ReClaiming Participation

This volume unravels the debates on the »Participation Age«: Instead of perpetuating visions of social »all-inclusion« or the »digital divide«, the collection reclaims collectivity as an effect of technological and historical conditions. Thinking of participation both as promise and duty, the contributions analyse the attractions and impositions connected to the socio-technical formation of collectivities. The constraints of participation are addressed by focusing on the mutual shaping of user practices and technological environments. It is hence a relational thinking that allows specifying the manifold interconnections of technology, practices and discourses.

Mathias Denecke is a PhD student at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany. Anne Ganzert is a PhD student at the University of Konstanz, Germany. Isabell Otto (PhD) is junior professor for Media Studies at the University of Konstanz, Germany. Robert Stock (MA) coordinates the DFG-Research Group »Media and Participation. Between Demand and Entitlement« at the University of Konstanz, Germany.