You are cordially invited to participate in the Conference "Transnational Communities and ICTs : Participation and Citizenship" hosted by the University of Lapland scheduled to take place in Rovaniemi, Finland, the 20-21 May 2004. It is organised by COST Action-a16: Policy and Regulatory Response to the Use of Electronic Communication Technologies by Transnational Communities in Europe (PRECTE) .

The title of the Action embodies a range of issues that have been discussed by the members of the management board and working groups over from a total of eleven EU countries over the last four years. For purposes of discussion within the network we formed two main working groups. One group dealt with the ways in which groups use ICTs in everyday life to construct specific identities and create both identities and communities placing particular emphasis on migrant and diasporic groups, as well as transnational civil society networks or social transnational communities. A second working group concentrated on policy issues ICTs involving issues of access, communication legislation and rights. We have been attempting to integrate the two strands of ICT use and policy and see this as one of the primary objectives of the Action. To date policy and regulatory debates have taken place with little knowledge of the specific ways in which ICTs are used on the ground and, similarly, contexts of use have very often ignored policy issues. This situation has arisen because research has been conducted within cognate but separate sub-disciplines such as anthropology, law, migration studies, cultural/reception studies etc.

We see the final conference of the action as an opportunity to maintain the focus which we have developed within the network and to continue to integrate the emerging themes. Since new technologies of communication are commonly understood in terms of their ability to generate different kinds of transnational, imagined and virtual communities, the issues of policy and regulation raise many diverse questions and issues which include the articulation of the relationship between local and ethnic communities, the state (host and home), as well as other actors. Some of the themes that we plan to address include; identity construction and specifically the ways in which diasporic groups or other transnational communities use ICTs to build, negotiate or contest identities. Some examples of this might include ways in which migrant groups affiliate themselves with their home country through the use of satellite television, Internet etc. Or how they might use ICTs to forge links with the host community. The role of the public broadcaster in representing minorities or dissident views, as well as in addressing these groups through the production of specific contents. It could also refer to the way transnational (political) communities of interest use the Internet to network, organise themselves and to mobilise for social change, be it on a local or international level. When dealing with policy and regulation, issues of state- and/or corporate control can be seen as constraining factors, while issues of citizenship linked to rights can be seen as enabling factors. From these two policy-perspectives questions arise with regard to specific policies on the use of ICTs by transnational communities, and to what extent they facilitate participation, integration or cultural autonomy of transnational groups. In the absence of specific policies, how do the more generic policies that are in place impact on ethnic groups, minorities and transnational civil society actors? And conversely, in what way do states or other actors hinder or obstruct the creation of transnational communities? Can policy and regulation of ICTs be considered in terms of a human rights agenda and, if so, what are they? In what ways does policy enable or hinder opportunities for the exercise of democratic rights? And finally, does the articulation of human and democratic rights in this context lead towards a reconceptualised notion of citizenship and rights that goes beyond the national and the nation state?

For more information contact: b.cammaerts@lse.ac.uk