Networking Democracy? New Media Innovations in Participatory Politics Symposium to be held at Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj, Romania 25-27 June 2010 This three-day symposium to be held in the capital city of the historic province of Transylvania will bring together leading international scholars whose work has shaped the thinking about the interplay between new media and democratic politics over the last three decades. Speakers include: W. Lance Bennett, University of Washington, USA Bruce Bimber, University of California at Santa Barbara, USA Donatella Della Porta, European University Institute, Italy William H. Dutton, Oxford Internet Institute, UK Brian Loader, University of York, UK Rodica Mocan, Babeş-Bolyai University, Romania Providing a forum for transnational and cross-cultural debate on the emerging media and its consequences for democratic governance for Western democracies and the democracies of (the new) Eastern Europe this symposium addresses such issue as: human rights, social sorting, migration, e-government, community politics, surveillance, protest, participation, culture and identity, representation, nationalism, security, citizen journalism, trust, regulation both exogenous and self-regulation Selected papers from the conference will be published in a special issue of the international journal iCS (Information, Communication & Society) Supported by the Center for Lifelong Learning, Center for Political Analysis and the European Studies Department (Babeş-Bolyai University), the Science and Technology Studies Unit (SATSU) and the Department of Sociology (University of York) The programme chair is Dan Mercea, Department of Sociology, University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD, U.K., tel: +44(0)1904 433578, email: dmm505@york.ac.uk The conference administrator is Sarah Shrive-Morrison, Department of Sociology, University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD, U.K., tel: +44(0)1904 433050, fax: +44(0)1904 433043, email: ssm500@york.ac.uk The contact person for the local organizing committee is Smaranda Moldovan, Confucius Institute, Babeş-Bolyai University, 59 Teodor Mihali Street, Economica II, Cluj-Napoca, 400083, Romania, tel: +40 (0) 264 551153, fax: +40 (0) 264 551153, mobile: +40 (0) 740 817463, email: smaranda.moldovan@ubbcluj.ro Conference proceedings will be in English only. For additional information and the call for papers click here.