Social Networks and the Transformation of the Political Sphere

Abstract

While economic globalization dynamics weaken nation-states governments and politics, snatching slices of their decisional power away, the very information technologies that make global markets a reality, also favour the rise of new political leaders, cultures and narratives that seem to reduce the gap between public and private life, between political and private roles, changing the perception and the representation of politics and power. If we think about it that’s the very meaning of globalization itself according to Ulrich Beck (1999): globalization is not the end of politics but the setting of politics outside the nation-state categories and even outside the traditional schemes assigning political or nonpolitical meaning to roles and actions. We include papers addressing how social networks affect the political sphere, focusing on the following issues: - Leadership - Narratives - Election campaigns - Agenda setting - In-group/Out-group - Political/Civic Participation