Call for Papers: D&S Vol. 8, Iss. 2

We are seeking well-written, interesting submissions of 1500-2000 words on the themes below, including summaries and/or excerpts of recently completed research, new publications, and works in progress. Submissions for the issue are due Friday, March 4, 2011.

Social Media, Governance, and Political Reform

Over the past few years, many technophiles, activists, and political observers have been lauding the potential of social media platforms such as Facebook, SMS, Twitter, and YouTube to improve governance and foment political change. To date, we possess largely anecdotal data on the impact of new media and technologies on political reform. For example, many argue that Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have played critical roles in organizing the recent protests in Egypt, Iran, Moldova, and Tunisia. Moreover, anecdotal evidence suggests that cell phone technologies can play an instrumental role in revealing electoral fraud by improving election monitoring and reporting techniques. Yet, in spite of the anecdotal evidence that supports these developments and their use in specific instances, there is a dearth of empirical analysis on the subject. We lack studies that trace the causal impact of these technologies on political reform and improved governance. As a result, a number of open questions remain. Some areas that mandate more serious inquiry are the following:

• Evidence of Political Change. While we know that social media can play an important role in publicizing political activities such as protests, do we have evidence that such actions have led to substantive political change? Is it possible to develop a set of indicators to more effectively gauge the impact of new technologies and media on questions of political change?
• Technology and Governance. That social media can help coordinate large and discrete activities, such as protests and election observation, is clear. Is there any evidence that these technologies can help to improve day-to-day governance and improve political accountability? Moreover, as a transparency instrument, mobile governance relies on outflows of information from citizens to each other, and to governments and NGOs. Therefore it is important to consider how citizens can be persuaded to adopt such technology. What incentives do citizens have to participate in mobile governance, and how can new technologies be employed to complement advocacy efforts already underway?
• Questioning Access and the Digital Divide. Many social media technologies, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, require access to functional Internet connections, however most people in developing countries lack access to such technologies. Rather, the most common technology in developing countries is a basic cell phone. Since the countries with the worst governance tend to be the poorest ones as well, how relevant are these advanced technologies to the people living in the countries with the worst forms of governance?
• Dictators versus Demonstrators. How quickly are regimes opposed to the spread of these technologies learning how to block them and/or employ them to suppress political dissent more effectively? For governance projects, technical questions relating to how data will be managed, and by whom, are worth considering. U.S. policy in this area also seems to work in contradictory ways: while the U.S. State Department has emerged as strong advocate for Internet freedom, the U.S. Department of Defense is building more effective programs to monitor the use of the Internet.
• Substitute versus Complement. Is social media a complement to direct political action or a substitute for it? Does it pose problems to the nature of direct political action today, and if so, how? Are people who use social media for political purposes more likely to take direct action, such as participating in a protest, or are virtual protests becoming substitutes for actual ones?

This issue of Democracy and Society will take a broad and analytical perspective to the impact of social media on political reform and improved governance. We seek to gain leverage not on anecdotal or circumstantial evidence of these impacts, but to demonstrate causal effect. We are also interested in exploring how we can employ such technologies away from large scale and discrete events, such as protests and elections, to more everyday issues of governance. Finally, we are interested in studies that illuminate how we can employ more modest technologies, such as SMS, to improve governance and catalyze political change.

Please email submissions to democracyandsociety [at] gmail [dot ] com. For additional information, please visit www.democracyandsociety.com or contact Deborah Brown or Ayesha Chugh at democracyandsociety [at] gmail [dot ] com.