[AISWorld] Special Issue of IJEG on Challenging Government: e-Participation and the social web

[Dimitris Gouscos]

[ apologies for cross-postings ]

The International Journal of Electronic Governance (IJEG) is a 
fully-refereed quarterly journal published by Inderscience, focusing on 
research and practice of electronic governance worldwide. IJEG, 
published since 2007 and currently in its 7th volume, is indexed by 
Scopus, Google Scholar, the E-Government Reference Library and other 
major databases. More details on the interdisciplinary subject coverage 
of IJEG, submission guidelines as well as sample issues are available at 
http://www.inderscience.com/ijeg.

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Special Issue of IJEG on Challenging Government: e-Participation and the 
social web
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Guest Editors
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Dr. Darren P. Mundy, Senior Lecturer in Digital Media, Interim Head of 
Department, School of Arts and New Media, University of Hull, United Kingdom
email d.mundy at hull.ac.uk
Dr. Tobias Bevc, Lecturer, Chair Political Science/Political Theory, 
Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences, University of Augsburg, Germany
email tobiasbevc at politische-theorie.eu

Description
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Social media platforms are lowering the boundaries to access and 
participation in conversation linked to governmental services. 
Participation is being facilitated in numerous ways, for instance: 
through national and local government adopting social media channels for 
citizen communication; community groups using social media as platforms 
to engender community action; and citizen-citizen communication around 
the problems in their local region. In addition, there is a perception 
that this development can help to enhance the prospects for existing 
democracies to include their citizens in the political process.
However, at the same time a brief look at the public sphere in 
democratic states will show an ambivalent impact of social media on the 
public sphere. Here the keywords surveillance, sousveillance, 
coveillance, digital divide and censorship are essential to sketch the 
field of discussion. The question is whether e-Participation through 
social media really enhances participation of the people or does it 
privilege those which are already participating, regardless of the 
technical possibilities.
This special issue encourages discussion of the range of different ways 
in which e-Participation through social media is occurring, including 
what it is facilitating? In addition it will help in determining 
potential future research directions in this area of interest and enable 
discussion of the impact of social media on the public sphere and its 
consequences for democracy and its practises.

Subject Coverage
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Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Social Media and Democracy
• Social Media and Participation
• Social Media and the Public Sphere
• Future Chances of Social Media and e-Participation
• Risks of e-Participation

Notes for Prospective Authors
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Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be 
currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. (N.B. 
Conference papers may only be submitted if the paper has been completely 
re-written and if appropriate written permissions have been obtained 
from any copyright holders of the original paper).
All papers are refereed through a peer review process.
All papers must be submitted online. Please read the guidelines on 
preparing and submitting articles at 
http://www.inderscience.com/info/inauthors/author_submit.php.

Important Dates
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- submission of manuscripts:        31 January 2015 (extended deadline)
- interim notification to authors:  31 March 2015
- revised versions due:             30 April 2015
- final notification to authors:    31 May 2015
- final camera-ready versions due:  15 June 2015

This special issue is scheduled for publication in 2015.

Expression of interest and queries for the special issue can be directed 
to the guest editors. For general inquiries regarding IJEG please 
contact Dr. Dimitris Gouscos, Assistant Professor, Faculty of 
Communication and Media Studies, University of Athens, email 
gouscos at media.uoa.gr, IJEG Editor-in-Chief.

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