Dear Colleagues, The mobileGov World Summit 2017 (Brighton UK during 7-9 May) is soliciting speakers, panels & tutorial proposals. Nominations for the mobileGov Global Awards is still open. Please show interest at www.m4life.org or write directly to conf@m4life.org for specific enquiries. - Call for panelists - _____________________________________________________________________ Mobile political participation: exploring mobility implications for democratic engagement mobileGov World Summit 2017, 7-9 May, Brighton UK ____________________________________________________________________________ While mVoting, mPetitioning and other institutional political participation mechanisms have long been part of mGov related discussion, the prospects and consequences of mobile technology proliferation for a wider range of democratic participation haven’t been paid due attention. In addition, investigation of associations between media and political engagement are typically approached by researchers with the focus on ICTs as a whole, while mobile media effects are rarely measured separately. This panel therefore aims at revisiting unique features of mobile media and mobile interaction with the perspective of identifying their implications for democratic engagement. In particular, we invite participants from various disciplines to present their work and discuss the following issues: a) What is the role of mobile media in political participation? Existing research suggests that different media may have varied relationships to political interest and behavior depending on the specific characteristics of the media: exposure to media can either provoke one’s interest in political issues or reinforce the existing political interest and engagement. It will be interesting to examine the role of mobile media in this relation. Will immediate interactivity and information sharing capabilities of mobile media enable it to stimulate political interest? Or will these effects be outweighed by personalization and customization features allowing for content filtering and thus resulting in communication to like-minded people with limited exposure to diverse opinions? b) For what forms of political participation mobile media is used? Unique features of mobile interaction can suit certain types of political engagement better than others. For example, one might expect that location-awareness and “always on” attributes can be beneficial for mobilization and coordination of political actions, while short interaction time, lower attention and concentration are more favorable for news consumption and commenting, rather than writing thoughtful reflections on political and social issues. In addition it will be interesting to discuss what forms of mobile political participation can be considered exclusively mobile. c) What consequences does mobile political participation have for democracy? And finally, it is important to examine potential outcomes of mobile participation in terms of their wider democratic contributions. Does increased political communication contribute to participatory equality? Or how does mobile participation, considering its specific attributes- short interaction time, lower attention and concentration, ubiquity and interactivity- influence political knowledge, quality of political deliberation, tolerance and other democratic values? Submissions: Please initially send us Max 3 A4 pages of talk / summary abstract including title, author’s name and position, and short bio. All submissions should be sent mLife events at via conf@m4life.org by 15 February 2017. -- Emre Simsek Researcher MobileGov UK http://www.mgovernment.net/ emre@mgovernment.org