CFP: PDD Conference 2020

Call for Panels and Papers

International Conference of the  PSA/PSAI Participatory and Deliberative Democracy Specialist Groups

Democratic Transformations

Spaces, Connections, and Systemic Change

Dublin City University, Ireland

June 4-5 2020

With Melissa Williams (University of Toronto), Yves Sintomer (University of Paris 8) and Graham Smith (University of Westminster)

Current times are characterized by the proliferation of a variety of participatory spaces, emerging in response to the shortcomings and challenges that modern democracies are facing. These sites of engagement vary widely, including citizens’ assemblies, occupied public squares, workplace democracy, participation in schools, and flash mobs. Further variety to these spaces is added by new modes of digital deliberation, e-rulemaking, and various forms of online engagement. Recent debates in the scholarship on deliberative and participatory democracy suggest that the most fruitful way to understand these spaces is not as insular phenomena but rather as connected in participatory ecologies or participatory systems. Different spaces might fulfil different democratic functions in a larger system. Digital connectivity often contributes to these newly emerging networks of various, hybrid forms of participation. This opens up opportunities for systemic change. Through their connections, participatory spaces are part of deep systemic transformations toward more participatory societies.

The Conference of the PSA Participatory and Deliberative Democracy Specialist Group 2020 invites democracy researchers in all stages of their careers (including PhD students) to discuss their empirical and theoretical work. Topics may include but are not limited to

• Digital engagement, e-rulemaking, and crowdsourcing
• Mini publics, citizens’ assemblies
• Global democracy
• Participatory experiences from the Global South
• Feminist, gender and queer approaches to democracy
• Radical democratic, socialist or anarchist politics
• Participatory constitution making
• Workplace participation and worker cooperatives
• Democratic innovations
• Social movements’ democratic experiences and unconventional forms of participation
• Ecological and green democracy
• The economic context of participation
• Inequalities and modes of exclusion/inclusion
• Consumerism as form of participation
• Public administration, representative institutions, and elite deliberation
• Research methods for studying participatory and deliberative democracy

Conference Venue: Dublin City University, School of Communications, Glasnevin Campus, Henry Grattan Building

How to submit a paper/panel proposal: Please send a paper abstract of around 150 words with a title, authors’ names, affiliation, and contact information or a panel proposal containing three to four paper abstracts by 31st of January 2020 to PDDconference2020@gmail.com.

The application of early career researchers including PhD students is encouraged. Conference attendance is free of charge. Participants and their institutions need to cover expenses for travel and accommodation.

Members of the organising committee:

Hans Asenbaum, IASS Potsdam

Anthony Costello, University College Cork

Rod Dacombe, King’s College, London

Anastasia Deligiaouri, Dublin City University

Jane Suiter, Dublin City University

This conference is organized in an international cooperation between the PDD group of PSA (UK) and the PDD group of PSAI (Ireland). It is hosted by Dublin City University in Ireland. We are grateful for the generous support of King’s College London, the Institute for Future Media and Journalism and the project “Promoting E-Rulemaking in the EU through Deliberative Procedures” (funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Curie Sklodowska grant agreement No798502).