IPSA is organising an interim conference on "Political Science in the Digital Age" in Hannover, Germany, in December 2017. All the information about this event may be found on its website.

The conference is of great interest to RC33, as it pays special attention to the way in which digitalisation shapes the discipline. The RC therefore plans to submit three panel proposals, whose broad themes are summarised below. Should you be interested in presenting a paper in one of these sessions, please get in touch with and send a short abstract to the panel organisers as soon as possible, so we can organise this in the best possible way. The deadline for this is Wednesday 5 April at the latest. 


Academic inequality produced/contained/reshaped by digitalisation. 
Organiser: Thibaud Boncourt, Université libre de Bruxelles - t.boncourt@gmail.com

Digitilization has triggered several changes for the ordinary practices of political scientists. With the development of online resources, the discipline has, like other fields, seen the rise of a digital divide between scholars in different institutions and parts of the world. In parallel, the development of online data bases has rendered data available where it was previously unreachable. This panel aims to explore the consequences of these evolutions, and other processes related to digitalization, for the production, containment, or reshaping of inequalities between political scientists and, more generally, academics - be they of a geographical or social nature (e.g. North-South and East-West divides; gender inequalities; etc.). 

Historicising the "digital era" in political science.
Organiser: Emily Hauptmann, Western Michigan University - emily.hauptmann@wmich.edu

Among the questions papers might explore are: What connections can be drawn between the increased diffusion of digitized information in the latter half of the 20th c. and changes in the methods political scientists used to study politics? More generally, how did political scientists' conceptions of sound academic knowledge about politics change during the first decades of the digital era? How has the development of data banks, big data, etc. shaped political science and neighboring disciplines? 

The Digital Age and the Challenges for Political Theory. 
Organiser: Paulo Ravecca, Universidad de la República - paulo.ravecca@cienciassociales.edu.uy

Currently science and technology are usually perceived as the key for social, and sometimes political, progress. In trying to resemble the natural sciences, political science has also emphasized technical innovation in methods, displacing political theory to its margins. In this context, this panel will highlight the role as well as the specific contributions of Political Theory for analysis and critical reflection in this “digital age”. It will also explore the challenges and possibilities opened by digitalization broadly understood for political theory and theorists. In short, what can political theorists offer to colleagues and the public in these times of rapid change, uncertainty and interconnection?