Hi all,

please find below a call for papers for a panel on “Transnational Activism via the Internet” that will take place within the section on “Transnational Movements in a Globalized World” at the PISA ECPR (European Consortium for Political Research) conference (6-8 September 2007).



Could you please send it to potentially interested people or submit an abstract, if interested?



All best wishes,

Lorenzo Mosca



Transnational activism via the Internet: challenges and opportunities of Computer-Mediated Communication for social movements
Chair: Lorenzo Mosca

The current debate on Internet and politics has stressed new opportunities provided by Internet communication to resource-poor actors such as social movements. The Internet has been seen by many observers and students as the backbone of the recent transnational mobilizations on the issue of globalization.

However, some limits of Internet communication have also been underlined: the digital divide, power inequalities related to expertise and technological skills, the tendency of search engines to over-represent mainstream political actors online, etc.

This panel addresses the following questions: How is the Internet used to mobilize protest transnationally? How are different electronic tools used by social movement organizations and activists? Which are the limits and the opportunities of Internet communication for transnational social movements? How do activists frame knowledge, communication and information rights in a digital society?

The panel welcomes both theoretical and empirical papers addressing such questions. The focus can be on specific campaigns, case studies, but also on cross-organizational / cross-national comparisons assessing different functions of diverse Internet applications (search engines, websites, mailing-lists, blogs, etc.). Papers combining different research techniques (quantitative and qualitative) and/or focusing on different Internet applications are particularly welcome.

Please contact the chairs of this panel if you are interested in presenting a paper on this topic

The left in transnational social movements



Chair: Massimiliano Andretta



Email address: andretta@sp.unipi.it



From its entering in the public scene, with the already legendary battle of Seattle, the Global Justice Movement was seen as an unusual coalition of traditional, new and very new social movements’ organizations. An important difference must be underlined between the GJM’s coalitions in USA and in Europe: political parties are largely absent from the former, and quite central for the latter. This is mainly due to the variation of party systems’ structures with the absence of strong socialist and communist parties in US. This panel aims at exploring the involvement of Left-wing parties and unions in transnational social movements: How do leftist political parties and trade unions frame transnational movements and the struggle against neoliberal globalization? Which kind of parties and trade unions are mostly involved in which kind of transnational politics? What are the differences between traditional leftist and radical leftist parties and trade unions in transnational mobilization? We shall discuss these issues in the light of recent research on the global justice movement at the local, national and transnational level.



Please contact the chairs of this panel if you are interested in presented a paper on this topic!