Preliminary Announcement and Call for Contributions

The Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet) invites you to participate in a scholarly workshop to be held in Brussels, Belgium, on 11 May 2009. This full day workshop is organized in cooperation with three thematic sections of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA): International and Intercultural Communication (IIC), Communication and Democracy (CD), Communication, Law and Policy (CLP) sections.

Building on the success of its first edition in Paris, France, in June 2008, the purpose of this workshop is the presentation and discussion of work-in-progress in Internet Governance-related research with the aim to identify emerging research themes and design a research agenda. We are interested in exchanging information and ideas about national and regional projects and networks currently pursuing research on global Internet governance, but also in identifying academic syllabi or other education programs dedicated to these issues, in order to share ideas and forge possible collaborations. Scholars from various academic disciplines and all regions of the world are welcome to contribute to this reflexive exercise, with the long-term objective of collectively building this interdisciplinary research field.

Rather than featuring academic paper presentations, the workshop aims at providing a survey of current academic activities in the field of global Internet governance. Submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following topics: involved actors and their interactions; Internet governance institutions and regimes; legal, socio-economical, behavioral and technical regulation means; Internet governance policy issues.

Submissions should be sent by 20 March 2009 to Meryem Marzouki (Meryem.Marzouki [at] lip6.fr). They should include the name, affiliation, e-mail address and short bio of author(s), along with no more than 500 words of research work description. The program committee will notify applicants by 15 April 2009. To encourage knowledge dissemination, all relevant submissions will be published on the workshop website. Authors of selected submissions will participate at the workshop panel discussions.

Program Committee
Bart Cammaerts (ECREA-CD), London School of Economics, UK; Raquel Gatto (GigaNet), Pontifícia U. Católica de São Paulo, Brazil; Nanette S. Levinson (GigaNet), American U., USA; Meryem Marzouki (GigaNet), CNRS & U. Pierre et Marie Curie, France; Luciano Morganti (GigaNet & ECREA-IIC), Vrije U. Brussel, Belgium; Katharine Sarikakis (ECREA-CLP), U. of Leeds, UK; JP Singh (GigaNet), Georgetown U., USA; Leo Van Audenhove (GigaNet & ECREA-IIC) , Vrije U. Brussel, Belgium.

There is no registration fee for this event. A registration form will be circulated with the program. Practical information on accommodation and low cost travel to Brussels are available on the workshop website.