40: Information Technology and Politics

Nanette Levinson, American University, nlevins@american.edu

Difficult economic times present the field of information technology and politics with distinctive opportunities and challenges. This call for papers especially encourages research that addresses innovatively these times. Some examples include:

o How do information technologies (IT including new social media) operate and influence/impact in times of economic distress? Do they have a role in policy-making and, if so, how? How might they shape public opinion, civic engagement, and related outcomes?

o What roles do IT (including new social media) play in fostering collaboration (or conflict such as cyber-terrorism) among unlike entities (institutions, international organizations, nation-states, regional and local governments, private sector, and civil society) or among developed and developing nations?

o In what ways does IT influence and/or change the roles of users/citizens in policy-making in local, nation-state, regional, and international levels of governance?

o What are the implications of such research for identity and for leadership?

o What research methodologies and/or teaching approaches best fit the study of IT&P in the context of these opportunities and challenges?

Finally, this call also welcomes research that explores emerging topics in the field and especially work that uses a comparative perspective—across APSA sections and fields. Information technology and politics research can contribute to work in other sections dealing with, for example, health, environment, labor, trade (and vice versa) in these extraordinary times characterized by economic challenge, technological change, and changing roles of governments, private sector, and civil society.