International
Workshop
Transformations
in the digital age #1: Transformation of the public sphere
Hildesheim University, 25/26 April 2019
Conveners:
Emiliana De Blasio and Michele Sorice (both: LUISS Rome), Marianne Kneuer and
Wolf J. Schünemann (both: University of Hildesheim)
One of the
main assumptions about the impact of Internet and social media points to a
(more or less significant) transformation of the public sphere. The literature
however provides us with competing views on the direction and the quality of
this transformation: Against the backdrop of decreasing trust in the
institutions and processes of modern democracies, digital technologies have
repeatedly been loaded with hopes for increasing citizen engagement and
participation through a broad range of democratic innovations. In this vein,
social media would have a mobilizing and empowering impact enabling citizens to
interact with each other or with politicians circumventing other
institutionalized channels of communication including journalists as
gate-keepers. In the best form, this could lead to broad and inclusive
deliberation.
On the other hand, such optimistic scenarios have been countered
by more pessimistic outlooks like the fragmentation and atomization of the
public sphere and the creation of filter bubbles and echo chambers. This
perspective would include the discourse hegemony of some few as well as the
potential of manipulation. Besides this normatively loaded debate, other open
questions refer to aspects like the possibility of a transnational public sphere
based on online-connectivity, the quality of public deliberation and new forms
of net-worked publics.
Authors are
invited to present theoretical and conceptual papers as well as empirical
studies (a comparative perspective is welcome). Exemplary questions that could
be addressed are the following:
- Is there an increase of deliberation through digital media? What are the findings on quantity and quality of online political deliberation?
- Public sphere is a concept related to rational argumentation. What does the increasing emotionalization of communication in social media mean for this approach?
- Which consequences will the increasing blurring of public sphere and privacy have for politics and society? To which new forms of interaction and communication does this lead?
- Which transformative effects can be observed on media systems, political news provision and consumption?
- Is there an increased fragmentation of the public sphere observable (filter bubbles, echo chambers)? And what are the mechanisms of these filter bubbles and echo chambers?
- Which role has the demand of a high degree of transparency for the transformation of the public sphere?
- Is there increasing transnational communication activity which might lead to the emergence of transnational (mini-)publics?
- Which effect do surveillance, security risks and manipulation do have on democratic publics in Europe?
The
workshop shall be the start of a series of events on “transformations in the
digital age”, organized by an international network of academic institutions,
including LUISS University in Rome, Sciences Po in Paris, Hildesheim University,
University of Perugia, USI in Lugano, the University of Urbino and the
University of Prague. The first work-shop will take place at the Center for Digital
Change at Hildesheim University on 25 and 26 April 2019. The workshop is
supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) within the program
framework “University dialogue with Southern Eu-rope”. Due to this support, all
travel and accommodation expenses of active participants from the following
five countries will be covered: Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal. For
all other participants, accommodation expenses will be covered as well.
The
deadline for proposals (including name, affiliation, email address and an
abstract of max. 300 words) is 31 January 2019. Please send your proposals by
email to the local organizers (see below).
The
conveners plan to organize a publication (special issue). Therefore, we ask for
full papers (no more than 50,000 characters), submitted by 12 April 2019. The
papers for the publication will be selected by the conveners.
Marianne Kneuer – kneuer@uni-hildesheim.de
Wolf J. Schünemann – wolf.schuenemann@uni-hildesheim.de
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