It is sponsored by the ECPR standing group on forms of participation. There is an ongoing call for panels which will close on September 1. Below we enclose the description of five possible panels. If you are interested in being a discussant or paper giver in any of those panels, please send an email to the panel chair with copy to aina.gallego@uab.cat and ccolombo@uoc.edu by August 15.

The necessary information is:

• Your name and institutional affiliation:

• The panel in which you would like to participate
• Provisional paper title and short abstract (for paper givers)

On the other side, if you would like to propose a whole panel which fits in this section, you can send it directly by the ECPR system http://www.ecpr.org.uk/potsdam/select_sections.asp

However, we would be grateful if you can inform us. In this way we will be able to coordinate the whole section better and more coherently.

Note that the final decision on panel acceptance is made by the academic convenors of the conference, so that we cannot guarantee that the papers or panels will be accepted.

Please forward this message to researchers who might be interested.

Thank you and best regards

Aina Gallego and Clelia Colombo



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Section 17: “Internet and Politics”

Section chairs: Aina Gallego (aina.gallego@uab.cat), Clelia Colombo (ccolombo@uoc.edu)

Panel title: "Parties and Election Campaigning in the Digital Age"

Panel chair: Rachel Gibson (rachel.gibson@manchester.ac.uk) This panel will examine how parties and campaigns are changing in response to the growing use of new media technologies by members and voters. In particular, it will focus on the extent to which parties and candidates are using newer 'Web 2.0' applications (i.e. video channels, social networking sites and blogs) and the positive and negative implications of these more participatory tools for parties' ability to shape and manage their message.

Panel title: "Social Movements and Protest Participation. The role of New and Old Media"

Panel chair: Stefaan Walgrave (stefaan.walgrave@ua.ac.be) The panel focuses on the relationship between social movements, their protest activities, and the media. Two key questions will be addressed: to what extent are movements affected by or dependent on media coverage and to what extent are social movements able to influence the media? These classic questions have regained importance due to the strong rise of the internet media. While studies have shown that the traditional mass media can play an important role in (de)legitimizing a social movement, the role of the new media has only begun to be investigated in a systematic way. Theoretically as well as empirically the field is booming and this panel wants to tap into that growing body of literature.

Panel title: "New media and electoral participation"

Panel chair: Eva Anduiza (eva.anduiza@uab.cat) This panel will examine how new media (talk radio, political talk shows, television news magazines, and particularly online media) affect political involvement and particularly electoral turnout. We will look at how new media enhace the opportunities for communication and political discussion involving citizens, candidates, journalists and how these in turn can influence political attitudes and behaviour, with a special focus on electoral participation.

Panel title: "The digital paths of political individualization: does technology matter?"

Panel chair: Davide Calenda (davide.calenda@unifi.it) Individualization is one of the key patterns of social change in the late modernity and challenges contemporary politics in western societies. The processes generically referred to as individualization often develop upon self-centered networks and the Internet seems to enable these transformations. The panel focuses on the following research questions: a) How can the concept of political individualization best be clarified when it comes in relation with the Internet and other digital networked devices? b) What are the specific ways these technologies mould patterns of political individualization, and how can they be analyzed? We welcome both theoretical and empirical paper proposals that take into account the specific characteristics of digital networked technologies (i.e. flexible, adaptive digital communication networks) and critically explain how these characteristics actually contribute to generate interplays between (and within) the political communication sphere and th e political participation sphere.

Panel title: "E-Politics: the role of the Internet in designing political practices"

Panel chair: Andrea Calderaro (andrea.calderaro@eui.eu) So far, the Internet has been hailed as an instrument useful for facilitating political participation. A classic question arises: is this confirmed today? and if it is, how does this occur?

This panel aims to address these questions, reflecting upon how the Internet is used to practice politics. The panel will propose empirical examples to investigate how the Internet both facilitates existing forms of political engagement and how it promotes new forms.