ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Internet Policy Review 

Deadline: August 25, 2019

Topic and Relevance

As more of our everyday lives become digital, from paying bills, reading news, to contacting companies and services, keeping in touch with your friends and family, and even voting - it has become crucial to include everyone in the online world. But the meaning of digital inclusion keeps on changing and with it also the set of skills that are necessary to be ‘digital’ (Jaeger et al., 2012). What type of skills do people need to ‘be digital’ today? Is access to the internet enough, or do people need to understand how the internet works as well? Which kind of training programmes should be developed? Should there be one type of skills and training programme or different ones who cater to people from different backgrounds and needs (ableism, age, education, gender, race, religion)? With the automation of many jobs, how can we foresee what skills will be needed for future work? These questions have been occupying the private sector and policy makers, and as more tasks become automated and digitalised, addressing them becomes ever more crucial.

Discussions of inequality in the use of digital media and systems have predominantly focused on issues measured by access to the internet and skills such as checking emails, finding information and downloading music (van Dijk and Hacker, 2003, van Dijk, 2005). These topics have been key issues for policymakers (Yates et al., 2014; 2015a; 2015b) and are central to the development of many governmental digital strategies in Europe, the UK, and the USA (Mawson, 2001). Recent academic work on issues of digital inclusion and inequalities has shifted the focused from quantitative indicators and looks at issues of digital skills in relation to the social support networks people receive (Helsper & Van Deursen, 2017). As such research shows, there is strong evidence that the quality of support people have access to is unequally distributed and replicate existing inequalities. Evidence shows that inequalities in access to and use of digital media have measurable impacts on the life chances, health and economic wellbeing of citizens. In other words, it is not only a matter of skills but also the context and communities people live in that influences people’s inclusion in the ‘digital’.

Scope

Since the introduction and widespread use of machine learning and artificial intelligence in different decision making processes relating to citizens’ life (health, justice, policing) and onto entertainment (e.g., Netflix and Spotify) and news, research on digital skills has shifted. This is because inequalities now involve more complex issues of how these technologies work and what they can influence and manipulate. In addition, as ‘fake news’ and misinformation have become common practices by various entities, new avenues in the types of digital literacies citizens need have been introduced. These include digital understanding of how the internet works (Doteveryone, 2018), how to engage with online news (e.g., fact checking), how digital advertising / adtech works (ICO, 2019) and how to use different tools to be able to control and manage the type of information shared with other parties. This shift has become central to some governmental digital strategies, such as those of the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) (2019) and their equivalents around the globe, in countries such as Brazil, India, and the USA, or the Norwegian Ombudsman (Forbrukerrådet, 2018). After the Cambridge Analytica scandal, governments have realised the power of technology giants like Facebook, Google, Amazon and Microsoft, to shape and influence people’s behaviour. Consequently, many aim to regulate and force them to change how they are designed and the way they present information (from content to advertisements).

This special issue draws on over two decades of research, policy, and practice. Over this time digital inequalities, digital inclusion and digital literacies have changed in response to developments in digital technologies and media. Key themes have remained, such as: material and financial access to technological devices and services; skills and digital literacy; effective use by citizens and communities to participate in political and civic discussions and activities; the impact of socio-economic factors; motivation and attitudes; and, more recently socio-economic and socio-cultural variations in patterns of usage. Digital inequalities therefore have become an important part of broader persistent issues of social equity and justice.

Focus of the Paper

The primary aim of this special issue is to link up international policy efforts to address contemporary and future digital inequalities, access and skills with the outcomes of research from around the globe. The intention is on sharing best practice and research insights, while acknowledging that these problems are not the same in different parts of the world and so there are no universal solutions. We invite authors to submit papers that cover empirical research as well as policy and practice interventions, such as:

• Data analysis of levels of digital inclusion / exclusion and engagement
• Studies on the link between misinformation and data literacies
• Studies of the impacts of digital exclusion
• Policy interventions
• Case studies of initiatives and programmes
• Case studies of community impact

SPECIAL ISSUE EDITORS

Special issue editors

Dr Elinor Carmi (Elinor.Carmi@liverpool.ac.uk) - Postdoc Research Associate - Digital Media & Society, Department of Communication and Media, Faculty of the Humanities and Social Sciences, School of the Arts, Liverpool University, UK.

Professor Simeon Yates - Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor, Research Environment and Postgraduate Research, Liverpool University, UK.

Important dates:

• Release of the call for papers: April 2019
• Deadline for full text submissions: 25 August 2019
• Comprehensive peer review feedback by: October 2019
• Deadline for submission of revised papers: November 2019
• Preparation for publication: April 2020
• Publication of the special issue: May 2020

 All details on text submissions can be found under http://policyreview.info/authors

References

DCMS (2019). Disinformation and ‘fake news’: Final Report. Available at: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmcumeds/1791/1791.pdf

Doteveryone (2018). People, Power and Technology: The 2018 Digital Understanding Report. Available at: http://understanding.doteveryone.org.uk/

Forbrukerrådet. (2018). Deceived by Design: How tech companies use dark patterns to discourage us from exercising our rights to privacy. Available at: https://fil.forbrukerradet.no/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/2018-06-27-deceived-by-design-final.pd f

GoodThings Foundation (2018). The economic impact of Digital Inclusion in the UK. Available at: https://www.goodthingsfoundation.org/sites/default/files/research-publications/the_economic_im pact_of_digital_inclusion_in_the_uk_final_submission_stc_0.pdf

Helsper, E.J. and Van Deursen, A.J. (2017). Do the rich get digitally richer? Quantity and quality of support for digital engagement. Information, Communication & Society, 20(5), pp.700-714.

ICO (2019). Internet users' experience of online advertising. Available at: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/research-and-data/internet-and-on-demand-research/internet-use-and-attitudes/internet-users-experience-online-advertising

Jaeger, P. T., Bertot, J. C., Thompson, K. M., Katz, S. M., & DeCoster, E. J., 2012. The intersection of public policy and public access: Digital divides, digital literacy, digital inclusion, and public libraries. Public Library Quarterly, 31(1), 1-20.

Mawson, J. (2001) ‘The end of social exclusion? On information technology policy as a key to social inclusion in large European cities’, Regional Studies Journal, 35(9), 861–877.

Van Dijk, J., & Hacker, K. (2003). The digital divide as a complex and dynamic phenomenon. The information society, 19(4), 315-326.

Van Dijk, J. A. (2005). The Deepening Divide: Inequality in the Information Society. Sage Publications.

Yates, S., Kirby, J., & Lockley, E. (2014). Supporting digital engagement: final report to Sheffield City Council. Supporting Digital Engagement: Final Report to Sheffield City Council.

Yates, S., Kirby, J., & Lockley, E. (2015a). Digital media use: Differences and inequalities in relation to class and age. Sociological Research Online, 20(4), 12.

Yates, S. J., Kirby, J., & Lockley, E. (2015b). ‘Digital-by-default’: reinforcing exclusion through technology. IN DEFENCE OF WELFARE 2, 158.

Journal of Public Deliberation

Deadline: July 31, 2019

Growing anti-immigration attitudes, rising nationalist tendencies, landslide victories of populist figures as well as the dissolution of national and supranational entities – these are just some of the multiple political and societal challenges western democracies are facing nowadays. These challenges have been said to affect the way citizens, the media and political actors communicate among and with each other. More specifically, concerns about the deliberative quality of these communications have been put forward. While this observation has so far been corroborated by a series of isolated studies, which produced not more than a few islands of analysis, an integrative and comprehensive perspective on the deliberative qualities of citizens’, journalists’, and politicians’ communication is yet missing.

The special issue Citizens, Media and Politics in Challenging Times: Perspectives on the Deliberative Quality of Communication thus addresses this gap in the literature by systematically bringing together different strands of research on the deliberative qualities of citizens’, journalists’, and politicians’ communication. The special issue thus aims at providing an integrative and comprehensive picture on modern political communication in times western democracies are facing a multitude of disruptive challenges. Theoretical, empirical and methodological contributions focusing on the deliberative qualities of citizens’, journalists’, and politicians’ communication are welcome. Topics and questions of interest include, but are not imited to:

(1) The deliberative quality of political debates: To which extent do political debates come close to the genuine benchmarks of deliberation? How deliberative is political communication transmitted via different channels (e.g., media types, media formats) as well as by different actors (e.g., journalists, politicians)? How is the deliberative quality of these debates perceived by the public?

(2) Determinants and consequences of citizens’ deliberation: Which role do arguments and scientific evidence play in promoting the quality of citizens’ deliberation? Does civic deliberation indeed result in “better” outcomes? To which extent is civic deliberation positively related to political participation?

(3) Uncivil online communication and deliberative interventions: To what degree does the deliberative quality of user comments reflect the deliberative quality of the news coverage? How does online deliberation via user comments develop over time? How do users interact when encountering dissonant viewpoints? To which extent are online civic interventions a panacea for disruptive and uncivil online behavior?

Submission Guidelines

Submissions need to speak to the deliberative democracy and democratic innovations literature.

When preparing your submission, please check the JPD website for guidelines on style and paper length: https://www.publicdeliberation.net/jpd/author_instructions.html

Please submit your manuscript to the following email address: si.jpd@mzes.uni-mannheim.de

Questions about the special issue shall be directed to the guest editors Christiane Grill and Anne Schäfer under the email address: si.jpd@mzes.uni-mannheim.de

The deadline for manuscripts to be considered for the special issue is July 31, 2019.

Manuscripts will be peer reviewed and a decision rendered until November 2019 with a target publication of the issue in 2020.

Editorial Information

Guest Editor: Christiane Grill

Mannheim Centre for European Social Research, University of Mannheim,

Email: si.jpd@mzes.uni-mannheim.de

Guest Editor: Anne Schäfer

Department of Political Science, University of Mannheim

Email: si.jpd@mzes.uni-mannheim.de

Joint Conference by the ‘Re-‘ Interdisciplinary Network (CRASSH) and the AI & Society Journal 

June 26-28, 2019

Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Cambridge

Deadline for abstracts (300 words): April 15, 2019

A concept that has been at the fore of discussions around the sociology  of scientific knowledge, the limits of AI, and most recently the design  of ‘collective intelligence’, is ‘tacit knowledge’. First coming to  prominence in the 1960’s, with Polanyi’s The Tacit Dimension (1966), it  is a concept that continues to be addressed by scholars and  practitioners from a wide range of disciplinary and inter-disciplinary  perspectives, and applied fields of practice. This conference explores  the place of the tacit in the 21st Century, where our lives are  increasingly augmented by AI algorithms. 

Engagement with and through social media networks and mobile apps are re-shaping the notion of community and family, and affecting wellbeing,  as well as the cultures of the workplace and institutions. The  exponential rise of big data flows in networked communications causes  vast gaps in translation, confusion about what is true and false, and  mistrust of ‘experts’. In the shadows of machine thinking we are unable  to engage with difference. 

This challenges us to come up with technological futures rooted in us as  persons, not as numbers, parts, sensory mechanisms, genes, and  individual bodies. 

What alternative models might allow humans to better engage with  technology?  How can we reconsider the relation between a person and a collective  intelligence?  How can we reconceive the self as interaction in a digital age? 

Ideas of performance and re-performance help us reposition seemingly singular subjects and objects as collective phenomena, and help reconnect art and science after their separation in the 19th Century; but the arts in general can play a key role in questioning and reframing our understandings by directing attention to the tacit assumptions, norms, and expectations embedded in all cultural processes. 

There is a supposed neutrality around technology, evidenced in the idea that human ‘intelligence’ can, in the absence of ‘person’, be artificially re-presented, re-constructed and re-produced through  computation (AI). The conference explores in what ways the interplay of  the arts and sciences is reconceiving augmentation, and questions what  an ‘intelligence’ that is ‘artificial’ might be. 

We invite contributions from across the disciplines and practices of the arts, performance arts, humanities, social sciences, natural sciences,  engineering, neuroscience, technology, and healthcare to engage in reflections on these and other issues around tacit engagement in the  digital age, in line with the four central themes of the conference: 

• Performance as a Paradigm of Knowledge 
• Self as Interaction in the Digital Age 
• Trust in the Shadows of Machine Thinking 
• Future Possibilities in intersections of Art, Science, Technology,  and Society. 

Abstracts (300 words + references) should be submitted in pdf format to Satinder Gill (spg12@cam.ac.uk) 

http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/28385

Utrech University

April 11-12, 2019

The Utrecht University Humanities Graduate Conference 2019, What’s the Point? Impact and the Future of the Humanities, will take place on Thursday 11th and Friday 12th April 2019. The conference will be held in the heart of the city centre of Utrecht, the Netherlands. Highlights include the Centre for Humanities Discussion on the Future of the Humanities, panels on impact in and outside of academia, (R)Ma and PhD panels on our conference theme, as well as talks and masterclasses by our keynotes, Eleonora Belfiore (University of Loughborough) and Simon During (University of Melbourne).

Registration is FREE and includes lunch on Friday but conference places are limited so sign up fast to avoid disappointment!

SIGN UP HERE: https://hgsc.sites.uu.nl/conference-registration/.

The conference is aimed primarily at (R)Ma students and PhD candidates, from Utrecht University and beyond, in all subdisciplines of the Humanities, but more senior researchers and other interested parties are also very welcome to attend. We would thus very much appreciate if you could forward this message to anyone else it may interest, including students you may teach.

For more information or to contact us, check out our website: https://hgsc.sites.uu.nl/%20or%20email%20us%20at%20whatsthepoint@uu.nl

University of Liverpool in London, Finsbury Square

June 18-19, 2019

London, UK

Deadline: March 31, 2019

As more of our everyday lives become digital, from paying bills, to contacting companies and services and keeping in touch with your friends and family - it has become crucial to include everyone in the online world. What type of skills do people need to ‘be digital’? Do different people from different ages and abilities need different types of skills and training? And how can we foresee what skills will be needed for future work? While these questions have been occupying the private sector and policy makers, as more tasks become automated and digitalised they become ever more crucial.

Evidence shows that inequalities in access to and use of digital media have measurable impacts on the life chances, health and economic wellbeing of citizens. The GoodThings Foundation published a report on September 2018 which identified that over 11 million UK citizens lack the basic digital skills they need to participate fully in our digital economy. As the Foundation predicts, by 2028 the UK will lose over £22 billion of value as a direct result of digital exclusion.

Since the introduction of machine learning and artificial intelligence research has shifted to understanding inequalities in complex skills and use. In addition, as ‘fake news’ and misinformation have become common practice by various entities it has introduced new avenues to include in digital literacies. This shift has become key to some governmental digital strategies, such as those of the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and their equivalents around the globe. This conference will bring together academic research with policy makers and stakeholders to review the current state for the art in digital inclusion policy and practice.

The conference will draw upon over two decades of research, policy, and practice. Over this time digital inequalities, digital inclusion and digital literacies have changed in response to developments in digital technologies and media. Though key themes have remained, such as: material and financial access; skills and digital literacy; effective use by citizens and communities; the impact of socio-economic factors; motivation and attitudes; and, more recently socio-economic and socio-cultural variations in patterns of usage. Digital inequities therefore have become an important part of broader persistent issues of social equity and justice.

The primary aim of this conference is to link up international policy efforts to address digital inequalities, access and skills with the outcomes of recent research at from around the globe. The intention being to support sharing best practice and research insights.

The conference will be a mix of invited presentations from policy and research colleagues, along with open paper sessions. For the open sessions we seek presentations that cover empirical research as well as policy and practice interventions, such as:

• Data analysis of levels of digital inclusion/exclusion and engagement
  
• Studies on the link between misinformation and data literacies
  
• Studies of the impacts of digital exclusion
  
• Policy interventions
  
• Case studies of initiatives and programmes
  
• Case studies of community impact
  

Submission and Registration Guidelines

The conference is FREE of charge. To register go to the Eventbrite page:  https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/diprc2019-digital-inclusion-policy-and-research-conference-2019-tickets-55022589045.

If you wish to present a paper or case study please submit a 300 word abstract by 31st March 2019 to: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=diprc2019.

Acceptance notification will be sent by 25th April 2019.

Contact

The conference is organised by Professor Simeon Yates and Dr. Elinor Carmi, Department of Communication and Media, Faculty of the Humanities and Social Sciences, School of the Arts, Liverpool University, UK

For questions and other inquiries please email Dr. Elinor Carmi - Elinor.Carmi@liverpool.ac.uk.

We look forward to seeing you in June!

Venue

The conference will run from 18 June to 19 June at the London Campus of the University of Liverpool, University of Liverpool in London, 33 Finsbury Square, London, EC2A 1AG: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/london/ – just off London’s “Silicon Roundabout” district: http://www.siliconroundabout.org.uk/ .

Do you have questions about DIPRC2019: Digital Inclusion Policy and Research Conference 2019? Contact School of the Arts - University of Liverpool

Ulster University

Deadline: March 29, 2019

Ulster University (Belfast) would like to appoint a Senior Lecturer in Screen Production to lead in the development and delivery of screen production programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and contribute to an outstanding student experience in preparation for industry relevant specialisation and progression into professional life.

Ulster prides itself on its award winning, industry engaged and research led teaching in media. With the launch of the Creative Industries Institute, and the recent success of the AHRC Funded Future Screens NI project, Ulster has confirmed its position as a sector leader within the broadly defined creative industries. As part of the newly formed Ulster Screen Academy, the School of Communication and Media seeks to expand undergraduate and postgraduate provision in both traditional and emerging screen production.

This post offers an exciting opportunity to lead the development of new curriculum that brings together academic scholarship, creative practice and professional skills development. The successful candidate will lead the new degree in Screen Production, and work alongside internationally recognized researchers to design and deliver a screen production curriculum which focuses on television production but also stretches across platforms and addresses both traditional storytelling and narratives for emerging televisual platforms. In particular, they will be teaching professional industry-level practice in broadcasting within various environments – e.g. outside broadcasting, TV studio production, and live television. A strong industrial background is essential.

Closing Date: 29th March

For more information on the post please visit https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/BQN189/senior-lecturer-and-course-director-in-screen-production

Special Issue of Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society

Deadline:  September 9, 2019

Edited by Jacob Johanssen (Communication and Media Research Institute, University of Westminster, j.johanssen@westminster.ac.uk)

For psychoanalysis, sexuality, how it is both individually thought about and lived and how it is culturally constructed, is key to understanding both the human psyche and social change. Freud believed that the sexual behaviour of an individual, from the earliest stages of development onwards, provided key insights into how they related to others and themselves in life more generally. While Freud stressed that there is no ‘normal’ sexuality and heterosexuality was a myth, his particular theories of female sexuality were nonetheless critiqued by feminist thinkers. Initially for Freud, the symptom itself was a distorted or covered manifestation of sexual activity which related to conflicts. Those ideas were developed by post-Freudian psychoanalysts in numerous ways. It is psychoanalysis that fundamentally contributed to the theorisation and understanding of the role that sexual desires and fantasies play in our (un)conscious forms of relating to ourselves and others. While psychoanalytic schools have come to understand sexuality in different ways, other disciplines such as queer theory, cultural studies and philosophy have grappled with and drawn on those conceptualisations of sexuality. Particular notions that are often taken for granted in every day discourse – perversion, fetishism, voyeurism – were (and are) developed by psychoanalysts. The call for papers for a special issue of Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society takes psychoanalytic theories of sexuality / sexualities and how they were adapted/critiqued by other disciplines as a starting point for analysing contemporary networked media, online spaces and digital phenomena.

In the past two decades, the Internet and networked devices have not only transformed societies but also human agency and subjectivity. How we communicate and relate to others has been shaped by our engagement with and immersion in digital media, devices and platforms. Social media in particular can be seen as enablers of unprecedented levels of human communication and cooperation which result in a sense of recognition and security for individuals, at the same time users have become data points which are commodified, surveyed and tracked by companies, governments and other entities. Contemporary online communication is also often marked by strong levels of hatred, aggression and polarisation which are characterised by the symbolic, and sometimes physical, destruction of the other. This proposed special issue of Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society places a specific focus on sexualities in contemporary online spaces. Sexualities have become more flexible and fluid thanks to technology as they are facilitated through hook up apps like Tinder, or Grindr. In reproductive terms, devices connected to the Internet such as fertility and health check apps have also become available. The Internet facilitates an informative and pleasurable engagement with sexualities, be it through online content, or communities around sexual identities for example. Subjects reveal aspects about their sexualities online more than ever before. At the same time, much of mainstream pornography has been critiqued as depicting women as oppressed, sexualised objects aimed to satisfy a male gaze. Clinicians have also noted that pornography can impact young people’s sexual development in harmful ways. Perhaps somewhat related to the widespread engagement with some forms of pornography, women are discussed in certain online spaces (such as forums on Reddit or 4chan) in highly misogynistic terms. Such language is often inspired by right-wing discourse and imagery which has gained increasing visibility online. The #MeToo movement on the other hand has made use of social media for activist purposes in order to resist and expose the widespread sexual assault and harassment conducted by men. It has attracted criticism for some of the methods and narratives deployed which have led to false accusations for example.

It is safe to say that the representation of and engagement with sexualities has exploded due to digital technologies. There is scope to interpret such aspects in depth through psychoanalysis in combination with other approaches.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

• Psychoanalytic approaches to sexuality
• Psychoanalysis and other conceptualisations of sexuality (e.g. Foucauldian, Deleuze-Guattarian, queer theoretical)
• Clinical perspectives on sexuality and digital media
• Repression and its status today
• Pleasures, unpleasures – Eros and the death drive
• #MeToo and activism against sexualised violence
• The Alt-Right and online misogyny
• Online pornography
• Livestreaming and camming
• Hook-up apps
• The Internet of Things (fertility devices, sex toys, sex robots, etc.)
•  Social media
• Games and gaming cultures
• Virtual reality and forms of simulation

Please send abstracts of no longer than 500 words to Jacob Johanssen (j.johanssen@westminster.ac.uk) by 09 September 2019. Accepted full papers will be due in February 2020. The special issue will be published in December 2020.

Article length: 6-8,000 words

About the journal

Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society is an international, peer-reviewed journal published by Palgrave (https://www.palgrave.com/gb/journal/41282). It explores the intersection between psychoanalysis and the social world. It is a journal of both clinical and academic relevance which publishes articles examining the roles that psychoanalysis can play in promoting and achieving progressive social change and social justice.

Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society benefits a worldwide community of psychoanalytically informed scholars in the social and political sciences, media, cultural and literary studies, as well as clinicians and practitioners who probe the relationship between the social and the psychic. It is the official journal of the Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture & Society.

Special issue of Emerald Studies in Media and Communications

Deadline: May 31

Editor: Lloyd Levine

Emerald Studies in Media and Communications is delighted to announce a special volume on technology and government. Rolling acceptances until May 31, 2019.

Working Title: Technology and Government

The volume will focus on technology and government and will be divided into two parts. Part one will examine how government procures and uses technology, and part two will explore how changes in technology have changed the way government operates. Papers may explore any of the following or related ideas: why government fails at technology purchases, why government lags behind on innovation and implementation, case studies of governments that have done an excellent job of purchasing and using technology, challenges of providing digital government services when large percentages of the population lack digital connectivity due to the digital divide, the effect of technology on transparency, political and/or administrative, and this can be about the disclosure of behaviors, or about more transparency in government due to the ability of government to put information on line where the public can access it directly, how technology has changed the way government, particularly local or state government provides services, the way technology has affected communications between government and those the entity governs, etc. Submissions will be peer-reviewed for publication.

Submission Guidelines

Submissions should be approximately 7,000-10,000 in length inclusive of abstract, references, and notes. American or British spelling may be used.

While no special formatting is requested at the outset, upon acceptance authors must gain all permissions and format their manuscripts in accordance with the series' guidelines.

Submissions may be considered for either volume. All submissions must be in Word and include:

1) title of manuscript,

2) abstract up to 250 words,

3) up to 6 keywords,

4) main text with headings,

5) references,

6) as appropriate to the submission appendices, images, figures, and tables.

Questions may be addressed to Lloyd.Levine@hotmail.com

ECREA TWG Visual Cultures Conference

September 4–6, 2019

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Submission deadline: May 15, 2019

https://events.tuni.fi/visual-cultures-2019/

Keynotes: Paul Frosh (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) "Moving Images: On the Mobility and Motility of Digital Photography", Jill Walker Rettberg (University of Bergen) "Machine Images: from Vertov’s Kino-Eye to Deep Fakes and Selfie Lenses".

In visual studies, the question of how to apprehend images has been contested at least since WJT Mitchell’s call for a pictorial turn, defined ‘ex negativo’. While books on visual cultures, visual analysis and visual research abound, the kind of consideration that we should give single images is discussed from very different kinds of perspectives. While some suggest paying careful attention to visual detail, form, and motif, others call for a turn away from representations, suggesting that main attention should be given to the practices within which images become meaningful. While the latter approaches may question the usefulness of ‘representation’ per se, the former explicitly prioritize that which is made visible.

While the positions of how to approach images diverge, images as phenomena to be studied are themselves increasingly ‘on the move’.

Operational images, part of complex logistical chains, are just one example of images on the move, that a human being might never get to see. But also photos used for phatic communication might be less important for what they show, in contrast to the social connections that they allow for. On the other hand, public and private environments are increasingly filled with screens that display images to be seen. Images travel between contexts, in time and space, asking us to constantly question who is looking and at what, and in what ways acts of looking play a role in this constellation. In short, both our understandings of how to approach images, and images themselves, are ‘on the move’.

This conference, organized by the ECREA TWG Visual Cultures, discusses the roles of images for visual analysis by focusing on images on the move. This entails work on images capturing movement of unfolding events, images themselves moving in time, space, and across media, as well as the theoretical and analytical approaches that are on the move.

How should we work with images and practices on the move?

We welcome papers on topics including, but not limited to:

• methodological approaches that focus on representational features of images and/or the flows, contexts and - practices around images
• researching the visual: new methodological approaches and challenges
•  visual ethics / ethics in visual research
• studies or reflections on how to handle image flows and large (moving) sets of visual data
• theoretical approaches on representational vs non-representational approaches
•  entanglements between the material aspect of images and visual practices
• images and infrastructures
• ‘fake news’ and the visual: verification of images
• generic images, stock photos and images banks: modes of production, distribution and effects
• digitally mediated visual communication in everyday life
• images and popular culture
• images and developers
• phatic communication and the question of representation

Abstracts of up to 750 words, including a motivation for the study, information on theory/concepts used, data/phenomena analyzed and methods used, should be sent by 15 May 2019 with an electronic form: https://www.lyyti.fi/reg/visual-cultures-2019-cfp.

There will be a conference fee of ca. 120-140 Euros, and slightly reduced rates to PhD students and ECREA members.

Please find more information on the conference website: https://events.tuni.fi/visual-cultures-2019/

July 12, 2019

University of Segovia, Spain

Deadline: April 10, 2019

Organisers: Annette Hill, Peter Lunt, Miguel Vicente, Asta Zelenkauskaite, Erika Polson

The Audiences Section of IAMCR is organising a one day post-conference on the concept of Mobile Socialities. The Audiences section aims to encourage new thinking and approaches to global audience research and to inspire greater interest in exploring and understanding audiences in diverse settings, including non-Western approaches to audiences, the nature of audiences as ‘knowledge communities’, ethnographic approaches to researching them, and the extent to which traditional classifications of audiences (masses, publics and markets) are being challenged by the fluidity and ephemeral nature of virtual and mobile audiences.

The themed post-conference critically examines the bridging concept of mobile socialities across international perspectives, ensuring dialogue on the connections between audience studies, mobilities and mobile communication research. Key questions include:

1) What forms of socialities do we find in mobile times?

2) In what ways are time and place critical to mobile socialities?

3) How do we research the mobile nature of screen content for transnational audiences, users and publics?

Mobile socialities is a bridging concept that links the phenomena of people on the move and the role of mobile media in everyday life. People are on the move across national borders through, for example, economic and forced migration or tourism; people are on the move from rural contexts to urban centres and transitions in social class. There are opportunities and barriers to mobility within working and living conditions and people transition between public and private spheres, home and workspaces through media. These movements question, and sometimes reinforce, existing notions of boundaries, differences and power relations. In such mobile contexts, we find media entangled in audiences’ lived realities, for example in mobile media and place, knowledge work and mobile spaces, or mobile media and time.

This post-conference addresses mobile socialites through empirical and theoretical analysis of audiences in situated contexts. Areas of interest include: mobile media and time, mobile media and geography, mobile communications directed at connecting people to place, transportation and media research, the blurred boundaries between work place-space within mobile communications, transnational audiences for global media; mobile apps and social relations, critical algorithm studies and intimacies, migration and mobile media, conviviality and mobile communications, historical approaches to mobile media and people on the move, methodological challenges for mobile media audiences, as well as other areas of interest.

We encourage multi-method and theoretical approaches to audience research that explores the concept of mobile socialities as something concerned with not only fluidity and movement, or place and scale, but also the possibilities and barriers to being mobile. In such a way, the post-conference addresses the flow and stillness of digital technologies and our lived realities, and the power dynamics of emerging forms of the social in mobile times.

Keynote speakers include Professor Maren Hartmann (Berlin University of the Arts), Professor Peter Lunt (Leicester University) and Erika Polson (University of Denver). The schedule will include a combination of keynote panels, workshops and panel presentations.

The post-conference takes place at the Segovia Campus of the University of Valladolid on Friday 12th July 2019. A fee of 20-50 Euros for participants and IAMCR members covers food and beverages for the day. There are regular high speed trains and buses from Madrid to Segovia; and local hotels ranging from 30-70 Euros per night. There are scholarships of 150 US dollars per person to cover the costs of registration, transportation and/or accommodation to support early-stage scholars from middle or low income countries.

Please send abstracts of 300 to 500 words by April 10, 2019 to Miguel.vincente@uva.es. This section is only able to receive proposals and schedule sessions in English for the post-conference.