancing democracy and the extent that information and communication technology offers potential for a richer, interactive and co-created politics. Without imposing any normative ontologies onto the discussion we enquire how communicative acts, particularly but not exclusively those which take place using digital technologies, contribute positively or negatively to the quality of the democratic experience for citizens and to sustaining active democracies.

We therefore invite papers which contribute theoretically and empirically to this and relevant debates. Papers should have the concept of democracy (political participation, engagement and deliberation) at their heart and make explicit links to the contribution from theory and practice of digital political communication either by governments, political parties or candidates, media organisations, citizens, non-governmental actors or social movements. Papers focusing on cross-national comparative analyses are particularly welcome.

Selection will be based on the submission of abstracts which should contain the following information:
• Title
• Author and Affiliation
• Core theoretical premise of the paper
• Methodology and relevant information on data collection and analysis
• Key findings or questions that analysis will address if ongoing research
Abstracts should not be longer than 500 words.
Abstracts should be emailed to ipsa2015@fpzg.hr and must be received by 20 January 2015. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 1 March 2015.

The conference will take place in Rovinj, one of the most picturesque towns in the Mediterranean (http://www.tzgrovinj.hr). For more information on paper submission, registration, location, travel and accommodation check http://www.fpzg.unizg.hr/en/ipsa_conference_croatia_2015.
If you have any questions about the conference please contact organising committee at ipsa2015@fpzg.hr or Dr Marijana Grbesa on behalf of the local partner, Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb at grbesa@fpzg.hr.

Event fees
Conference fees include participation, conference packs, coffee breaks and welcome event.
Standard fee €120.00
Student fee €80.00
Please note that all participants wishing to attend need to pay a conference fee.

Key dates and deadlines
20 January 2015 Submission deadline
1 March 2015 Notification of acceptance
1 June 2015 Booking and registration deadline
1 September 2015 Full paper submission

Contact
Organising committee: ipsa2015@fpzg.hr
Local organiser: grbesa@fpzg.hr

Online Citizenship and the Reconfiguration of Democratic Practices. A comparative perspective
Palais des congrès - 521a
Sunday, July 20th - 11:00-12:45
Chair: Dr. Thierry Giasson
Discussants: Dr. Mary Francoli /Prof. Dietlind Stolle /Dr. Mary Francoli (Carleton University)
This panel presents comparative studies dedicated to online democratic citizenship. Presentations will address three core questions: How do citizens use online resources and technologies, either through institutional devices or more informal networks and actions to express their citizenship? How are their online practices articulated to other, offline, forms of political expressions and activism? And, finally, does digital citizenship transform the way democracy works? Organizers welcome comparative work investigating these questions, however theoretically and methodologically innovative single case studies could also be presented.

• Bottom-up innovation(s) for urban resilience? (Digital) practices and means to transform the City of Detroit Mr. Huguet François

• DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP: BROADBAND, MOBILE USE AND ACTIVITIES ONLINE OVER TIME Prof. Karen Mossberger

• The Digital Divide meets the Democratic Divide: The Internet and Democratic Citizenship in Canada Dr. Harold Jansen, Dr. Thierry Giasson, Dr. Royce Koop, Dr. Tamara Small, Prof. Frédérick Bastien

• What do citizens expect from web campaigns? The cases of the 2012 France and Quebec elections Prof. Mireille Lalancette, Dr. Simon Gadras, Prof. Frédérick Bastien, Dr. GERSENDE BLANCHARD

• What Do Digital Naturals Demand from Democracy? Dr. Marja Åkerström, Mr. Philip Young

• “People. Power. Change.”: 38 Degrees and Democratic Engagement in the Hybrid Media System Prof. Andrew Chadwick, Mr. James Dennis

Digital Campaigning and Political Organizations Palais des congrès - 522a Monday, July 21st - 11:00-12:45 Chair: Dr. Fabienne Greffet Discussants: Prof. Andrew Chadwick This panel invites papers not only on digital campaigning as such, but also on analysis of the consequences digital campaigning development might have on political organizations in a broad sense (political parties, trade-unions, NGOs…). Some scholars argue that organizations may become more and more professionalized and centralized, monitoring citizens through the development of information and targeting techniques (Howard). Others consider that a “citizen-initiated” campaign model may be emerging; this could transform organizations in a more expressive and participative way (Gibson). Forms of “organizational hybridity” may intertwine social movements and parties through their media activities (Chadwick). Are these approaches applicable to different countries and cases, whatever the political context and the institutional rules? And beyond, do digital campaigning and its consequences contribute to a redefinition of electronic democracy? If so, in what sense? These topics would be discussed in this panel at the IPSA conference in Montreal, in a comparative perspective. • Coding Good Technologies for Winning Campaigns: The Political Campaign Software Industry Prof. Fenwick McKelvey

• Digital Campaigning in a Comparative Perspective: Campaign Devices in the 2012 Elections in France and Québec Dr. Thierry Giasson, Dr. Fabienne Greffet

• Online campaigning in Germany: A Development Toward Integrated Campaigns Mr. Andreas Jungherr

• Party politics or social politics? The relationship between political participation on social media and through parties in comparative perspective Dr. Cristian Vaccari, Dr. Augusto Valeriani

• Taking a Long View of Digital Campaigning: Presidential Campaigning in the U.S. from 1996-2012 Prof. Jennifer Stromer-Galley

• Voter Targeting on the Web: A Comparative Longitudinal Analysis of Voter Targeting Online on Parties’ Websites during the 2008/2009 and 2013 Austrian and German Election Campaigns Dr. Uta Russmann

E-voting:Internet voting, voting machines

Palais des congrès - 512d Tuesday, July 22nd - 9:00-10:45 Chair: Dr. Thad Hall

Co-Chair: Prof. Alexander Trechsel

Discussants:

Electronic voting and internet voting seems to be reinvigorated. This panel is open for discussion on strategies of national and supranational institutions such as Council of Europe regarding Electronic and internet voting. New experiments in Mexico, Argentina, new trends in India etc should be presented. Latest developments and trends in Norway, Denmark, Switzerland in the local election and new experiences in Estonia, Switzerland, USA, Russia will be evaluated. • Internet voting in Norway 2013 The principle of the secret ballot in practice Dr. Jo Saglie, Dr. Signe Bock Segaard • The introduction of e-voting in France: the failure of a political strategy Prof. Nathalie Dompnier • Voting machines and political elections in France: a study on the precision of voting results Dr. Chantal Enguehard · Bringing the non-voters in: voting experiments of Internet voting in Canada Prof. Nicole Goodman

Virtual inequalities Palais des congrès - 525b Wednesday, July 23rd - 9:00-10:45

Chair: Prof. Karen Mossberger

Co-Chair:

Discussants: Prof. Karen Mossberger

This panel examines inequalities in Internet access and use across nations,exploring the implications for political participation, public policies, and research. Participants analyze patterns and implications for countries as diverse as Mexico, Israel, Candada and Britain, and for worldwide comparative data. Disparities that are discussed include Internet use for new social media and for health information as well as political participation. As more information and participatory opportunities develop online, digital inequalities are still a concern for many populations. Digital divide is still an important topic not only a problem on the global South. Large groups are excluded from broadband technology and online services. Digital inclusion is overlapped by economic, social and political exclusion. Papers focus on strategies overcoming that gap. These are not only technological infrastructural strategies but also educational policies. • A Cross-national View of Minority Internet Use Mr. Chris Anderson • Citizenship and access to e-health: ethnic inequalities in access to health electronic services in Israel Prof. Gustavo Mesch • Digital Inequality: Expressions of Citizenship in Access to, Participation in, and Engagement with Digital Media Dr. Anabel Quan-Haase, Mr. Michael Haight • The introduction of technological tools as a way to promote citizen participation in Latin American realities: Is this feasible? Dr. Arturo Flores • Who Tweets? The demographics, attitudes and engagement of Twitter users Dr. Grant Blank

Towards transparent societies? International Perspectives on Open Government, Open data & Transparency Research Palais des congrès - 525b Wednesday, July 23rd - 13:00-14:45

Chair: Dr. Sarah Labelle Co-Chair: Mr. François ALLARD-HUVER Discussants: Prof. Yves Jeanneret /Dr. Claire Oger Inspired by previous research on open government, transparency, public participation and governance practices in both Political Science and Information & Communication Sciences, this panel will discuss the current state of transparency research. From a historical and theoretical point of view to practical research focusing on policy implementations, proposals will explore how transparency redistributes powers and redefines relationships between stakeholders by examining its status as an ideological notion and as a model for action in the public sphere.The panel will analyze how transparency refers to skills and expertise of public actors, in new frames of policies, especially those including the changing media environment (information society, open government, etc.). We aim to bring together different research traditions and geographic perspectives questioning the notion of transparency and related concepts like openness, accountability or empowerment. Topics of interest can pertain to varying scales and scopes of perspectives including organizations such as States, NGOs, IOs, etc., or themes such as governance, business, trust, etc. Panel issues are concerned with the social operativity of the notion of transparency and the way it refers to concrete processes and political authority. Moreover, we form the hypothesis that transparency as a model leads to undervalue the role of communication and to occult tools, signs and socio-technical apparatuses. • Des organisations associatives face à "l'impératif de transparence" : une approche communicationnelle et discursive Dr. Amaia ERRECART • Entre injonction à la « transparence » et réappropriations sociales. Le cas de la loi relative aux droits des malades et à la fin de vie en France Miss Maud Fontaine • Institutional Transparency and Prime Ministerial Power in Westminster Systems: Dead-end or Democratic Paradox? Prof. Gingras Anne-Marie • L'Unesco et la transparence : d'un principe de gouvernance à la médiatisation de données sur son site Internet Miss Camille Rondot • La transparence dans la réutilisation des données ouvertes : quelle place pour le citoyen ? Mr. Samuel Goeta • Le marché de l’opendata : les jeux sémiotiques et esthétiques de la « visualisation » comme rhétorique de la transparence Prof. Julia Bonaccorsi

Data security, Open data, Social networks Palais des congrès - 525a Thursday, July 24th - 9:00-10:45 Chair: Masahiro Iwasaki

Co-Chair: Dr. Domagoj Bebić

Discussants:

In this panel a broad range of different relevant topics regarding social media are discussed. Besides the quality of online deliberation and its function in campaigning, Surveillance, data privacy and regulations are becoming an important issue. This panel issue is concerned with the concrete benefits and the downsides of the various open data initiatives worldwide. Which public policies and strategies of implementation are known? Are global initiatives adopting such strategies or are there new instruments? Topics of interest include but are not limited to Technological and organizational challenges. In fact most are legal issues (see e.g. ACTA, NSA engagement). • Democratic process and Social networks: A study of USA Presidential Election 2012 Mr. SUSANTA KUMAR PARIDA • Challenges of Electronic Government in Brazil Prof. Jarbas Thaunahy • Forum or pulpit? Governmental bodies and the deliberativeness of social media Prof. Juliana Raupp, Mr. Jan Niklas Kocks, • Governing cyberspace: a critical assessment of European digital policies Dr. Mauro Santaniello, Prof. Francesco Amoretti • Modeling political organizations’ use of online media. Considerations on findings and research designs Ms. Paula Nitschke, Prof. Patrick Donges • Public Administration in Brazil and the use of Facebbok : they need more participation and transparency? Mr. SANDSON AZEVEDO, Prof. Ana Farranha E-participation, blended democracy and democratic innovation Palais des congrès - 525a Thursday, July 24th - 11:00-12:45

Chair: Shiru Wang

Co-Chair: Norbert Kersting

Discussants:

'Open Government' programme was initiated under Obama’s presidency in the US. Besiedes open datra initiatives it reinvigorated new instruments for political participation. This allows individuals and groups to develop, monitor and evaluate particular policies, services, and the performance of government in general. New information and communication technologies bring in innovative participatory instruments in the field of representative, demonstrative, deliberative and direct political particpation. These democratic innovations combine offline and online partcipation (blended democracy) and they change the roles of government, public authorities, business, civil society and citizens. • A Policy Diffusion Model of E-Government Implementation Across Nations Prof. Jeff Gulati, Dr. Christine Williams • e-democracy, participation and innovation in Kenya Ms. Emmy Chirchir • Internet and Policy: making of an Index of Political E-participation and Influence in the Public Policy (IPEIPP) Dr. Claudio Penteado, Mr. Marcelo dos Santos, Dr. Rafael Araújo • Liquid Democracy and the Role of Developers Mrs. Anja Adler, Prof. Christoph Bieber • Open like Obama? Possibilities and limitations of governmental online-communication in Germany Mr. Jan Niklas Kocks, Prof. Juliana Raupp • Toward a resamantization of Community Based Monitoring. A broader perspective of a tool in permanent evolution through its worldwide practices. Dr. Giovanni Allegretti Social networks and e deliberation Palais des congrès - 525a Thursday, July 24th - 13:00-14:45

Chair: Dr. Domagoj Bebić Co-Chair:

Dr. Stéphanie Wojcik

Discussants: Dr. Domagoj Bebić Social media changed individual political participation dramatically. Social media seem to be crucial for these new social movements? What is the relationship between socio political pluralism and Internet? What is the reaction of political parties and civil society in democratic regimes. Papers focus on the evaluation of the quality of social networks. This raises the question about the quality of these networks and the quality of deliberation in the internet. The panel will try to categorize, analyze and evaluate the different tools • Citizen Activism in the Age of Social Media in Nigeria Dr. Presley Ifukor • Consumer Netizens – How Political Consumers make use of (social) media in everyday life. Ms. Katharina Witterhold • Knowledge, Internet and the Change of Protest Campaigning in Germany Dr. Mundo Yang • Role of Facebook in humanitarian campaigns in Croatia Dr. Domagoj Bebić

Catalyst or cacophony? The impact of the Internet on political opinion and participation in the global South Palais des congrès - 525a Thursday, July 24th - 15:00-16:45 Dr. Jason Abbott Co-Chair: Prof. Norbert Kersting Discussants: Mr. Laurence Whitehead This panel will provide a comparative analysis of the impact and implications of Internet use on political opinion and participation in young eemocracyies as well as in authoritarian and quasi-authoritarian regimes. It is widely accepted that the Internet provides access to alternative sources of unmediated information, is a tool by which opposition and reformist voices can circumvent conventional forms of censorship and media regulation, and a means by which dissident groups can organize and mobilize. Such conventional wisdom however is drawn from a relatively small number of countries where authoritarian regimes have succumbed to reformist and revolutionary oppositions. To test whether the hypothesis is valid requires a much larger multi-country and multi-regional analysis. It is to this end that this panel will contribute. It is envisaged that the panel will present case studies and data from Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Russia, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia. To this end papers are invited from researchers investigating the impact and role of the Internet in these regions. • Does ICT Diffusion Increase Government Responsiveness in Autocracies? An Empirical Assessment of the Political Implications of China’s Internet Mr. PAUL MINARD • Multitude and Webativism in the city of São Paulo Dr. Rosemary Segurado • The “China Dream” in the PRC's Propaganda Regime in the Digital Era: Case Study of the Constitutional Debate during 2012-2013 Dr. Chin-fu Hung, Mr. Xinshan Si • Social media and Democracy: Nigeria’s perspective. Mr. Abubakar Musa Shinkafi • The crowdsourced monitoring of elections: Assessing cross-national evidence Mr. Max Grömping • Web.2.0 et démocraties naissantes : le cas Tunisien Dr. lassaad ghachem

Research Committee 10 "Electronic Democracy"

Convenors
Prof. Norbert Kersting (kerstinn@uni-muenster.de)
Dr. Stephanie Wojcik (stephanie.wojcik@u-pec.fr)

To submit an abstract to the RC10 panels (see below the list of RC10 panels):

Anyone can submit an abstract. You do not need to be a member of IPSA until you register for the congress. However, you must be signed up for a free IPSA website account to be able to submit an abstract.

Only the main author should submit the abstract/paper proposal. Co-authors can be added afterwards.

To permit maximize participation in the world congress, it is necessary to limit the number of appearances of any single individual as follows:
No individual may make more than one appearance in the programme in each of the following categories: Chair or co-chair of a session ; Papergiver; Discussant

Proposals must be submitted in English or French.

Abstracts must not exceed 1500 characters (approximately 250 words). Please do not include references, bibliographical notes, or your contact information in the abstract text.

Deadline to submit abstract/paper proposals: October 7, 2013

Submit on the IPSA website : http://www.ipsa.org/my-ipsa/events/submit/paper

And send your abstract by e-mail to the chair of the panel that you have chosen.

List of RC10 panels

Virtual inequalities

Chair: Prof. Karen Mossberger (karen.mossberger@asu.edu)

Digital divide is still an important topic not only a problem on the global South. Large groups are excluded from broadband technology and online services. Digital inclusion is overlapped by economic, social and political exclusion. Papers focus on strategies overcoming that gap. These are not only technological infrastructural strategies but also educational policies.

Digital Campaigning and Political Organizations

Chair: Dr. Fabienne Greffet (Fabienne.Greffet@univ-lorraine.fr)

Discussant: Andrew Chadwick, Royal Holloway London (United Kingdom)

This panel invites papers not only on digital campaigning as such, but also on analysis of the consequences digital campaigning development might have on political organizations in a broad sense (political parties, trade-unions, NGOs…). Some scholars argue that organizations may become more and more professionalized and centralized, monitoring citizens through the development of information and targeting techniques (Howard). Others consider that a “citizen-initiated” campaign model may be emerging; this could transform organizations in a more expressive and participative way (Gibson). Forms of “organizational hybridity” may intertwine social movements and parties through their media activities (Chadwick). Are these approaches applicable to different countries and cases, whatever the political context and the institutional rules? And beyond, do digital campaigning and its consequences contribute to a redefinition of electronic democracy? If so, in what sense? These topics would be discussed in this panel at the IPSA conference in Montreal, in a comparative perspective.

Online Citizenship and the Reconfiguration of Democratic Practices. A comparative perspective

Chair: Prof. Thierry Giasson (thierry.giasson@com.ulaval.ca)

Discussant: Dietlind Stolle, Centre for the Study of Democractic Citizenship, McGill University

This panel presents comparative studies dedicated to online democratic citizenship. Presentations will address the these three core questions: How do citizens use online resources and technologies, either through institutional devices or more informal networks and actions to express their citizenship? How are their online practices articulated to other, offline, forms of political expressions and activism? And, finally, does digital citizenship transform the way democracy works? Organizers welcome comparative work investigating these questions, however theoretically and methodologically innovative single case studies could also be presented.

E-participation and democratic innovation

Chair: Prof. Norbert Kersting (kerstinn@uni-muenster.de)

Co-Chair: prof Harald Baldersheim (harald.baldersheim@stv.uio.no)

Discussant: Harald Baldersheim

'Open Government' programme was initiated under Obama’s presidency in the US. Besides open datra initiatives it reinvigorated new instruments for political participation. This allows individuals and groups to develop, monitor and evaluate particular policies, services, and the performance of government in general. New informations and commnication technologies bring in innovative partcipory instruments in the field of representative, demonstrative, deliberative and direct political particpation. These democratic innovations combine offlibne and online partcipation (blended democarcy) and they change the roles of government, public authorities, business, civil society and citizens.

Social networks and e-deliberation

Chair: Dr. Stéphanie Wojcik (stephanie.wojcik@u-pec.fr)

Co-Chair: Dr. Domagoj Bebić (domagoj@edemokracija.hr)

Discussant: Domagoj Bebić

Social media changed individual political participation dramatically. Social media seem to be crucial for these new social movements? What is the relationship between socio political pluralism and Internet? What is the reaction of political parties and civil society in democratic regimes. Papers focus on the evaluation of the quality of social networks.
This raises the question about the quality of these networks and the quality of deliberation in the internet. The panel will try to categorize, analyze and evaluate the different tools.

E-voting:Internet voting, voting machines

Chair: Dr. Thad Hall (thadhall@gmail.com)

Co-Chair: Prof. Alexander Trechsel

Discussant: Alexander Trechsel

Electronic voting and internet voting seems to be reinvigorated. This panel is open for discussion on strategies of national and supranational institutions such as Council of Europe regarding Electronic and internet voting. New experiments in Mexico, Argentina, new trends in India etc should be presented. Latest developments and trends in Norway, Denmark, Switzerland in the local election and new experiences in Estonia, Switzerland, USA, Russia will be evaluated.

Data protection and data security

Chair: Dr. Shiru Wang (shiruw@gmail.com)

Co-Chair: Dr. Masahiro Iwasaki (iwasaki@mtj.biglobe.ne.jp)

Discussant: Shiru Wang

Surveillance, data privacy and regulations are becoming an important issue. This panel issue is concerned with the concrete benefits and the downsides of the various opendata initiatives worldwide. Which public policies and strategies of implementation are known? Are global initiatives adopting such strategies or are there new instruments?
Topics of interest include but are not limited to technological and organizational challenges.

Catalyst or cacophony? The impact of the Internet on political opinion and participation in non-democratic regimes.

Chair: Dr. Jason Abbott (jason.abbott@louisville.edu)

Co-Chair: Prof. Norbert Kersting

Discussant: Laurence Whitehead

This panel will provide a comparative analysis of the impact and implications of Internet use on political opinion and participation in authoritarian and quasi-authoritarian regimes. It is widely accepted that the Internet provides access to alternative sources of unmediated information, is a tool by which opposition and reformist voices can circumvent conventional forms of censorship and media regulation, and a means by which dissident groups can organize and mobilize. Such conventional wisdom however is drawn from a relatively small number of countries where authoritarian regimes have succumbed to reformist and revolutionary oppositions. To test whether the hypothesis is valid requires a much larger multi-country and multi-regional analysis. It is to this end that this panel will contribute. It is envisaged that the panel will present case studies and data from Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Russia, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia. To this end papers are invited from researchers investigating the impact and role of the Internet in these regions.

Towards transparent societies? International Perspectives on Open Government, Open data & Transparency Research

Chair: Dr. Sarah Labelle (sarah.labelle@sic.univ-paris13.fr)

Co-Chair: Mr. François ALLARD-HUVER

Discussants:
Prof. Yves Jeanneret
Dr. Claire Oger

Inspired by previous research on open government, transparency, public participation and governance practices in both Political Science and Information & Communication Sciences, this panel will discuss the current state of transparency research. From a historical and theoretical point of view to practical research focusing on policy implementations, proposals will explore how transparency redistributes powers and redefines relationships between stakeholders by examining its status as an ideological notion and as a model for action in the public sphere.
The panel will analyze how transparency refers to skills and expertise of public actors, in new frames of policies, especially those including the changing media environment (information society, open government, etc.). We aim to bring together different research traditions and geographic perspectives questioning the notion of transparency and related concepts like openness, accountability or empowerment. Topics of interest can pertain to varying scales and scopes of perspectives including organizations such as States, NGOs, IOs, etc., or themes such as governance, business, trust, etc.
Panel issues are concerned with the social operativity of the notion of transparency and the way it refers to concrete processes and political authority. Moreover, we form the hypothesis that transparency as a model leads to undervalue the role of communication and to occult tools, signs and socio-technical apparatuses.

Voting advice application (Possible joint panel with RC 23 Election)

Chair: Andre Krouwel (Vrije University) (a.p.m.krouwel-moredalaguna@vu.nl)

Discussant: Ali Carkoglu (Koc University)

Vote Advice Applications offer many potential opportunities to study the dynamics of elections over the course of the campaign. This panel brings together papers on VAA, its’ use and impact on the electorate. Using novel technologies, such as eye-tracking, papers will explore what users focus on and how this impacts their use and retention of the data.

International symposium of the DEL research network - June 19, 2013
In partnership with the RC10 "Electronic Democracy"

"Online political participation and its critics"

DEL Symposium_ Call for papers Ph.d students and young researchers (pdf)

"Online political participation and its critics" is the conference organised by young researchers as part of the international symposium of the Research Network DEL. Its goal is to understand the current outlines of "electronic democracy". Given the multiplicity of discourses and the plasticity of political and social experiences claiming “electronic democracy” its very definition has been challenged for more than fifteen years. In parallel, the technical developments of the Internet and the terms used to designate them - web 2.0, social web, participatory web, and so on - encourage questioning "electronic democracy" in its ability to identify theoretical and epistemological practices of digital networks based on the idea of increasing participation in democratic processes.
Specifically, the aim of this conference is to examine the discourses and political practices of the Internet, and the concepts used for their analysis from three axes that follow.

Axis 1. Theoretical and ideological debates on political participation online
From the 1980s, the information and communication technologies have given rise to a plethora of political discourses. Generally oscillating between revitalization of democracy and economic benefits expected from divers experiments, they have been the subjects of numerous studies based on various theoretical approaches.
Given the current development of digital networks, their increasing appropriation by people and their institutional recognition through specific public policies, this axis examines firstly, the ideologies and norms that underlie online initiatives of political participation and secondly, the debates and theoretical models built to analyse such initiatives.

1. Ideologies and norms
Although many considered electronic voting as able to fight the widespread abstention in most of the Western countries, this belief was contradicted by almost every empirical research study on its rare and well-publicized experiments. The current uses of digital technologies seeking to change or challenge the conditions of exercise of power seem to exert a similar fascination often far from any questions about their ideological or normative bases.
For example, the current enthusiasm for the open data movement, which is embodied - at least in France - in scattered initiatives carried out by local authorities, questions once again the relationship between transparency and opacity that has always structured the functioning of the State. Both in stakeholders’ discourses and in public policies set up in various countries, are we witnessing a reactivation of the technicist belief in transparency and "openness" as solutions of disaffection with politics, in addition to economic benefits that they are supposed to raise ? Also, this axis aims at examining, more generally, ideologies, conceptions of the State, politics, democracy, citizenship and participation underpinning various initiatives supported by digital technologies – whether they are public or private, formally organized or not – aiming to change or challenge the current conditions in the exercise of power.

2. Theoretical models and new concepts
Beyond the initial research focused on the "impacts" of information and communication technologies on democracy, many models and theoretical frameworks have questioned how various forms of political participation could be supported by the digital practices of information and discussion. This continually increasing range of practices - especially related to the development of social networks and platforms of collective production of content - raises a series of questions and stimulates a reflexion on a possible need for new concepts to analyse political phenomena that could find their source online.
So, is it still possible to study political participation online with the concepts used for “traditional" political participation and within the frontiers of such disciplines as, for example, political science, or the sociology of the media, both reticent to examine politics or the sociology of mobilization still somewhat reluctant to study digital phenomena ? To what extent could studies based on, for example concepts such as "digital cultures" be useful to understand the political practices taking place on the web ?
More generally, should we consider "electronic democracy" as a simple variant of "participatory democracy" ? In that case, to study electronic democracy, should we use the traditional dichotomy between "participatory democracy" introduced from above, which includes increased access to information and participation in the development of norms at the initiative of public institutions, and "contra-democracy", especially characterized by continuous monitoring of representatives by the represented ? This two-tier approach of participation refers to various conceptions, sometimes divergent, of digital technologies and more particularly of the Internet, which cannot be considered simply as an instrument of representative democracy. More precisely, what references and what categories of analysis should be used to grasp the technical dimension of political phenomena while some of them seem to occur only through digital networks ?

Axis 2. New forms of political discourse, new spaces of politicization ?
This axis is about the online “political discourse” in its diversity and within multiple digital spaces (websites, blogs, social networks, etc.) whether they are managed or not by institutions.
On one side, institutions and politicians build new online practices that lead to reconsidering how the contents of public actions initiated by local, national or international authorities spread. How do such practices participate in the transformation of political discourse ? How do they act on the discussions between politicians and citizens or between citizens themselves, and on the unequal sharing of powers and knowledge among them ? What does it show about the ranges and the forms of contemporary public and political communication ? On the other side, politics have now entered digital social spaces, both through politicians and individuals who produce and share various contents. How do digital social networks contribute to keeping citizens informed, to their politicization, or to the constitution of an online “public” ?
More generally, to what extent are these evolutions in public and political communication transforming political participation ?

1. New forms of political discourse
The way discourse is made public is evolving. As well as forms of online presence now being considered as traditional (such as website) politicians and institutions are facing new communicational challenges. For example, they have to manage the growing pressure imposed by the necessary adaptation of their communication strategies to these online environments. But they also need to be able to manage the resources that such environments offer. Politicians have to adapt their strategies to face their need for reactivity in order to be “visible”, and to stage their initiatives, their projects or themselves in order to be in people’s discussions and disseminate their ideas. At the same time, the release of raw data linked to governmental activities, and the growth of groups able to process it, take part in the evolution of how the results of public policies -at every governmental level-have entered into the public sphere.
How do the messages of politicians and institutions spread into the various digital spaces ? How does the integration of constantly changing digital services (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, Pinterest, Youtube, Dailymotion, Spotify, Foursquare, etc.) into their repertoire of actions affect its content and the public it is addressed to ?
How can the constantly growing amount of data and information circulating online (visualization, mapping, computer graphics) be made accessible to interpretation, therefore to criticism ? Has the web become a crucial source of information for citizen (if yes, which ones) ? Are we facing new forms of political participation and information ?

2. Politics elsewhere
Since its definition by J. Habermas, many debates, criticisms and new definitions have been generated by the concept of “public sphere”. Various authors have underlined the multiplicity or the fragmentation of spaces in which forms of public expression progressively occurred, forms that cannot be reduced to simple procedural conception. Others consider that there are various arenas where public issues can both emerge and be constructed. Regarding the development of digital networks, questioning forms of public expression other than the rational-critical discussion seems necessary, as well as considering that “counter-discourses”, or even “counter-publics” can emerge. Indeed, the increase of “web 2.0” technologies, with its numerous spaces for interpersonal conversations, allows contents produced by users to circulate. These new environments for discourse appear in various static or dynamic spaces where private conversations are mixed with public discourses, multimedia resources of the web with traditional textual, audio or video contents. Even if they were never established for good, how can the boundaries of politics be established when those between public and private spheres are constantly affected by the evolutions of these digital devices ? Could this give rise to new forms of politicization of individuals ? And in what conditions could they occur ? For example, discursive forms using humor, cynicism and irony, but also new visual and more creative ways of individual or collective expressions : do they represent ways of access to a political universe ? Is it a sign of citizen empowerment ? To what extent can visiting such digital social spaces lay individuals open to -or lead them to be interested in politics ?

Axis 3. New actors, new reconfigurations of political power ?
This axis questions the place of digital networks, both within existing organizations of the public sphere and within new types of movements which have recently emerged. Indeed, citizens, activists groups with varying degrees of formalisation, or even certain new types of political parties with uncertain territorial binding make good use of digital opportunities to promote their ideas and to express critical views against institutional and partisan organizations that have embodied political engagement until now.

1. New actors, new go-betweens, new cooperations ?
Partisan organizations and political or administrative institutions have integrated digital technologies into their communication and action repertoires in order to arouse citizen interest and to mobilize their voters . This calls into question the place of expertise, the division of roles within these organizations and the professionalization processes that can be generated. The development of applications and services based on the "web 2.0" requires firstly rethinking information circulation processes within these organizationsn and secondly appealing to external agents - from the business or the non-profit fields or even to citizens - , thus possibly leading to new forms of collaboration.
For instance, are political parties becoming “firms” run by marketing concepts and practices, or citizen organizations revitalized by an active online participation ? Or even “cyber-parties” ? Symetrically, activism lines seem to be blurring : are boundaries between party members and sympathizers dissolving ? More generally, to what extent could hierarchies and roles within traditional organizations be challenged by these new individuals sought after because of their know-how and expertise ?
At the same time, "fact checking" practices are being renewed and new forms of journalism based on "data telling" are appearing, as well as other forms of cooperation between “former” and “new” actors in the production, dissemination, circulation and the criticism of political information. In addition to being reactive (when posting a comment or a tweet) and autonomous (when feeding their own blogs), connected citizens are now able to challenge traditional media by being “curators” online. A broad range of new curation tools (storify, scoop.it, paper.li, etc.) thus contribute to blur the frontiers between journalists, citizens, experts and amateurs. What are their sociodemographic profiles and their career backgrounds ? Are they a new form of critics ? How do such practices disturb the traditional gate-keepers of the political and media space ?

2. The digital, the ballots and the Street
The use of the Internet by various groups and movements in order to make visible their social initiatives or to question public authority is not a new phenomenon, as was seen in the alternative globalization movement in the early years of the 21st century. However, and without judgment on the ‘real’ effects of the use of social networks in the Egyptian, Tunisian, Libyan and Syrian revolts, the question can nevertheless be raised on the real likelihood of changing the decision-making of a country or its political regime through contestation that is organized on a wide range of digital spaces.
Through the variety of genres and formats used (pictures, videos, diaporamas), the notion of “transmedia” campaign could be analyzed with the help of case studies or of theoretical discussion. This new kind of campaign is not a multi-media declension of a traditional campaign (cross-media) : the message is initially generated around different media and formats (mobile, website, online social networks, video, pictures, applications, etc.). Does the transmedia trend constitute a structural evolution of campaign patterns ? Does this definition also work for other revolt movements, like the “Indignados” movement in Spain in 2011 ? Was the “Occupy Wall Street” movement not conceived in this “global” perspective ? The happening, announced ahead of time on the media and on online social networks, then happens live – in front of microphones and cameras but also through online live-stream, live-tweet, through geo-location on Foursquare or Facebook – before being restituted.
Among the “non-traditional” organizations that this sub-section could examine, we can also mention the American netroots, these online activism networks with a transnational focus (Avaaz, Change.org, All Out, Move on, for instance) : these somewhat light structures relatively unknown by the general public whose activities are found principally in the digital space and nevertheless count millions of members. They follow the American tradition of the community organizing culture and lead to effective changes in public policies. In spite of their media coverage, these recent examples have been relatively overlooked in the academic literature, even in the USA. To what extent do these new structures collaborate or compete with traditional organizations ?

To submit a proposal
This call for papers is addressed to young researchers : doctoral students and researchers who have graduated in the last five years.
The proposals (between 10 000 and 15 000 signs) with an abstract (1500 signs) should be sent to stephanie.wojcik@u-pec.fr
Papers can be written in French or in English. Proposals should be submitted by September 17th 2012.
The authors will be notified of the results on October 22 2012. The final papers should be sent by April 5th 2013.
The final paper (between 40 and 45 000 signs) with an abstract (2000 signs) can be written in French or in English.
The papers presented during the conference will be published.

Schedule
Deadline for Proposal : September 17, 2012
Notification to authors October 22, 2012
Final version of the papers : April 5, 2013
Symposium : June 19-20, 2013

Contact
Stéphanie Wojcik (stephanie.wojcik@u-pec.fr)
University of Paris Est Créteil / CEDITEC (France)
Research network on electronic democracy (DEL) http://www.certop.fr/DEL

In partnership with: • CERTOP/CNRS • CEDITEC, University of Paris Est Créteil • COSTECH, University of Technology of Compiègne • Groupement d’intérêt scientifique sur la participation du public aux processus décisionnels et la démocratie participative (GIS Participation and Democracy) • International Political Science Association (IPSA) - Research Committee 10 "Electronic Democracy" • European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) - Standing Group on Internet & Politics

Scientific committee :

Eva Anduiza (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain) ; Nick Anstead (London School of Economics, UK) ; Frédérick Bastien (Université de Montréal, Canada) ; Gersende Blanchard (Université Lille 3, France) ; Robert Boure (Université Toulouse 3, France) ; Dominique Cardon (Orange Labs, France) ; Stephen Coleman (Leeds University, UK) ; Carlos Cunha (Lisbon University Institute, Portugal) ; Patrice Flichy (Université Paris Est Marne-la-Vallée, France) ; Eric George (Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada) ; Rachel Gibson (Manchester University, UK) ; Todd Graham (University of Groningen, The Netherlands) ; Fabien Granjon (Université Paris 8, France) ; Dimitris Gouscos (University of Athens, Greece) ; Fabienne Greffet (Université de Lorraine, France) ; Josiane Jouët (Université Paris 2, France) ; Rabia Karakaya Polat (Isik University, Turkey) ; Norbert Kersting (Muenster University, Germany) ; Raphaël Kies (Université du Luxembourg) ; Robert Krimmer (OSCE, Poland) ; Gérard Loiseau (Certop/CNRS, France) ; Laurence Monnoyer-Smith (Université de Technologie de Compiègne, France) ; Karen Mossberger (University of Illinois at Chicago, USA) ; Beth Noveck (New York Law School, USA) ; Zizi Papacharissi (University of Illinois at Chicago, USA) ; Serge Proulx (Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada) ; Jarmo Rinne (University of Helsinki, Finland) ; Cristian Vaccari (Università di Bologna, Italy) ; Thierry Vedel (CEVIPOF, France) ; Yanina Welp (University of Zurich, Switzerland) ; Stéphanie Wojcik (Université Paris Est Créteil, France) ; Han Woo Park (YeungNam University, South Korea) ; Scott Wright (Leicester University, UK).

The 22nd World Congress of the IPSA will take place in Madrid (Spain) from 8 to 12 July 2012. You will find below the 8 panels organized by the RC 10 on Electronic Democracy.

Panels in RC 10: Electronic Democracy

Chair RC 10 Norbert Kersting (Uni. Muenster) norbert.kersting@uni-muenster.de
Co-chair RC 10: Stephanie Wojcik (Univ. Paris-Est Creteil) stephanie.wojcik@u-pec.fr

1. E-democracy and deliberation: Government and Parliament
Convenor: Prof. Norbert Kersting
Chair: Dr. Domagoj Bebić
Co-Chair: Dr. Raphael Kies
Discussant: Dr. Raphael Kies
Wednesday, July 11 - 11:00-12:45
School of Journalism / Facultad de Ciencas de la informacion - classroom 4

Papers:
• Citizens deliberating in a government website: What difference does it make? - Azi Lev-On
• ePetition systems and political participation - Knud Boehle, Ulrich Riehm
• Facebook usage by city mayors in Central and Southeastern Europe - Domagoj Bebić, Milica Vuckovic
• Parliamentarian Blogs and Deliberative Democracy in Malaysia - Rosyidah Muhamad
• Political representation and the quality of democracy – the use of ICT by members of Brazilian parliament - Marcus Abilio Pereira, Flavio Cireno Fernandes
• The use of web 2.0 to improve political participation: how legislatures use the web to offer online political discussion - Santiago Giraldo Luque

2. E-democracy and deliberation: Political parties and Civil society
Convenor : Prof. Norbert Kersting
Chair: Dr. Raphael Kies
Co-Chair: Dr. Domagoj Bebić
Discussant: Dr. Domagoj Bebic
Wednesday, July 11 - 13:00-14:45
School of Journalism / Facultad de Ciencas de la informacion - classroom 4

Papers:
• Debate the (French) Primary Round Online - Anaïs Théviot, Marino de Luca
• New Media and Democracy: political engagement through e-participatory experiences in education - Ursula Maier-Rabler, Stefan Huber
• Supporting young people's political participation through distributed discussion – lessons obtained from an EU pilot - Simone Kimpeler, Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt, Ella Taylor-Smith, Ralf Lindner
• The effects of the Internet on political participation: the role of the Internet as a source of political information and a sphere for political discussion - Kakuko Miyata

3. e-Revolution and Pluralism in Countries of the 2011 "Arab Spring:" Egypt and Tunisia (joint panel RC10/RC16)
Convenor: Prof. Krzysztof Jasiewicz
Chair: Dr. Rainer Eisfeld
Co-Chair: Prof. Norbert Kersting
Discussants: Prof. Philip G. Cerny and Dr. Jason Abbott
Sunday, July 8 - 15:00-16:45
School of Pharmacy/Facultad de Farmacia - classroom 234

Papers:
• Al Jazeera and Citizen Journalists: The Intersection of Broadcast and Social Networks in the Arab Spring - Muzammil Hussain
• Beyond ‘Renaissance’. The complex field of Islamism in Tunisia - Francesco Cavatorta
• Civil Society Players with Different Political Projects in Egypt’s Mubarak and Post-Mubarak Periods: Implications for Gender Politics and the Demands of Womens’ Rights Groups - Nicola Pratt
• Worker Mobilization and the Trade Union Movement in Egypt and Tunisia: A Comparative Analysis - Francoise Clement

4. Electronic Administration, Innovations in Government-Citizen Relations
Convenor: Dr. Stéphanie Wojcik
Chair: Dr. Hal Colebatch
Co-Chair: Dr. Stéphanie Wojcik
Discussant : Prof. Jill Tao

Wednesday, July 11 - 15:00-16:45
Medicine - Lain Entralgo

Papers:
• Citizen privacy online – beyond the limits of government policymaking? - Scott Brenton
Cyberdemocracy in Brazil: ways to increase the representative democracy - Heloisa Bezerra, Vladimyr Jorge
• Designing the state: governments and citizen in the inherently digital era - Helen Margetts, Patrick Dunleavy, Jane Tinkler, Scott Hale
• E-government benchmarking in Brazil: indicators of e-gov in the greater ABC region - Jarbas Almeida
• Electronic Regimes - Mauro Santaniello, Francesco Amoretti

5. Electronic voting re-vitalized
Convenor: Dr. Josep M. Reniu Vilamala
Chair: Dr. Josep M. Reniu Vilamala
Co-Chair: Prof. Richard Niemi
Discussant: Prof. Alexander Trechsel
Monday, July 9 - 15:00-16:45
School of Journalism / Facultad de ciencas de la informacion - classroom 11

Papers:
• Election Observation and Electronic Voting - Robert Krimmer
• Internet Learning, Internet Voting: Using ICT in Estonia - Thad Hall
• Internet voting in Norway 2011. Democratic and organisational experiences - Harald Baldersheim
• Public dispute on electronic voting in Poland – near or far future? - Arkadiusz Zukowski
• Testing e-participation : A case of e-voting system in Belgium - Nicolas Rossignol, Céline Parotte
• The Road to Internet Voting in Bosnia and Herzegovina - Vanja Malidžan

6. Open government
Convenor : Dr. Stéphanie Wojcik
Chair: Dr. Stéphanie Wojcik
Co-chair: Prof. Richard Engstrom
Discussant: Prof. Robert Smith
Wednesday, July 11 - 9:00-10:45
School of Journalism/Facultad de ciencas de la information - classroom 4

Papers:
• Government 2.0: Problems and Prospect - Peter John Chen
• How to govern open data? Analysis of the modes of liberated data’s governance - Antoine Courmont
• Learning to be more open and proactive: lessons in open government - Mary Francoli
• Opendata as new commitment of governments : from injunction of transparency to coproduction of services - Sarah Labelle, Jean-Baptiste Le Corf
• Tracking the diffusion of open data policy in the EU - Francesca De Chiara

7. Scrutinizing mobilisation in networked politics
Convenor: Mr. Jorge Luis Salcedo Maldonado
Chair: Ms. Marta Cantijoch
Co-Chair: Dr. Mayo Fuster Morell
Discussants: Mr. Camilo Cristancho, Mr. Jorge Luis Salcedo Maldonado
Wednesday, July 11 - 15:00-16:45
School of Journalism/Facultad de ciencas de la information - classroom 4

Papers:
• Cloud protesting. On dissent in times of social media - Stefania Milan
• Demonstrations as Hybrid Media Events: A Comparison of the Occupy Wall Street and Indignados Movements - Michael Jensen
• Empowerment in Organization and Communication - A study of Hong Kong's anti-express rail link movement - Jie Ying Wang
• Networked Politics in Action: The Advocacy of Net Neutrality in the United States - Burcu Baykurt
• Organizations and initiatives: different models of activism in a Facebook referendum campaign - Matteo Cernison

8. Social media revolution
Convenor: Dr. Jason Abbott
Chair: Dr. Jason Abbott
Monday, July 9 - 11:00-12:45
School of Pharmacy/Facultad de Farmacia - classroom 223

Papers:
• A Campaign Perspective on Social Media Motivation and Use by Congressional Candidates - Jeff Gulati
• Democratizing Potential in Social Media: A Facebook Analysis - Callie Spencer, Jeff Rose
• ICTs and Democratisation in South Korea: Digital Citizens Pushing Analogue Politicians - Heike Hermanns
• Internet user and political trust in Europe - Norbert Kersting

RC10 Programme Madrid July 2012PROGRAMME IN PDF

New innovative participatory instruments move to more strongly discursive-interactive designed procedures that correspond to models of deliberative politics and a communitarian democracy. In this evolution of the public spaces the new information and communication technologies can play an important role. Internet can give a new impetus in worldwide boom of direct democracy. What types of new electronic direct deliberative democracy instruments are developed? What are criteria for an evaluation of these instruments? In what fields are these new information technologies implemented? Do electronic town meetings, webforums, e-conferences, e-participatory budgeting etc. enhance deliberation? What are the problems and benefits of online political forums and what is their future development?
The workshop was part of the Slovenian Association of Political Science conference. "TWENTY YEARS OF SLOVENIAN STATEHOOD" at Grand hotel Metropol, Portorož, Slovenia, 2nd – 4th of June 2011

Panel: IPSA RC 10 – Electronic direct democracy and the quality of political discourse
• head: Norbert Kersting (Germany)
• participants:
Evgeny Ishmenev (Russia): New media as a part of the “symbolic politics”
Steven Connolley (Canada): A Comparative Case-Study Project of Liberal E-Democracy and Political Associations in Civil Society
Jason P Abbot (USA): Cacophonyor empowerment? Analyzing the socio-political impact of the Internet in Asia
Gil Ferreira (Portugal): Political debate on weblogs: a virtual public sphere for deliberation?


Panel: IPSA RC 10 – Electronic direct democracy and the quality of democracy
• head: Norbert Kersting (Germany)
• participants:
Simon Delakorda (Slovenia): Deliberation challenges for articles 6,7 and 8: the case of citizen’s forum
Tanja Oblak and Jernej Prodnik (Slovenia): From opinion expression to deliberation: A critical analysis of the “I propose to the government” deliberative e-tool
Jiří Dušek and Lubomír Pána (Czech Republic): Financial and political; problems of e-democracy in the Czech Republic
Norbert Merkovity (Hungary): The Digital Era Governance in Micro Environment; Case study: City of Szeged

New innovative participatory instruments move to more strongly discursive-interactive designed procedures that correspond to models of deliberative politics and a communitarian democracy. In this evolution of the public spaces the new information and communication technologies can play an important role. Internet can give a new impetus in worldwide boom of direct democracy. What types of new electronic direct deliberative democracy instruments are developed? What are criteria for an evaluation of these instruments? In what fields are these new information technologies implemented? Do electronic town meetings, webforums, e-conferences, e-participatory budgeting etc. enhance deliberation? What are the problems and benefits of online political forums and what is their future development?
The workshop will be part of the Slovenian Association of Political Science conference.

Deadline for paper proposals and abstracts (200 words) is 31January 2011
(extended)

Please contact:
Norbert Kersting (kersting@sun.ac.za)
And the Local organizers:
Miro Haček (Miro.Hacek@fdv.uni-lj.si)
Lea Smerkolj (lea.smerkolj@fdv.uni-lj.si)