psa 2005 in leeds

Getting ready to go to Leeds for the Political Studies Association conference. We will present on the first day, first panel: unprecedented luck. This is the line-up

The Internet and Political Mobilization
Date/Time Tuesday 5 April: Session 1: 14:00 - 15:30

Papers

The Internet, Political Mobilization, and Organizational Hybridity
Author(s) Andrew Chadwick

Old Politics-New Media: Parliament, the Public and Online Participation in the UK
Author(s) Rachel Gibson Stephen Ward Wainer Lusoli

Mixing it in the Matrix: the Poiesis of Heidegger's Hacktivism?
Author(s) Paul Taylor

The paper is almost ready, read the abstract:

Over the past decade considerable concerns have been raised about the health of parliamentary democracy in the UK. Apparently increasing levels of public distrust and cynicism about politicians and representative institutions, along with the dramatic fall in turnout at the 2001 election have prompted a debate about possible means of reconnecting the public with politics. One area which has attracted attention is whether the rise of new media technologies, such as the internet and email, could help facilitate such a re-engagement. So far, however, whilst there has been much criticism of MPs, parties and parliaments online efforts, there has been only limited evidence emerging from a public perspective about their use of new media technologies for political engagement and communication. In order to address this gap this paper reports the findings from a public opinion survey commissioned a from NOP which examines citizen knowledge attitudes and behaviour regarding ICTs as means of connecting with parliament and MPs. The survey confirms that whilst the net has potential to deepen public engagement with our representatives and parliamentary institutions currently it attracts only a small minority of voters who are generally already politically active and privileged. Moreover, such potential will remain untapped if without considerable effort form legislatures and legislators to change the culture of representation.