David - this is an excellent question. I’ve had to think about this.

Ideally I would have liked to see more cultural analysis and some qualitative empirical work. Jane Lewis convincingly illustrated that despite ‘profound shifts’ in thinking about women’s ‘obligations’, women still get the short end of the stick financially while facing an increase in labour (the expectation of paid/career work on top of domestic responsibilities). But despite this, and particularly of note for Liebried’s argument (that there are big shifts in the ways we think of and organize membership) - I would have been excited to learn more about what these shifts mean for specific groups and on the scale of everyday life. Social policy on a micro level, in addition to socio-political trends.

So if I were speaking, I certainly would have put out a general call for thinking of policy and theory with a human face and on a cultural level (and if I were able to work up the guts to publicly speak in that forum), probably would have drawn from my own research to illustrate how this could be done and why it’s important.

I would also emphasize the importance of not just new media, but media generally for thinking about citizenship, particularly transformations to or shifts in the way we understand and instantiate citizenship. On this note, I would also seriously consider interesting things happening in the citizenship field - for example, Engin Isin?s Citizen Lab at York University and all the work being generated there on ?Acts of Citizenship?. Or as Wainer posted a few days ago, the potential implications of having UK MPs blog? Or engage with the dynamics of online civic groups and cultures? Or (and on of my personal favourites) think hard about what location based technologies like moblobbing and Urban Tapestries might mean for cultural understandings of place and locality. I would want to ask how and why these kind of media and these kinds of emergent shifts have anything to do with citizenship. And also, why I think they should or shouldn?t have anything to do with citizenship?

And of course, I would probably speak at great length on the importance of media, although I would likely focus on new media, in changing conceptions and practices of citizenship.

Jamie, I’d be very interested in having a chat, but I’m not sure of your last name (and hence e-mail)? My e-mail is z.t.sujon (at)lse.ac.uk, drop me a line and we can arrange something.

Take care!

Zoe

I’m doing some work on news and info in the digital age for ippr, might be good to talk? Give me an email if useful for you…

Jamie