Communication & Democracy international section conference & PhD course

Conference: May 8 - 9, 2023 (9:00-17:00 CEST)

PhD Course: May 10, 2023 (9:00-17:00 CEST)

University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Deadline: December 15, 2022

Conference Website: https://comm.ku.dk/research/information-technology-and-connections/to-use-or-not-to-use/tim-talks/international-conference-phd-course/

Confirmed keynote speakers: 

Donatella della Porta / W. Lance Bennett / Hazem Kandil / Guobin Yang

Scope:

Rapidly emerging technologies have become a crucial component of movement and contention, ranging from strikes and protests to riots and civil disobedience to revolution and war. We have witnessed the widespread use of digitally mediated communication during large-scale political protests in promoting social justice like Black Lives Matter and the #MeToo movement, but also intelligence and information warfare that contribute to precise strikes, effective surveillance, and reconnaissance in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Interest in this field endures, while interrogation of the role of technology in movement proliferates. Still, contestation over the nature and degree of effectiveness of technology in movement and contention remains. And theoretical and methodological reflections are badly needed to identify challenges and opportunities for advancing the field. 

This international conference seeks to address and advance such discussion. We look for original, rigorous, and creative contributions and reflections that examine technology and movement/contention. Submissions can be primarily theoretical or based on empirical studies but may also include innovative suggestions for overcoming methodological challenges. In all forms, the submissions should make explicit, original, and substantial contributions to the relevance and implications of the role of technology in movement.

PhD Course: 

An international PhD course with the same theme on technology and movement will be offered in the conference. The participant will receive 3 European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) if s/he join both the conference with presentation and the PhD seminar (on 10 May, 2023), or 1.5 ECTS (for those who only join the PhD seminar).

Possible Submission Topics:

• Theoretical developments in the sociology of technology in movement

• The historical, social, and political contingency of the role of technology in movement

• Technology and gender, sexuality, feminism, and LGBTQI issues in movement

• Technology and class, social, and digital inequalities in movement

• Big data and computational approaches to studying technology and movement (as well as critiques of these approaches)

• Safety and security issues of technology and movement

• Comparative empirical analyses of technology and movement across (a) historical eras and/or (b) countries, regions, and societies

• Legal, social and ethical issues of technology and movement

• Promise and peril of technology and movement

Key Dates:

Deadline: Abstracts of 300-500 words excluding references must be sent to techinmovement@ku.dk by December 15, 2022.

Notification of Acceptance: January 31, 2023

Deadline for Registration: February 28, 2023

Conference: May 8 - 9, 2023 (9:00-17:00 CEST)

PhD Course: May 10, 2023 (9:00-17:00 CEST)