NETWORKS AND NEW MEDIA (Glocalism, 2016, 1)

glocalism

journal of culture, politics and innovation

call for papers

“Glocalism”, a peer-reviewed, open-access and cross-disciplinary journal, is currently accepting manuscripts for publication. We welcome studies in any field, with or without comparative approach, that address both practical effects and theoretical import.

All articles should be sent to: p.bassetti@globusetlocus.org and davide.cadeddu@unimi.it

Articles can be in any language and length chosen by the author, while its abstract and keywords have to be in English.

Deadline: December 31, 2015. This issue is scheduled to appear at end-February 2016.

Website: http://www.glocalismjournal.net/

Direction Committee: Arjun Appadurai (New York University); Zygmunt Bauman (University of Leeds); Seyla Benhabib (Yale University); Sabino Cassese (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa); Manuel Castells (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona); Fred Dallmayr (University of Notre Dame); David Held (Durham University); Robert J. Holton (Trinity College Dublin); Alberto Martinelli (Università degli Studi di Milano); Anthony McGrew (University of Southampton); Alberto Quadrio Curzio (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano); Roland Robertson (University of Aberdeen); Saskia Sassen (Columbia University); Amartya Sen (Harvard University); Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (Columbia University); Salvatore Veca (Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori di Pavia).

the topic of this issue

networks and new media

Protest movements in various parts of the world have been perceived on the whole by academics and public opinion as representing a new trend that utilises new means of communication and political organisation. In effect, the Internet and the social media played a fundamental role during the Arab Spring, the Occupy Wall Street protests and the marches of the Indignados. Certainly, to induce people to protest always requires concrete facts capable of inciting reactions at individual and collective level, but it seems that the use of the Internet and the social networks – above all by the lower income, lesser educated groups – tends to generate greater individual freedom, confidence and capacity to influence others. In general terms, a veritable “network society” is developing, in which the networks and media are becoming social spaces capable of moulding power. Looking at the results of many protest movements, it is easy to note how the Internet and the social media were not sufficiently influential to change the real political situation in the way they initially hoped. However, the development of across-the-board interactive communications networks has facilitated the establishment of a new form of “mass self communication”, shifting the public sphere from the institutional universe toward a new communicational space. Thus it appears that, thanks to these new social media, it is possible to begin to build a new form of global democracy, to improve communications between citizens and administrators, and to increase people’s awareness of rights that in other parts of the world are acknowledged as fundamental and essential.