The Contentious Politics of Intellectual Property

From: Carolina Rossini [carolina.rossini@gmail.com] Sent: 24 November 2008 11:58 PM To: undisclosed-recipients: ; Subject: [unesco-oer] Fwd: [IP-POLITICS] CfP The Contentious Politics of Intellectual Property If you are interested in sending a paper. I was last year. A small group of people and great discussion. Carol ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Sebastian Haunss Date: Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 7:54 AM Subject: [IP-POLITICS] CfP The Contentious Politics of Intellectual Property To: ip-politics@nicomedia.math.upatras.gr Call for Papers 5th ECPR General Conference in Potsdam, 10-12 September 2009 Section: Protest Politics Panel: The Contentious Politics of Intellectual Property In the official declaration of the G8 summit 2007 in Heiligendamm the heads of government of the most powerful industrialized countries have given the »protection of intellectual property rights« a top priority. IP protection was mentioned in their final statement even before climate change as a political issue of crucial importance, preceded only by global economic growth, the stability of financial markets, and the freedom of investment. But with the increasing importance of intellectual property, political conflicts are emerging as diverse actors contest the structure, scope, and boundaries of existing legal frameworks of intellectual property rights. These conflicts have arisen most visibly in six areas: biodiversity, public health, biomedical biotechnology, software, research tools, and file sharing. In each of these conflicts, the prevailing framework that maximizes the rights of IP owners is fundamentally questioned. Within the section on Protest Politics at the 5th ECPR General Conference this panel will examine some of these conflicts focussing especially on the role of non-state actors and protest politics. By doing this it expands the dominant economic and legal perspective that still prevails in this issue area. As research on the issue of social and political aspects intellectual property does not yet form an established subject in the social sciences possible contributions may addrerss conceptual theoretical questions or present results from case or country studies and policy analyses. Possible issues that might be addressed in the papers are: * Actors and coalitions: Which (collective) actors are involved in IP conflicts? On what basis are coalitions formed? * Strategies and forms of action: Is it possible to identify more or less successful forms of action? What is the protest repertoire of non- state actors in IP conflicts? * Frames: How do actors politicize IP issues and overcome the hurdle of technicality? * Scope: How does the fact that IP issues are often governed on a global (TRIPS) or regional (EU, FTAs) level affect the ability of contentious actors to mobilize around these issues. Paper Submission: Quantitative, qualitative or theoretical papers are welcome. The conference language will be English. A proposal of not more than 500 words is due by 1 February 2009. Submissions should be sent to Sebastian Haunss at sebastian(dot)haunss(at)uni-konstanz(dot)de. Accepted papers will be announced on 1 March 2009. Full papers should be uploaded to the ECPR website by 15 August 2009. --- Dr. Sebastian Haunss University of Konstanz Universitaetsstrasse 10 Fach 90 D-78457 Konstanz Germany tel: +49-(0)7531-88-3757 fax: +49-(0)7531-88-2855 email: sebastian.haunss at uni-konstanz.de web: http://shaunss.wordpress.com/ http://www.ipgovernance.eu _______________________________________________ Ip-politics mailing list Ip-politics@nicomedia.math.upatras.gr http://nicomedia.math.upatras.gr/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ip-politics World AIDS Day 2008 - "Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise" UNESCO supporting countries in their responses to HIV and AIDS http://www.unesco.org/aids