Last call for papers to special edition of International Journal of Public
Information Systems (IJPIS)
The non-government and voluntary sector, ICT, and democracy
Deadline for extended abstracts: March 1st 2014
The recent award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Organisation for
the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has again focused international
public attention on the role and importance of Non-Governmental
Organisations (NGOs) in social and political life. NGOs, together with
other groups which rely to a greater or lesser extent on volunteers such as
Local Voluntary Organisations (LVOs) often provide services to the
community and undertake tasks which government cannot or will not do. The
use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the governance
and activities of such organisations is a topic of growing interest.
The nature, scale and activities of NGOs and LVOs vary enormously
both within countries and across countries. In countries with highly
developed and extensive welfare states, which include many European
countries, the role of NGOs and voluntary or part voluntary organisations
will be different than it will be in, say, countries like the USA or in
the developing world. Such organisations range from
well-funded, well-resourced and formally structured international
organisations such as the Red Cross or the World Wildlife Fund to small
local, even ad hoc, loose networks of individuals organised around anything
from fund raising for the local school to community gardening or even
crowdsourcing.
The field of Community Informatics is one in which the use of ICT by
LVOs and similar organisations is studied, but there has been little
research to date on how and to what extent organisations across this
spectrum use ICT for member or citizen engagement and the promotion of
internal democratic governance. A particularly interesting question is
whether, and if so how, NGOs and LVOs use ICTs internally and externally?
For example, are there instances of such organisations making
extremely effective use of ICT for (say) lobbying whilst failing to use
it effectively for internal engagement or vice versa? Are
such organisations better at using ICT to promote their values externally
than they are at practicing them internally?
For this special issue we are seeking contributions from interdisciplinary
research that examines, in different ways, how volunteer spheres use the
tools of e-democracy, i.e. how they use ICT to strengthen the
organisation's internal democratic structures. We are also calling for
applied studies such as usability or design studies of the development of
tools for e-democracy for non-governmental organisations.
A majority of research in this area is carried out in
English-speaking countries and in urban settings, which is why we welcome
studies from other perspectives. As the field of Community Informatics and
E-democracy continues to be an emerging field we especially welcome studies
that show engagement with theory and method.
POSSIBLE TOPICS
Possible themes included (but are not limited to):
· Studies of the use of e-democracy tools in NGOs and LVOs;
· Evaluations of commonly used open-source systems in NGOs and citizen
engagement, from a democracy perspective;
· Technology-enhanced cooperation in NGOs and LVOs;
· Use of technology for lobbying and mobilizing campaigns;
· ICT support for knowledge management in NGOs and LVOs;
· On-line democratic culture;
· Processes of inclusion and exclusion in e-participation;
· ICT and gender equality in NGOs and LVOs;
· ICT supported organization of global democratic movements;
· Security issues in tools and practices for e-democracy in NGOs and
LVOs;
· The use of or potential for e-voting in NGOs and LVOs;
· Use of pseudonyms in e-citizen engagement;
· Anonymity and e-democracy;
· The sociology of ICT use in such organizations;
· ICT impacts on the internal democratic processes in NGOs and LVOs;
· Comparative studies of NGOs ICT supported communication practices;
· ICT supported interaction between NGOs;
· NGOs internal democratic norms and practices in relation to ICT;
· Case studies of models and prototypes in
e-democracy/e-engagement projects in NGOs and LVOs.
EDITOR
Karin Hansson, Dept. of Computer and Systems Sciences,
Stockholm University& Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm (
khans...@dsv.su.se)
EDITORIAL BOARD
· Rowena Cullen, Professor Ph.D. Associate Dean, Research,
Victoria Business School, University of Wellington
· Johannes W. Pichler Professor Ph.D. Chair Professor for
European Legal Developments. Head of the Department, Dept. for European
Legal Developments, Law Faculty, University of Graz
· Love Ekenberg Professor Ph.D. Head of Department, Dept. of Computer
and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University
· Jeremy Rose Professor Ph.D. Dept. of Communication and Information,
University of Skövde
· Frank Bannister, Associate Professor Ph.D. School of
Computer Science and Statistics, Trinity College Dublin
· Jakob Svensson, Associate Professor Ph.D. Dept. of Geography, Media
and Communication Studies, Karlstad University and Informatics and Media,
Uppsala university
· Peter Parycek, Ph.D. Head of Centre, Centre for
E-Governance, Danube-University Krems
IMPORTANT DATES
2014
March 1st Submission deadline for extended abstracts
April 1st Notification of acceptance of
extended abstracts
May 1st Submission of full paper
July 1st Submission of final versions
September 1st Planned publication date
SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
· Extended abstracts should be no more than 2-3 pages.
· Full Papers should be in the range 6000-8000 words.
Longer submissions may be considered in exceptional circumstances.
· Authors are asked to follow the format guidelines at:
http://www.ijpis.net/ojs/index.php/IJPIS/about/submissions#authorGuidelines
The International Journal of Public Information Systems is listed
in Cabell's Directory of Publishing Opportunities, The Directory of
Open Access Journals, and EBSCOhost.
Further information is available at:
http://www.ijpis.net/ojs/index.php/IJPIS/index
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