Abstract Steve WARD

Steve WARD (University of Salford): « Party organisational change and the Internet in the UK: The growth of a virtual grassroots? ».

The rise of newer user-driven ‘web 2.0’ technologies such as blogs, social networking sites and video sharing tools has raised new possibilities and challenges for party activism and organization. As well as offering new means for parties to organize their supporters and activists, these applications also stimulate the growth of unofficial groups and networks which are loosely aligned with party politics but are not under their control. The paper looks at one particular aspect of these developments – the emergence of unofficial party blogs sites and networks in the UK. In particular, we examine three of the largest such blogs: Conservative Home (CH), Labour List (LL) and Liberal Democrat Voice (LDV), all of which have been developed since 2005 and all of which to a greater, or lesser, degree claim to seek to represent grassroots voices within the parties. We examine them in regard to five basic questions: (1) what are the origins and main purposes of the sites? (2) what type of content do they contain and who provides this content? (is dissent and criticism of the party promoted?); (3) how wide is the reach of these sites in the WWW and who forms the audience? (4) what is the nature of online networks that these sites occupy and how integrated are they with those surrounding their respective official party sites; and finally (5) to what extent do elections and party incumbency affect these sites content, visibility and online networks. How far did the 2010 campaign and subsequent government change in the UK make a difference to the way these blogs operate? In addressing these questions the research also seeks to assess the wider impact of these sites on intra-party organisational coherence and wider questions of possible future decline or renewal of parties. To what extent do these new party spaces challenge or support parties’ current model of operation in the UK and their message/leadership? Do they enjoy a higher profile than their official counterparts and siphon supporters away from party politics ‘as usual’, setting up the possibility for a more fluid, open and non-membership based version?

Abstract Régine HOLLANDER

Régine HOLLANDER (CREW, Université Panthéon-Assas): « Technology and Best Practices in Financial Markets : does High-Frequency trading Threaten the Basic Principles of Good Governance? ».

Information technology first appeared in financial markets as a tool to facilitate the matching and clearing of buy and sell orders. More recently, as computers gained in power and speed, they have been programmed for high-frequency trading. The latter accounts for more than half of trading volume in the United States (55% on Nasdaq). According to proponents and users (about 400 financial institutions, including specialized funds), by providing liquidity and taking advantage of market inefficiencies, it reduces transaction costs for investors and acts as a stabilizer. For critics that see it as dehumanizing securities’ trading, it only benefits those firms that can afford to invest in ultra-fast equipment and hire quants capable to design the algorhythms that trigger buy and sell orders.

On 6 May, 2010, at around 2:30 pm, the DJIA lost 1000 points (9.2%), then bounced back almost all the way in a few minutes. The specialists of the Securities and Exchange Commission were not able to pinpoint the reason for the dramatic downfall. High-frequency trading was named as one of the possible causes for the huge loss and the fast rebound. Whether this was or was not the case, that episode is an indicator of the opacity that such type of trading makes possible. In moments of crisis, human traders can switch strategies and suspend activities that threaten the stability of a system, while computers have no scruples executing the programs they have been wired for.

Hence, one can wonder to what extent high-frequency trading is in compliance with the basic principles of social responsibility and transparency inherent in good governance.

Abstract Géraldine CASTEL

Géraldine CASTEL (Université Stendhal, Grenoble): « Web 2.0 communication in the post-spin era : party saviour or gravedigger ? ».

The shift of political communication in the last decades towards increasingly professional, centralized and tightly-controlled practices epitomised by the ubiquity of the now derogatory term of ‘spin’ has been the object of thorough analysis and heated debate, and repeatedly blamed for fuelling cynicism towards the political class in a more general context of democratic disengagement and declining party membership.

The growing array of web 2.0 tools available to parties since the first experiments in the use of ICTs for electoral purposes in the United States in the 1990s, ranging from sites and blogs to social networks and increasingly sophisticated data-managing software among others, could provide political organisations with the means to invert this trend, and therefore possibly alter the way they construct their identity, shape their image and seek legitimacy for the enactment of their project.

Indeed, in the post-spin age, instant messaging as well as various fact-checking devices or online vigilante groups have made transparency even more of a challenge. More significantly, the internet has contributed to creating new possibilities in terms of devolving creative and strategic authority from the centre to a variety of actors, be they local branches, activists or outside laymen. Crowdsourcing initiatives, for instance, have become far less complex from a technical point of view and could be instrumental to opening-up channels favouring a wider involvement into communication drives.

The potential for tools such as these and others to remodel not only the manner parties are communicating with the public, but also the elaboration of campaigns themselves within these organisations cannot be ignored. Yet how far have the parties truly gone in that respect during the 2010 general election ? To what extent have the internal relationships between the different layers of activism been affected regarding decision-making, agenda-setting and fieldwork implementation in this sector ? And from a broader perspective, are web 2.0 contraptions to be seen as the key to party regeneration, or rather, in an era when Facebook groups like Rage Against the Machine gather more members than the party they support, as yet another threat to their survival ?

Abstract Nathalie DUCLOS

Nathalie DUCLOS (Université Toulouse-le-Mirail) : « The Scottish National Party: party organisation and internal reform ».

The organisation of the Scottish National Party (SNP), which is a Scottish centre left, pro-independence party, was radically reformed in 2004 after remaining largely unchanged since the 1960s, when the SNP had moved on from being a very marginal party to being a serious challenger in Scotland to the two major British parties, Labour and the Conservatives. It could be argued that until 2004, despite the fact that with the introduction of devolution in 1999, the SNP became a potential government party for the first time in its history, the party's constitution was more akin to that of a protest party than to that of the second biggest parliamentary party in Scotland. The main aim of this paper is to present the reforms imposed on the party in 2004 by its leader John Swinney (such as the introduction of the One-Member-One-Vote system or the new way of choosing the party's National Convenor), reforms that go a long way to explaining the party's first election victory in 2007. The paper also endeavours to explain John Swinney's motivations, as well as the Scottish political context in which this internal reform took place. This paper also considers the efforts recently made by the party to become more representative (by increasing the number of female elected representatives, for instance).

Abstract Mathieu O'NEIL

Mathieu O’NEIL (Université Paris-Sorbonne Paris IV & Australian National University) : « Modeling Online Peer Projects ».

Groups of people collaborating online to produce public goods such as free software or free encyclopedias were initially conceptualised as “communities”, and later as “networks”. It has now become clear that they constitute a new type of organisational arrangement, characterised by autonomous and distributed work practices, known as “peer production” (participants self-select their tasks and the amount of time they can contribute) as well as by overlapping forms of justifications for legitimate expert or administrative actions. Online tribal bureaucracies thus comprise collectivist, bureaucratic and charismatic features. Despite the premium placed on deliberation and consensus they are frequently the site of conflicts. They also have benefits, such as being immune from the productivity-limiting norms popular amongst corporate employees, or replacing the interminable meetings of communes by asynchronous communications. Does this development signify, following a well-worn alternative, an increase in soft control or the dawning of a more politically participatory age? In fact, both scenarios must contend with resistance to scalability, uncertainty over identity and competence, and online peer projects' foundational critique of the separated authority of experts and leaders, which all complicate connections with corporate structures.

Abstract Bill DUTTON

Bill DUTTON (Director Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford): « Networking Distributed Public Expertise: Strategies for Citizen Sourcing Advice to Government ».

The potential of crowd sourcing has captured the imagination of many managers and professionals across all sectors of society, but left many others quite skeptical. This is not only because conceptions of the wisdom of crowds appear counter-intuitive, but also, if taken literally, these concepts can be misleading and therefore dysfunctional for governments seeking to adopt innovations in distributed collaboration. This presentation challenges conventional notions of the wisdom of crowds, arguing that distributed intelligence must be well structured by technical platforms and management strategies. After clarifying these conceptual issues, I explain how collaborative networking can be used to harness the distributed expertise of citizens, as distinguished from citizen consultation, which seeks to engage citizens – each on an equal footing. Networking the public as advisors aims to involve experts on particular public issues and problems distributed anywhere in the world. The presentation then describes the lessons learned from previous efforts to citizen source advice, and why governments should again pursue this strategy as a means to inform policy and decision-making. This is followed by a set of eight strategies for fostering the bottom-up development of governmental initiatives aimed at harnessing distributed public expertise.

COLLOQUE - Appel à communications

UNIVERSITE SORBONNE-NOUVELLE PARIS 3

INSTITUT DU MONDE ANGLOPHONE

COLLOQUE ORGANISE DANS LE CADRE DE L'AXE "DEMOCRATIE, POLITIQUES ET SOCIETES" DU CREW (avec le soutien du CERVEPAS et du CREC) EA 4399

ENGLISH VERSION

Les organisations en changement :
Vers de nouvelles pratiques de gouvernance économique et politique au sein des organisations du monde anglophone.

Vendredi 3 et samedi 4 décembre 2010, Maison de la Recherche, 4 rue des irlandais 75005 Paris, salle 1

La gouvernance, qui a trait à l’ensemble des processus permettant de définir le champ du pouvoir et le contrôle des ressources, a toujours constitué un sujet important pour la vie des organisations, que celles-ci relèvent de la sphère politique, économique ou sociale. Certaines mutations récentes, telles que la mondialisation ou la révolution des nouvelles technologies de l’information, ont obligé les organisations à repenser leurs structures décisionnelles et ont favorisé, à la fois, la convergence et une forte innovation des pratiques.

L’avènement d’une société post-industrielle a conduit à un redécoupage de l’activité économique et financière selon les prérogatives du marché. La théorie des marchés efficients a directement influencé la morphologie des entreprises et leurs processus décisionnels. Dès lors, l’entreprise n’était plus considérée comme une institution aux contours clairement délimités mais elle devenait un réseau mouvant de contrats qui la plaçaient au cœur de relations entre parties prenantes (stakeholders). Cette évolution ‘de terrain’ a été formalisée, en partie, par la théorie fonctionnaliste de la gouvernance qui a produit les fondements du capitalisme actionnarial. L’Etat, de surcroît, s’est employé, dans certains cas, à favoriser les conditions de la maximisation de la valeur actionnariale pour les entreprises en particulier dans le domaine de l’innovation financière. Or, la crise économique et financière actuelle semble remettre en cause ce modèle de développement et appeler à une révision des modes de gouvernance ainsi qu’à une redéfinition du rôle de l’Etat.

Parallèlement, dans une société caractérisée par une fragmentation et une individualisation des phénomènes, rendues en partie responsables de la crise des modes traditionnels de représentation collective, les partis politiques tentent d’adapter leurs pratiques. La recomposition des formes d’engagement et de participation au sein des organisations politiques est elle aussi caractérisée par l’inclusion de nouveaux acteurs qui remettent en cause la primauté des militants dans les structures décisionnelles. En réponse aux difficultés de recrutement et de mobilisation, les partis politiques ont en effet modernisé leurs structures et se sont appliqués à rétablir un lien plus direct entre les élites et la base, introduisant de nouvelles procédures pour la désignation des dirigeants, la consultation des adhérents et l’approbation des programmes électoraux. La définition des programmes et des orientations politiques prend une dimension délibérative inédite en associant militants, adhérents et électeurs.

Les dirigeants des organisations économiques et politiques tentent ainsi de s’adapter à un contexte global de « démocratisation » des modes d’organisation. L’apparition du web 2.0 et son modèle d’intelligence participative offre de nouvelles perspectives aux organisations en permettant la mise en place de réseaux et l’émergence de communautés susceptibles de s’approprier collectivement les objectifs de l’organisation mais aussi de proposer des systèmes de réglementation plus interactifs et donc potentiellement plus efficaces.

L’objectif de ce colloque est de confronter la rhétorique de la démocratisation associée à la nouvelle gouvernance aux effets concrets des nouvelles pratiques. L’organisation 2.0 est-elle plus démocratique et transparente ? Les nouveaux modèles de gouvernance peuvent-ils permettre aux entreprises de concilier un profit pour les actionnaires tout en ayant un impact bénéfique sur la société ? Les nouvelles structures participatives des partis politiques, génératrices de consensus, sont-elles la panacée à la baisse de l’engagement partisan ? Dans quelle mesure le modèle d’organisation hiérarchique et insulaire a-t-il été remplacé par des structures horizontales et participatives ? Quelles ont été les conditions organisationnelles et étatiques de l’apparition de cette nouvelle forme de gouvernance ? Il s’agira donc d’analyser l’évolution de la gouvernance des organisations politiques et économiques dans le monde anglo-saxon et de réfléchir aux ressorts théoriques et institutionnels de ces transformations.

Les propositions de communications (300-500 mots) devront parvenir avant le 5 mai 2010 (accompagnées d’un CV de 5 à 10 lignes) à emmanuelle.avril@univ-paris3.fr et christine.zumello@univ-paris3.fr

Emmanuelle Avril est Professeur en civilisation britannique contemporaine et membre du CREC/CREW;
Christine Zumello est Maître de Conférences en civilisation Nord-américaine et membre du CERVEPAS/CREW.