Prof. Lance Bennett
Affiliate Scholar
Lance Bennett is Professor of Political Science and Ruddick C. Lawrence Professor of Communication at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA, where he directs the Center for Communication and Civic Engagement (www.engagedcitizen.org). The focus of his work is on how communication processes affect citizen engagement with politics. His publications include The Logic of Connective Action: Digital Media and the Personalization of Contentious Politics (with Alexandra Segerberg, Cambridge, 2013). He has held visiting professorships at Harvard University, Uppsala and Stockholm in Sweden, and Free University Berlin, and has an honorary doctorate from Uppsala. He has received career achievement awards form the American Political Science Association, The International Communication Association, and the US National Communication Association. He has also received a German Humboldt Research Award. His current interests focus on how to better align thinking about the economy, democracy and the environment in order to build more equitable and sustainable human systems. He is a founder of the SEED project: Solutions for Environment, Economy, Democracy (https://seed.uw.edu/).
- 2000- Ruddick C. Lawrence Professor of Communication, University of Washington, Seattle
- 1982 - Professor of Political Science, University of Washington, Seattle 2011 Free University, Berlin, John F. Kennedy Institute - Graduate School of North American Studies. Visiting Professor 2010-13 Stockholm University, Department of Political Science. Olof Palme Visiting Chair 1999 Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government. Lombard Visiting Professor, Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy
- networked communication
- communication and political change
- communicating about the future
- disinformation and science skepticism
Publications at the RIFS
Publications prior to joining the RIFS
- selected:
- The Logic of Connective Action: Digital Media and the Personalization of Contentious Politics (with Alexandra Segerberg). Cambridge University Press, 2013. Civic Life Online: Learning How Digital Media Can Engage Youth. (editor) M.I.T. Press, 2008.
- When the Press Fails: Political Power and the News Media from Iraq to Katrina (co-authored with Regina G. Lawrence and Steven Livingston). University of Chicago, 2007
- "The Strength of Peripheral Networks: Negotiating Attention and Meaning in Complex Media networks" (Bennett, Segerberg & Yang) Journal of Communication 68 No 4: 659-684 (2018)
- "The Disinformation Order: Disruptive Communication and the Decline of Democratic Institutions." (Bennett and Livingston). European Journal of Communication Vol 33 No 2: 122-139 (2018).
- "Rethinking Political Communication in a Time of Disrupted Public Spheres." (Bennett & Pfetsch). Journal of Communication, ferment in the Field special issue. Vol 68, No 2: 243-253 (2018).
- "The Democratic Interface: Technology, Party Organization, and Diverging Patterns of Electoral Representation" (Bennett, Segerberg & Knüpfer). Information, Communication & Society (2017) https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1348533
- "Communication in Movements" (Bennett & Segerberg). In Donatella Della Porta and Mario Diani, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Social Movements. Oxford University Press, 2015. 367-382.
- "A Model of Crowd-Enabled Organization: Theory and Methods for Understanding the Role of Twitter in the Occupy Protests." International Journal of Communication. (2014) 8: 646-672. (Agarwal, Bennett, Johnson & Walker).
- The Weizenbaum Lecture. Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society (The German Internet Institute, Berlin): "Looking Left and Right in the Digital Age: Three Challenges for Democracy" November 6, 2018
- Schloss Eckartsau, Austria. Conference: "1918, 1938, 2018: Dawn of an Authoritarian Century" Keynote address: "Who Are the People? Communication, Power, and the Rise of Anti-Democratic Politics" September 5-7, 2018
- Vienna, Austrian Academy of Sciences Symposium on "Digital Media, Political Polarization, and Challenges to Democracy". Public Lecture and talk program on Austrian Public Television: "Who Are the People? Communication, Power, and the Rise of Anti-Democratic Politics" (Title for Telelvision: "Wer Ist Das Volk? Demokratie, Populismus, und Medien")
- University of Amsterdam. Digital Methods Summer School. Keynote: "How Connective Crowds Communicate with Society." June 27, 2016.
- Free University Berlin, John F. Kennedy Institute, Graduate Program Annual Lecture "Democratic Mobilization in the Digital Age: How Occupy Wall Street Changed the Conversation About Inequality in the U.S. November 11, 2015.
- Australian Political Studies Association, Keynote: "Democratic Mobilization in the Digital Age" Sydney University, September 29, 2014.
- Doris Graber Award, Political Communication Section APSA for best book in last 10 years, 2016. When the Press Fails (with Regina Lawrence and Steve Livingston
- Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany. 2015. Humboldt Research Prize awarded for distinguished international scholarship.
- International Communication Association Lifetime Fellow. 2015. Awarded for Career Distinction in Communication Research.
- International Communication Association. 2013. Outstanding Article Award. "The Logic of Connective Action" (with Alexandra Segerberg) Information, Communication & Society
- University of Washington, Distinguished Faculty Lecture Award, 2011-2012.
- Swedish National Research Council. Olof Palme Visiting Chair. Department of Political Science, Stockholm University (2010-2012).
- University of Washington, James A. Clowes Award for the Development of Learning Communities, 2008.
- National Communication Association Lifetime Distinguished Scholar Award for Career Achievement in the Study of Human Communication, 2007
- Murray Edelman Career Achievement Award in Political Communication, American Political Science Association, 2003.
- Doctor of Philosophy, honoris causa, Uppsala University, 2000
- Ithiel de Sola Pool Career Achievement Award and Lecture, American Political Science Association, 1998.
selected:
- Annenberg Policy Foundation. National Commission on the Press (2003 - 2005).
- Advisory Board, Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (2003-2012 ).
- MacArthur initiative on digital media and learning, coordinator and volume editor, civic engagement group, 2006-2007.
- American Political Science Association, Political Communication Section, Murray Edelman Award committee chair, 2012.
- Social Science Research Council, Media and Democracy Project. Advisory Board, 2017-
- International Journal of Press/Politics (1995- )
- Political Communication (1998- )
- International Journal of Communication (2010- )
- Communication Monographs (1986-1989; 2015-
- Editor Communication, Society & Democracy book series, Cambridge University Press