BiD (special issue)
Deadline: September 30, 2026
Dear colleagues,
We are pleased to invite submissions for Issue 57 of BiD, titled "Digital Communication and Social Practices under Algorithms: Challenges and Opportunities":
Predictive artificial intelligence and personalization algorithms in recommendation systems have become key mediators of everyday activities on digital platforms. These systems process personal data to offer lists of content that, in theory, adapt to citizens’ tastes and interests. By shaping cultural and informational consumption, this process introduces dynamics that are largely invisible to users, who often perceive it as “useful” and “accurate” due to the high level of personalization.
This personalization, as part of the broader phenomenon of platformization, has transformed the communication industry and altered sociocultural habits, at times limiting the diversity of perspectives on issues such as politics, culture, health, and lifestyles, among others. It also raises questions about privacy and about how these technologies influence the ways in which identities and communities are constructed.
This special issue section seeks contributions that critically analyze the interactions between citizens and recommendation systems on digital communication platforms, exploring how these algorithms shape experiences, sociocultural practices, and creative processes. Beyond identifying risks, it is essential to reflect on the capacities and tools that enable people to interact with these technologies in a conscious and critical manner.
Understanding these dynamics requires studying the systems themselves, but also strengthening algorithmic literacy as an essential competence for questioning and managing the logics that govern personalization, avoiding a passive relationship with systems that influence cultural, informational, and social decisions.
We invite the submission of contributions that delve into the following thematic axes. Nevertheless, research that goes beyond these points and analyzes the social role of algorithms and predictive systems in practices of cultural consumption and communication will also be considered.
Proposed thematic axes:
- Algorithmic literacy: the set of knowledge (formal, informal, and non-formal) that users develop to interact and coexist with recommendation algorithms, considering the actors involved in this learning process and the competencies required.
-Tactics of evasion and algorithmic shaping: analysis of the active strategies that citizens use to interact with algorithms and influence the content they receive, as well as to avoid exposure to unwanted content.
-Bias, discrimination, hate speech, and normalization of patterns: how algorithms can reinforce social stereotypes or normative patterns (such as canonical bodies or gender roles) and expose users to objectifying content or hate speech, including racism, xenophobia, and LGBTIQphobia, exacerbating discrimination and disadvantage in cases of intersectional bias.
-Algorithms and migratory and ethnic experience: understanding how algorithmic personalization conditions the representation and sense of belonging of migrants, as well as ethnic communities.
- Algorithms in opinion formation and polarization: analysis of algorithmic influence on the configuration of political and social opinions.
-Modification of citizens’ everyday practices: algorithmic influence on consumption practices and habits, such as exercise and diets, as well as fashion, brand consumption, the idealization of relationships, the commodification of authenticity, personal vulnerability, among others.
-Creativity and algorithm-mediated cultural production: analysis of how recommendation systems influence content creation, transform creative processes, and redefine authorship in digital environments.
We warmly encourage colleagues across communication, media studies, digital sociology, cultural studies, and related fields to submit their work and to share this call within their networks.
Submission Process and Key Dates
Full Paper Submission Deadline 30/09/2026 in the journal system:
https://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/bid/about/submissions
No payment from the authors will be required.
This forthcoming special issue is open access, and welcomes original research articles in English, Spanish, and Catalan.
Link to the journal full text of the CFP: https://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/bid/announcement/view/982
Please note that this invitation does not guarantee publication, all full manuscripts will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process.
We look forward to your submissions.
The special issue editors,
Fernanda Pires (fernanda.pires@uab.cat - Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
,
Celina Navarro (celina.navarro@uab.cat) Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Liana Pithan ( liana.pithan@gmail.com - Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul)
