Call for Papers for a themed issue on “Rescuing Participation” in Comunicação e Sociedade

Editors: Fábio Ribeiro (UTAD; CECS-UMinho); Ana Duarte Melo (CECS-UMinho); Nico Carpentier (Uppsala University, Sweden)

Participation has become a key concept in Communication and Media Studies, driven by the enthusiasm and hopes for democratic renewal, brought about in particular by the potentialities of digital technologies. These high expectations have not always been grounded in in-depth reflections about this desire for, and desirability of, participation. This themed issue of Comunicação e Sociedade wants to discuss why we want and need participation in our contemporary societies. It aims to raise questions about which participatory intensities are considered necessary and sufficient, and why? Why do we, as societies and/or as academics, desire for increased levels of participation? What are its societal benefits? Why is participation so important to us?

Submission: All abstracts (400-500 words) should be sent in .doc format before 30 September 2018 to the e-mail comunicacaoesociedade@ics.uminho.pt, CC to the editors: Fábio Ribeiro (fabior@utad.pt); Ana Duarte Melo (anamelo@ics.uminho.pt) and Nico Carpentier (nico.carpentier@im.uu.se).

Important dates:
Deadline for abstracts – 30 September 2018
Editor decision (on basis of abstracts) – 15 October 2018
Full article submission deadline – 30 January 2019
Editor decision on full articles – 1 May 2019
Submissions final article – 1 July 2019
Issue Publication – December 2019

The full call is available here.