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Call for chapters



Provisory Book Title:



Protests in the Information Age: Social Movements, Digital Practices and
Surveillance



Editors: Lucas Melgaço (Dept. of Criminology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

Jeffrey Monaghan (Dept. of Criminology, University of Ottawa)



In recent years, the role of information and communication technologies has
been central to large-scale protests and social movements in different
parts of the world. Ukraine, Syria, Iran, Canada, Spain, United States,
United Kingdom, China, Brazil and Belgium are only a few of the numerous
examples. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter and devices like
smartphones have increasingly played an important role in facilitating and
mobilizing people to take to the streets. Concurrently, the same
technologies have been scrutinized by public authorities (including
security agencies and the police) and have served to detect and curtail the
activities of certain demonstrators. In addition, public spaces used by
demonstrators are being increasingly monitored by surveillance technologies
that range from video-surveillance and police body cams to drones. This
book intends to explore the complex and contradictory relationships between
communication and information technologies and social movements by drawing
on different case studies of protests from around the world. The
contributions will analyze how new communication and information
technologies impact the way protests are carried out and controlled in the
current information age. The book will focus on recent events that date
from the Arab Spring onwards and will pose questions towards the future of
protests and digital landscapes.



Potential authors are invited to submit a paper proposal on topics such as,
yet not limited to:

·         Surveillance of public demonstrations (including technologies
like CCTV, body cams, drones and so on; The increasing monitoring of spaces
of protest;

·         Social networking sites and protest mobilizations;

·         The use of smartphones by demonstrators; Sousveillance (e.g. the
use of surveillance technologies to record police brutality in protests);
Resistance;

·         Mainstream and alternative media coverage of protests (including
real time broadcasting of protests through apps like Periscope or Meerkat);

·         Police use of information technologies in the control of crowds
and riots;

·         The reemergence of the Black Bloc tactics and negotiations of
(in)visibility in public spaces;

·         Political profiling of demonstrators, databanks and security
intelligence; Big data;

·         Geolocation technologies and demonstrations;

·         Transnational flows of security practices and information; Policy
transfers related to information and protest control;

·         Usage of digital technologies in the regulation of public spaces; The
right to protest at risk;

·         Theoretical and methodological developments on the relationships
between social movements and the digital.





Submissions in English and of a maximum of 700 words should be sent before
November 20, 2015 to [log in to unmask] and [log in to unmask]
In your proposal please provide details of the theoretical framework of
your work, methodology, the empirical case(s) studied and how your chapter
engages with the main theme of the call. Together with the abstract include
a short bio of no more than 300 words. Selected abstracts will be combined
in a book proposal to be submitted to Routledge – Taylor and Francis Group,
who has already expressed strong interest in the publication (Routledge is
also publishing the forthcoming book “Order and Conflict in Public Space”
edited by L. Melgaço together with M. de Backer, G. Varna and F.
Menichelli). Accepted authors will be notified by December 15, 2015 and
they are expected to send the full chapter (7000-9000 words) by March 31,
2016. Proposals must be original and not yet published or under
consideration for publication by any other book or journal. All chapters
will pass a double blind review process. The expected date of publication
is March/April 2017.


The call is also available at:

http://www.crisresearchgroup.be/index.php/component/k2/item/392-call-for-chapters-protests-in-the-information-age