Much of the research on communication and democracy continues to lean on Jürgen Habermass work. However, many aspects of his approach have been intensely criticised in recent debates, both in communication studies and political theory. Habermass emphasis on rational consensus as the aim of public communication has particularly been problematised. One of the most prominent critics, Chantal Mouff e and her agonistic model of democracy, have increasingly drawn the interest of media scholars. Mouffe explicitly contrasts the dominant Habermasian concept of the public sphere, and it appears that her model is impossible to combine with the Habermasian approach. But how substantial are the diff erences? What are the disagreements centred on? And what are their consequences for empirical media and communication research? In this article we argue that rather than accepting the standard readings or polar positions accredited to the two, we need to retain a certain theoretical eclecticism in combining normative theories with empirical research. Despite their controversies, we argue that both Habermass and Mouff es theories have value as critical perspectives that help us refl ect on the ideals of democratic public communication

This paper is empirically based in a (n)ethnographic study of a network middle-class activists in Aspudden and Midsommarkransen (southern Stockholm) acting for example to save the local bathhouse, lobby for a cultural centre, preserve green areas and the quality of life in the attractive and well located sister suburbs. The theoretical starting points will be found in the borderland between sociological theories of the network society (Castells), media and communication theories about mediatization and media logic (Altheide) and theories of norms, values, discipline and power (Foucault).The paper discusses the implications of increasing use of social networking sites for political participation emerging outside parliamentary arenas. The paper concludes that in tandem with the increase of social networking sites develops a new kind of network logic underlining identity negotiation as a dominant motivator for political participation online. This logic contributes to rationalized practices for expressions of affinity, which in turn disciplines the individual users to connectedness with like-minded people in the neighbourhood. This manifests itself more concretely through practices of joining e-mail lists, following twitter accounts, joining ning- and facebook groups. These practices does not necessarily mean that people in general will become more engaged in political actions in the neighbourhoods. However, when negotiating individuality through network visibility, referring and tying yourself to activist groups online, you will inevitably also become updated on their actions and hence may engage if suitable. In other words, online social networking makes them engagable.

Based on a (n) ethnographic inspired study of middle class activists in southern Stockholm, the aim is to understand contemporary political action and to discuss changing practices of participation in digital and late modernity. More specifically this paper addresses the Internet and its promise of deliberation. However instead of echoing techno-deterministic and optimist accounts of the Internet and online social networking affording a digital public sphere where deliberation can flourish, this paper argues that it is more accurate to understand the practices among the activists in southern Stockholm as updating. Updating is described here as a two-way practice, to be updated what is happening in your social networks as well as updating your social networks what is happening. These practices of updating are understood in light of late modern theories of reflexivity, identity negotiation and maintenance, practices that arguably are heightened in digital and networked societies. Hence to avoid determinism without resorting to the idea of technology as neutral, the paper is based in a techno-social dialectical understanding of our time as digital late modernity. The paper will end with a brief discussion of the implications of updating on political participation in digital late modernity. Even though not deliberation, practices of updating has consequences for participation and political action that perhaps could be considered positive and encouraging for democratic tradition in general.

This paper addresses social networking sites (SNSs hereafter) and their promise of deliberation. Based on a (n)ethnograpic inspired case study of middle class activists in southern Stockholm, the question this paper seeks to discuss is whether the activists in my study used SNSs for deliberative purposes or for something else. The aim is to understand and discuss contemporary practices of activist political participation online. In this paper it will be argued that rather than deliberation activists were engaging in practices of online updating. Such practices will be understood in light of late modern theories of reflexivity, identity negotiation and maintenance.

This paper seeks to understand relations of power connected to the increasing negotiation of visibility within a middle-class activist community in southern Stockholm using social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Ning and a blog) in tandem with offline participation, fighting among other things to save their bathhouse or to preserve green areas and playgrounds. The method for studying this group is both ethno- and nethnographic, through participant observations and interviews online and offline.

The theoretical framework is based on theories of visibility and power. Following Foucault, visibility and power have always been connected but in different ways across times. Whereas in an tiquity the visibility of the few to the many was connected to power, in modernity being watched was connected to a subordinate position of being disciplined by a subtle normalizing power of

the gaze (in schools, armies, hospitals, penal institutions et cetera). Today we are participating in this disciplining by free will online in order to secure a place on the social arena. It is not at all obvious whether being watched in the context of social media is exercising power or being subordinate to it. It all depends on how skilfully the user navigates these new social media networks

and manages his or hers databases of “friends” and connections. Foucault’s discussions of power and visibility can be applied remarkably well in digital arenas. According to Foucault, the individuals over whom power is exercised are those from whom the knowledge they themselves produce is extracted and used in order to control them. This foucauldian side of social media visibility, as surveillance and control represent, has extra weight in activist ommunities, often defined in opposition to the state and the police.

The argument put forward in this paper is that a kind of network logic disciplines the activists to negotiate visibility online and to maintain and extend their activist network by continuous and reflexive updating in order to secure a position within the community. Hence activists today need

to master a new form of sociability, through database and “friend” management on different social media networks. Relations of power in this network logic are manifested in the constant monitoring/ supervision and negotiation of both oneself‘s and others‘ visibility, all encompassed in the practice of updating.

Why do people engage in municipal deliberative practices? The aim of this article is to explore inhabitants motivations for participating in deliberations organized by Civic Committees in the south Swedish municipality of Helsingborg. I have done this through an ethnographic study, observing deliberative practices and interviewing inhabitants, politicians and municipal officials in Helsingborg. This study is also theoretically inspired. I argue that the Civic Committees are inspired by deliberative theories of democracy in order address changing patterns of political participation in late modernity. It is especially the deliberative focus on rationality as communicative, rather than instrumental that is attractive for a municipality trying to reorient civic participation back to its institutions. However, by focusing on the issue of motivation, I argue that neither the instrumental nor the communicative account of rationality is satisfactory in fully understanding inhabitants motivations for participating in municipal deliberative practices in late modernity. With a focus on identity, I therefore suggest a more expressive account of rationality

Invited panelist to the round table on: "Critical Information Studies and the Critical I: A Nascent Transdiscipline in Praxis"

Since the 1990s representative democracy has been challenged by a deliberative turn in political philosophy, reaching even into the practices of established political institutions. In Sweden, the Municipality of Helsingborg, inspired by deliberative ideals, established civic committees as a way to deal with changing patterns of civic political behavior in late modernity. One reason for this is that deliberation is assumed to revitalize representative democracy by avoiding the instrumental rational focus on self-interest. However, there are some difficulties in implementing deliberative democracy within this municipal representative democratic setting. This article will point to some problems in the Helsingborg experiment

Kommunikation, medborgarskap och deltagardemokrati syftar till att bättre förstå medborgarskapets konstruktion i den kommunala deltagardemokratin. Mellan 2003 och 2006 var Helsingborgs stad indelad i fem geografiska områden med medborgarutskott knutna till sig. Dessa medborgarutskotts uppgift var att skapa dialoger mellan politiker och medborgare ute i kommunens olika bostadsområden, och på så sätt vitalisera den representativa demokratin. Samtalets centrala plats i medborgarutskottens praktiker var iögonenfallande. Vad ligger bakom samtalets betoning i dessa deltagardemokratiska aktiviteter? Hur positionerades kommuninvånare som medborgare mot bakgrund av denna fokusering på samtalet som kommunikationsmedel? Genom vilka medborgarpositioner skapade sedan i sin tur deltagare mening med sitt deltagande? Med en etnografisk ansats ger sig författaren i kast med dessa frågeställningar, och kommer bland annat fram till att stark lokal förankring och föräldraskap var centrala positioner att konstruera sitt medborgarskap kring

Carpentier, Nico (2011). Media and Participation : A site of ideological-democratic struggle. Bristol : Intellect Books. ISBN  9781841504070

The elections 2010 were the first in Sweden where social networking sites was used to a large extent by politicians and parties in their campaigns. I have followed the liberal parliamentarian Nina Larsson, who conducted a campaign online with the guidance of a web and PR agency, Hello Clarice. In this paper I have focused on her use of two blogs. The research question I will attend to in this paper concerns what rationalities governed her blogging practices before the 2010 elections. My results indicate that she used her blogs expressively, to control and negotiate her political identity. As such the blogs were largely used in relation to traditional media, as a commentary, to complement and monitor the image of her as a politician broadcasted through offline media channels. The expressive use of her blogs in this context of election campaigning often had the function as an amplifier; to draw attention to her own appearances in offline media, but also to other offline texts and news stories that in one way or another suited her political agenda. As part of political identity negotiation she also used her blogs to comment on other politicians appearances, most often those of fellow party members

The elections 2010 were the first in Sweden where social media platforms were used to a large extent by politicians and parties in their campaigns. In this paper we follow the liberal parliamentarian Nina Larsson, who in tandem with traditional election campaigning used social media platforms with the guidance of a local communication agency, Hello Clarice. The paper is theoretically grounded in an understanding of our time as late modern, of social media use as expressive and web campaigning as to large extent revolving around image-management. The research question that will be attended to in this paper is how Nina Larsson used social media platforms in her campaign negotiate the image of herself. The methods used for empirical data-gathering are inspired by (n)ethnography, with both participant observation online and offline, interviews as well as content analyses of Nina's social media postings. Results indicate that she used social media platforms to control her political image, to amplify selected text - texts that often originated in offline/broadcast media – and to negotiate a position within the Liberal Party rather than to deliberate with potential voters

This paper discusses the implications of the increasing use of social networking sites for political participation emerging outside parliamentary arenas. The paper is empirically based in a (n)ethnographic study of a network of middle-class activists in Aspudden and Midsommarkransen (southern Stockholm). They were engaged in issues such as saving the local bathhouse, lobbying for a cultural centre, preserve green areas and the quality of life in the attractive and well-located sister suburbs. The studies in Southern Stockholm suggest that an increase of social networking sites develops a new kind of network logic underlining identity negotiation as a motivator for political participation. This logic contributes to rationalized practices for expressions of affinity, which in turn disciplines the individual users to connectedness with like-minded people in the neighbourhood through continuous practices of updating

In this paper I will attend to contemporary individualization and digitalization of politics from an in-depth study of a Swedish politician, Nina Larsson, campaigning on social networking sites for re-election to the Swedish Parliament in the 2010 general elections. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the discussion on social networking sites and their potential for representative democratic and broaden the analysis beyond perspectives of strategic political communication and deliberative democracy. The research questions I will attend to are how Nina uses social networking sites in her election campaign, and if social networking sites have an influence over the electorates information gathering and opinion formation. The method for empirical data gathering is (n)ethnographic, complemented with data from a regional quantitative study. The results suggest that Nina uses of social networking sites mostly for negotiating her political persona

This paper addresses problematic aspects of course evaluation practices at Karlstad University, Sweden. More specifically the paper discusses a specific course evaluation that was produced and filled out in a class, spring semester 2009. The evaluation had a special focus on course development and departed from an understanding of students as collaborators in the development of university courses. This paper also addresses general problems with course evaluations such as the divergent functions evaluations are supposed to satisfy and whether to standardise or not. In this paper I suggest that even though standardisations should be avoided, flexible templates could be used. And concerning evaluations different functions attending to divergent interests,  I argue that the different stakeholders should be responsible to compile evaluations according to their standards, not only the responsible lecturer. The course evaluation that were tested and discussed in this paper was produced within the framework of a university pedagogy project.

A classic question within studies of governance, and a key element for understanding the concept of citizenship, concerns what appears to be a paradox of being free and governed at the same time. In this chapter, I will return to this question, but departing from contemporary Western (Scandinavian) society, a society to which I attach labels such as digital, late modern and networked.This is a theoretical chapter addressing political participation, citizenship practices and power.Howdo people enter into citizenship through political participation online and what governs these processes? The contribution to the academic discussion on governance and citizenship is to highlight the expressive as an increasingly important rationale for political participation in networked and digital late modernity. I arrive at this conclusion departing from the intersections between technology, society and culture. In these intersections, expressive processes of identification are key. Therefore citizenship and political participation also need to be approached from an axis of individualism, creating even more intersections when combined with technology, society and culture. 

Through theories of mediatization it is commonly understood that political institutions and participatory practices adapt to the logics of mass media.Today the overall media and communication landscape is becoming digitalized.Technological processes of digitalization evolve in tandem with socio-cultural processes of reflexivity and individualization in late modernity. Thus politicsand participation will be adapting to an increasingly digitalized and individualized media and communication landscape. This is a theoretical paper with an aim to critically analyze how contemporary media and communication landscape will influence practices of participation. Through the concept of network logic it is argued that users are disciplined into responsive and reflexive communication and practices of constant updating. As a result of this political participation will be more expressive and increasingly centered around identity negotiation

This  paper  discusses  the  relations  of  power  in  connection with  the  use  of  social  media  among  middle-class  activists  in southern Stockholm. The  method  for  studying  these  activists is   both   ethno-   and   nethnographic,   through   participant observations  and  interviews  both  online  and  offline.  The theoretical  framework  is  based  on  late  modern  theories  of reflexive  identity  negotiation  and  Foucauldian  theories  of visibility  and  power.

The paper locates relations of power in the constant monitoring, supervision and negotiation of both ones own and others’ identity on social media platforms. This increasing  importance  of  being  updated  in  network  societies will  be  discussed  as  a  form  of  network  logic. 

Hence, social media usage has not only been about enabling participation of activists in southern Stockholm, but also about disciplining them to be kept updated, which in turn pushes them towards participating in offline activities too.

The Municipality of Helsingborg has renewed its organization and set up five Civic Committees. In an attempt to position the inhabitants as communicative rather than self-interested, the Civic Committees focus on issues of the future, active participation and unselfish engagement. In doing this some identities become more relevant than others. In this short essay I will point at the importance of the parenthood identity for making participation relevant in the activities organized by the Civic Committees in Helsingborg

The purpose of this paper is to connect the idea of expressive rationality to current debates on citizenship and political participation online. Socializing, cultural consumption/ production, identity management, information and publication strategies are both different and accentuated in digital, networked and late modern environments. In the paper I argue that the kind of network sociability that is emerging today favours an expressive form of rationality. I also claim that expressive rationality transcends the bipolar instrumental communicative dimension that has been so important for normative theorizing in Political (and Social) Sciences and hence is a more rewarding theoretical concept for understanding political participation in digital late modernity

In this paper I discuss a definition of citizenship, participation and the political for better understanding and analyses of political participations in ICT societies. I approach the topic from a comprehensive understanding of developments both in society and technology, how they mutually reinforce each other and are best understood in tandem. Discussions of citizenship are concerned with normative macro-perspectives of the good society and how it should be organized often departing from micro-empirical studies of how society and political participation are changing. This combination of macro- and micro-perspectives together with its multi- and interdisciplinary appeal, makes citizenship ideal to approach from a transdisciplinary point of departure. In the paper I propose an understanding of citizenship as participation in political communities; ensembles of people addressing the organization of society and making sense of this address in a similar way. Citizenships are enacted in relation to the authority of political communities, an authority that streams out of the values and norms that are constructed and renegotiated through the participation of its members. Hence, it is both through participation that citizens and political communities are made. The paper ends with a proposal of how to categorize online participation and citizenship(s) in ICT societies

Framed in ideas of cultural citizenship and acknowledging the importance of popular cultural sites for political participation, this short paper attends to a study of political discussions in the Swedish LGTB community Qruiser. The research is netnographic through online interviews, participant observations and content analyses. Preliminary results suggest an atmosphere that is geared rather towards conflict and dissent between participants than towards deliberation, opinion formation and consensus. This paper will therefore shortly discuss the results in light of Mouffe's (2005) normative lens of agonism and radical democracy.

Public Opinion Formation in Convergence Culture: As an external advisor to the Democracy Unit at the Ministry of Integration and Equality I have a general interest in e-democracy and is continuously updated/participate in discussions especially in the Swedish context. My own research work currently revolves around public opinion formation in convergence culture. Increasing digitalisation and globalisation transform society in many different ways. One of the most interesting changes is the new form of accessibility to the public sphere. Mass media has traditionally acted as gatekeepers concerning which issues to put on the agenda and how they should be framed. This is challenged when media become more global and digital. When more people publish themselves and their concerns on the Internet, mass media, citizens and organizations find them selves navigating in a new symbolic environment with a radically different architecture. This environment, where new and old media collide, constitute what Jenkins (2004, 2006) defines as Convergence Culture. This is characterised by the coming together of separate phenomena (Silverstone 2007: 20), such as for example news site audiences participating in the content and context production of news (Domingo et al. 2008; Greer & Mensing 2006), and the meeting of organised journalism and social media through linking practices on the Internet. How important are these new arena for public opinion formation? How is public opinion moulded here, and how do these arena intersect with old media practices on old media arenas? Traditionally researchers within journalism focus on media, public relations on organisations, audience researchers on users as recipients of information, and within citizenship studies the focus is on the possibilities of exercising rights and duties. All these traditions have observed the influence of Internet and its possibilities, but done so within their own research traditions. However, each of these mentioned traditions are unsatisfactory for understanding the opinion moulding process today in convergence society, where mass media, social media, organizations and citizenship practices coincide and function together.