http://www.clas.wayne.edu/citizenship/

Citizenship requires networks and networks can confer citizenship. The theme of the 2010 conference of the Center for the Study of Citizenship explores the similarities and the tensions between networks and citizenship in the past, present, and future. It also considers how networks have shaped citizenship and how citizenship has influenced the development of networks. Noted scholar Yochai Benkler (Harvard University and author of The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom) will give the keynote speech.

networks → citizenship
How do our interpersonal relationships affect our sense of belonging within our societies and the ways we experience our rights and responsibilities? How do networks enrich our lives and build our capacity to solve collective problems? How do they limit our freedom of action and constrain our choices? In particular, how do networks affect the place of immigrants, racial and ethnic minorities, women’s, LGBT, and other groups? How do they shape our conduct of electoral politics and our sense of civic engagement? In what ways do networks serve as sites of alternative forms of citizenship for NGOs, grass-roots organizations, or watchdog groups? How do networks transcend national boundaries and do they vary from West to East, North to South?

citizenship → networks
What rights and responsibilities do we hold within our various networks? How does our network participation (in such networks as trade, migration, religious, artistic, and political) bind us and/or empower us? What are the norms of behavior in those networks and how do they differ from some networks to others? How deep is our sense of belonging in networks and how does this vary with the type of network and our position in it? How do we practice citizenship in online networks and how do governments engage in the regulation of them?

networks → citizenship
citizenship ← networks
Have the patterns of citizenship and networks changed? What will patterns of the future look like? How do traditional networks (kinship, migratory, labor) evolve into modern or post-modern networks? How have political alignments in democratic and authoritarian regimes fashioned citizenship? How do new networks mediated by electronic communications and computing technology reshape our understanding of our connection to one another?

These points illustrate the wide range of possibilities to link networks and citizenship and we encourage papers that address citizenship/networks in ways not addressed above. We welcome proposals from any time period or geographic area and across the widest range of disciplines from faculty, graduate students, and independent scholars. Proposals should be submitted online at http://141.217.132.114/csc/csc_request.htm no later than Friday, October 23, 2009. Both panel proposals and individual submissions are welcome. Those interested in submitting panel proposals can use H-Citizenship (http://www.h-net.org/~citizen) to locate scholars with compatible interests. Remote presentation of papers and remote participation will also be available. Questions should be directed to Marc W. Kruman, aa1277 {at} wayne(.)edu.