CALL FOR PAPERS Special Issue: E-Politics of Food -from Online Campaigning to 'Food Porn‟ SUBMISSION DUE DATE: 28 February 2015 PUBLICATION: International Journal of E-Politics OBJECTIVE OF THE THEMED ISSUE: This special issue invites submissions on the E-Politics of Food from online campaigning to the aesthetics of food porn. Food retains a centrality in our daily lives; its production, consumption, manufacture and processing is enmeshed with complex issues of sustainability, biodiversity, fair trade, carbon footprint, taboos, ecological and ethical concerns. Food remains controversial both in our imagination of our identities and in constructing others. In an age of austerity or prosperity, food can reflect our changing values and be symbolic of our orientation towards our immediate and distant worlds. As we create new online rituals of imaging food and archiving daily memories, food assumes a renewed focus in our digital culture. Beyond the aesthetic, we want to know why food can become the focal point of conflict and in the process become politicized. The politicization of food issues has wide social, economic and cultural significance in that it can draw attention to policy failures, perceived threats to a society or existing practices that serve to define a cultural identity. What has changed is the proliferation of online platforms that allow more organisations and individuals to engage with the politics of food; enabling a wider dissemination of these views; and the potential for an expansion of conflict nationally and transnationally. We welcome theoretical or empirical papers about online food fights. The International Journal of E-Politics is interdisciplinary so we welcome any disciplinary, theoretical or methodological approach. We also welcome papers that explore the issues at any level i.e. individual or social, national or transnational. SUGGESTED TOPICS: We are interested in topics that include (but are not limited to) the following: Online scares, controversies or scandals about food e.g. over breaches in cultural taboos, fraud, contamination, etc. E-health campaigns e.g. plastic wrappings, or salt/sugar content of food and drinks Counter-campaigns e.g. use of viral campaigns by fast food or drinks industry to fight back against negative publicity Using food to raise awareness of social inequalities, injustices or conflict e.g. Conflict Kitchen in Philadelphia, biodiversity and food consumption Online debates about the loss or sale of large tranches of farmland/food production in Africa, Asia and South America Conflict over food inequality or food insecurity in a digital age Avoiding or minimising conflict through predictive analytics and big data e.g. in health inspection protocols, tracking food health scares, predicting famine, etc Food in an age of austerity e.g. blogging about cheap food and conflict over food banks Imaging food in our daily lives SUBMISSION PROCEDURE: Researchers from any field of enquiry that deals with the online politics of food broadly defined are invited to submit papers for this themed issue. All submissions are due by February 28, 2014. All queries to Anita Howarth anita.howarth@brunel.ac.uk Yasmin Ibrahim y.ibrahim@qmul.ac.uk Full papers to be submitted electronically, http://www.igi-global.com/submission/manuscripts/ Editors-in-Chief: Celia Romm Livermore, School of Business Administration, Wayne State University, Detroit, USA Yasmin Ibrahim, School of Business and Management, Queen Mary, University of London. Published: Quarterly (both in Print and Electronic form) PUBLISHER: The International Journal of E-Politics is published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), publisher of the “Information Science Reference” (formerly Idea Group Reference) and “Medical Information Science Reference” imprints. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit www.igi-global.com.