ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Nordic Journal of Media Studies, Vol. 7 (2025) 

Deadline: April 3, 2024

Editors:

• Anne Jerslev (University of Copenhagen): jerslev@hum.ku.dk
  
• Mette Mortensen (University of Copenhagen): metmort@hum.ku.dk
  

Important dates:

• Deadline for extended abstracts: 3 April 2024
  
• Deadline for full submissions: 1 September 2024
  
• Peer review: October 2023–December 2024
  
• Expected publication: Spring 2025
  

Background and aim

Influencers wield significant social, political, and economic influence, as they have transformed from micro celebrities (Senft, 2008; Jerslev, 2016) and other Internet celebrities from the 2000s, operating at the intersections of authenticity and performance, creativity and commerce. Influencers navigate the realms of everyday life, entertainment, and politics, cutting across mainstream cultures and subcultures, the national, the Nordic, and the international (see, e.g., Abidin et al., 2020). Over the past decade, influencers have taken a central stage on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and other social media, on which they “make a living from being celebrities native to and on the Internet” (Abidin, 2018: 1). In their pursuit of sustained visibility, influencers construct relatable narratives and project identities and sets of values that are recognisable and desirable to followers. Most influencers adopt commercial marketing strategies; they are managed by influencer agencies and create themselves as brands by performing scenes from their relatably ordinary or (more or less) admirably extraordinary lives. Some influencers promote commodity goods to monetise on these self-branding strategies (Jerslev & Mortensen, 2023: 336), or they receive compensation from social media networks such as YouTube relative to the number of likes and followers they generate. Meanwhile, other influencers are driven by political objectives, functioning primarily as content creators and using their platform visibility to gain political impact (Lewis, 2020; Riedl et al., 2023). Influencers strategically appeal to specific target audiences defined by demographics such as age, life phase, gender, race, nationality, and more, or by shared interests in areas like gaming, fashion, financial investments, lifestyle, health, beauty, environment, sports, home handicraft, family life, food, pets, religion, and so forth.

Influencers cover a great span: Far-right female influencers project traditional family values as a form of empowerment and agency (Askanius, 2022) or advocate anti-establishment in the context of the Nordic welfare state (Mortensen & Kristensen, 2023). Meanwhile, on the other end of the spectrum, feminist influencers advocate pro-choice and other women’s rights. Some influencers actively contribute to shaping narratives and discourses on wars by reporting from their daily life in conflict zones or propagate political opinions and calls for action. Others, like migrants, document their fearful journey towards a distant goal (Turkewitz, 2023). Others again use their popular cultural persona to promote issues related to the environment and sustainability (Schmuck, 2021). And many influencers perform catchy dances or dead-pan, comical scenes for younger audiences, who consume entertainment and information largely driven by promotional and commercial interests, but are, perhaps, also able to seek out role models fine-tuned to the formation of their own identities.

With this issue of Nordic Journal of Media Studies, we invite scholars to explore the following questions: How can we understand and measure the social, cultural, economical, and political power and impact exerted on and by followers? What does it mean to “follow” an influencer? What do online relationships and personal affective attachments to influencers mean to people in their everyday lives? Is it possible to be an influencer and, for example, an activist simultaneously in a digital economy guided by algorithmic logics (cf. Scharff 2023)? Which narratives of self are constructed by different influencer profiles?

Themes include but are not limited to the following:

• Influencers and performance of values in relation to, e.g., gender, politics, culture, etc.
  
• Influencer economies and digital labor
  
• Influencers and marketing – business models, influencer agencies, self-branding strategies
  
• Influencers and regulation, e.g., in a Nordic context
  
• Influencer culture and gender
  
• Children and TikTok – patterns of consumption, influencers as role models
  
• Influencers as sources of news and information, e.g., in the context of Nordic public service media
  
• Influencers and religion, e.g., in relation to worship and authority
  
• Influencers, politics, and politicians
  
• Influencers and cross-media communication (media, channels, genres)
  
• Influencers and followers – forms of communication, parasocial interaction, and affect
  
• Influencers, celebrity, and fandom
  
• Influencers and the construction and commodification of authenticity
  
• Influencer engagement and engagement measurement
  
• Methodological approaches to the analysis of influencer accounts and following

We welcome theoretical, empirical, analytical contributions, and so on, just as we encourage interdisciplinary work and collaborative research produced with non-academic partners.

Literature

Abidin, C. (2018). Internet celebrity: Understanding fame online. Emerald Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1108/9781787560765

Abidin, C., Steenbjerg Hansen, K, Hogsnes, M., Newlands, G., Nielsen, M. L., Nielsen, L. Y., & Sihvonen, T. (2020). A review of formal and informal regulations in the Nordic influencer industry. Nordic Journal of Media Studies, 2(1), 71–83. https://doi.org/10.2478/njms-2020-0007

Askanius, T. (2022). Women in the Nordic resistance movement and their online media practices: Between internalised misogyny and embedded feminism. Feminist Media Studies, 22(7), 1763–1780. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2021.1916772

Jerslev, A. (2016). In the time of the microcelebrity: Celebrification and the YouTuber Zoella. International Journal of Communication, 10, 5233–5251. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/5078

Jerslev, A., & Mortensen, M. (2023). Celebrity news online: Changing media, actors, and stories. In S. Alle (Ed.), The Routledge companion to news and journalism (pp. 334–342). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003174790

Lewis, R. (2020). “This is what the news won’t show you”: YouTube creators and the reactionary politics of micro celebrity. Television & New Media, 21(2), 201–217. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476419879919

Mortensen, M., & Kristensen, N. N. (2023). At the boundaries of authority and authoritarianism in the welfare state: News coverage of alt. health influencers during the Covid-19 pandemic. Javnost – The Public, 30(1), 35–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/13183222.2023.2168442

Riedl, M. J., Lukito, J., & Woolley, S. C. (2023). Political influencers on social media: An introduction. Social Media + Society, 9(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051231177938

Scharff, C. (2023). Are we all influencers now? Feminist activists discuss the distinction between being an activist and an influencer. Feminist Theory. OnlineFirst. https://doi.org/10.1177/14647001231201062

Schmuck, D. (2021). Social media influencers and environmental communication. In B. Takahashi, J. Metag, J. Thaker, & S. E. Comfort (Eds.), The handbook of international trends in environmental communication (pp. 373–387). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780367275204

Senft, T. (2008). Camgirls: Celebrity and community in the age of social networks. Peter Lang.

Turkewitz, J. (2023, December 20). Live from the jungle: Migrants become influencers on social media. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/20/world/americas/migrants-tiktok-darien-gap.html#

Procedure 

Those with an interest in contributing should write an extended abstract (max. 750 words) where the main theme (or argument) of the intended article is described. The abstract should contain the preliminary title, five keywords, and a rationale for how the article fits within the overall aim of the issue.  

Send your extended abstract to Mette Mortensen (metmort@hum.ku.dk) and Anne Jerslev (jerslev@hum.ku.dk) by 3 April 2024. 

Scholars invited to submit a full manuscript (6,000–8,000 words) will be notified by e-mail after the extended abstracts have been assessed. All submissions should be original works and must not be under consideration by other publishers. All submissions are submitted to Similarity Check – a Crossref service utilising iThenticate text comparison software to detect text-recycling or plagiarism.  

• Visit Crossref to learn more about Similarity Check  
  

After the initial submission and review process, manuscripts that are accepted for publication must adhere to our guidelines upon final manuscript delivery. You may choose to use our templates to assist you in correctly formatting your manuscript.  

• Download a manuscript template (docx, 32 kB)  
  
• Read the full instructions for authors  
  

About Nordic Journal of Media Studies 

Nordic Journal of Media Studies is a peer-reviewed international publication dedicated to media research. The journal is a meeting place for Nordic, European, and global perspectives on media studies. It is is a thematic digital-only journal published once a year. The editors stress the importance of innovative and interdisciplinary research, and welcome contributions on both contemporary developments and historical topics. 

• Read the aims & scope of NJMS 
  

About the publisher  

Nordicom is a centre for Nordic media research at the University of Gothenburg, supported by the Nordic Council of Ministers. Nordicom publishes all works under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence, which allows for non-commercial, non-derivative types of reuse and sharing with proper attribution. All works are published Open Access and are available to read free of charge and without requirement for registration. There are no article processing charges for authors, and authors retain copyright. 

• Read our editorial policies  
  
• Visit Creative Commons to learn more about our CC licence 
  

Link to the call on Nordicom’s website: https://www.nordicom.gu.se/en/latest/news/call-papers-influencers-entertainment-politics-and-strategic-online-culture 

September 23, 2024

Ljubljana (Slovenia)

Deadline: April 10, 2024

We look forward to your participation and contributions to this exciting ECREA pre-conference on September 23rd, in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

We invite abstracts (200-300 words) until April 10th on the Topic Young people and News:

Submit your abstract here.

• Algorithms and datafication
  
• Cross European research
  
• Social media and information
  
• Decolonization of the field
  
• Participatory media
  
• Migration and news
  
• Audiences and news
  
• Socialisation and news
  
• News literacies
  
• Information disorders
  
• Theoretical reflection and future perspectives of the field
  
• Methodological discussions
  

Should you have any inquiries send us an email.

Fees: Free (ECREA members); 20€ (non-members).

More information about the pre-conference is here.

The pre-conference is endorsed by Audience and Reception Studies and Children, Youth and Media sections.

I hope to see you soon!

Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS)

The Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS) funds innovative projects that deal with the social opportunities and challenges of the digital transformation. We support individual researchers and groups.

You want to spend a sabbatical in a vibrant interdisciplinary research community? Become a fellow at CAIS!

A fellowship at the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS) releases you from your regular work obligations and opens up new perspectives.  

As a fellow, you can spend either six or three months in Bochum, Germany. During this period, we will finance your sabbatical leave from work through compensation (e.g. for a teaching substitute). Alternatively, we will pay grants of up to 2.000 € per month. You can invite guests for collaboration and will receive financial support for research expenses. Individual offices and meeting rooms with modern facilities offer optimal working conditions. In addition, we will provide comfortable apartments free of charge.

Find out more at https://www.cais-research.de/en/cais-college/fellowships/

You want to boost your collaboration? Bring your group together at CAIS!

Working groups bring together experts from different locations to work on joint projects in an inspiring environment.

We provide catering and modern meeting facilities for working groups of up to twelve members. In addition, we will cover travel and accommodation expenses. You can spend up to three weeks in Bochum or get together for up to three shorter meetings.  

Find out more at https://www.cais-research.de/en/cais-college/working-groups/

Application

The next deadline for applications is 30 April 2024. The earliest possible starting date for new fellowships is April 2025. The earliest possible starting date for new working groups is January 2025. You can also combine both programs. Please use the application forms provided on our website.

The funding program is open to excellent scholars and practitioners, to all career stages, disciplines and areas of investigation, as well as to pure research and to projects that are more applied in orientation.

Further questions? Please contact esther.laufer@cais-research.de.

September 23, 2024

Ljubljana (Slovenia)

Deadline: April 26, 2024

The ECREA pre-conference, titled 'Exploring the Dynamics of Digital Disconnection - Disruption, Inequalities, and Norms,' set to take place on September 23rd, 2024, in Ljubljana, Slovenia, is inviting abstract submissions.

The pre-conference explores the nuanced dynamics of digital disconnection, with a special focus on its potential as a form of disruption and the normative constraints that shape its boundaries.

Submission

Please submit your abstracts of no more than 300 words to victoria.kratel@kristiania.no by April 3rd, 2024. Notification of acceptance will be sent out by April 26th, 2024.

Full call: https://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/research/projects/digital-disconnection/events/conferences/20240126_call-for-abstracts-ecrea-preconference-2024.pdf 

Conference website: https://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/research/projects/digital-disconnection/events/conferences/ECREA-preconference-ljubljana.html

There is no pre-conference fee.

Please note that this is an offline event, and presenters are expected to present in person. 

Key dates:

• April 3rd - Abstract submission deadline
  
• April 26th - Decision on acceptance
  
• September 23rd - Conference day 
  

The preconference is sponsored by the research project 'Intrusive media, ambivalent users, digital detox' (Digitox) at the University of Oslo (funded by the Research Council of Norway): https://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/research/projects/digital-disconnection/

May 31-June 1, 2024

Online

Deadline (EXTENDED): March 24, 2024

Our private moments can instantly become public with just a touch, and the line between what is personal and what is public has become more blurred and constitutive of each other. At Interdisciplinary PhD Communication Conference (IPCC) 2024, we are opening the floor to early career researchers, who are eager to explore these changes. The deadline for submitting the abstracts is the 24th of March 2024 (extended deadline). You can send your abstracts or panel proposals to ipcc@bilgi.edu.tr

This year's conference (May 31 - June 1, 2024) will be an online gathering which will also include an online networking event.

For the last seven years, IPCC (as part of the PhD in Communication Program at Istanbul Bilgi University) has been a space for bringing together PhD students and early career researchers dealing with communication research. IPCC also facilitates the publication of research and contributions that emerge from our conferences, such as the recently edited book "Collaboration in Media Studies: Doing and Being Together" available through Routledge.

This year, we would like to discuss the implications of public-private dichotomy for communication research, representation studies, public personas, influencers, marketing, and art-making.

We invite you to bring your insights, your research, and your stories to our conference that seeks to make sense of these issues.

https://ipcc.bilgi.edu.tr

Populism (Special Issue) 

Deadline: April 7, 2024

Guest Editors: Feeza Vasudeva and Dayei Oh 

The relationship between religion and populism has been a topic of growing interest in recent years, as populist movements with religious supporters and institutions have gained prominence around the world. The connections between Donald Trump and Evangelical Christianity in the United States, Viktor Orbán and Christianity in Hungary, and Narendra Modi and Hindu nationalists in India, are only a few examples.

At the same time, new forms of media and hybrid media environments (cf. Chadwick, 2013; Hoover, 2020) have emerged and transformed public discourse, influencing the production, reception, and circulation of populist concepts. The logic of ‘media populism’ (Mazzoleni, 2003) identifies that populist actors reach for new audiences through mediatising 'personalisation, emotionalization, and anti-establishment attitude’ (Mudde, 2007). Scholarly attention has been paid to the distinctive rhetorical style and communicative strategies of mediatized populism, such as playing up the intimacy and closeness of populist politicians to portray them as the representatives of the people against the establishment. However, not enough attention has been given to mediatized religious populism.

This call for papers seeks to explore the intersection of religion, populism, and hybrid media, focusing on the many ways these associations interact and shape one another. We welcome conceptual, methodological, and empirical research works. Possible topic areas include (but are not limited to):

• Populism and Religion
  
• Religious Nationalism and Xenophobia
  
• Mediatized religious populism
  
• Religion, Populism, and Conspiracy Theories
  
• New Religions, Cults, and Populism
  
• Atheism and Populism
  
• Transnational Nationalism(s) and Populism(s)
  
• Populisms in Datafied Society
  
• New Religious Constellations
  
• Translocal and Hybrid Movements
  
• Emotion and Affectivity
  
• Epistemic contestations in Religious Populism
  
• Institutionalized Populisms
  
• Interfaith Dialogues and Religious Populism
  

 We welcome submissions from various disciplines, including media studies, sociology, religious studies, political science, and communication studies. We encourage interdisciplinary approaches and transnational studies that examine these phenomena across different geographical contexts.

The special issue will invite individual submissions based on approved abstracts. To submit an abstract for consideration, please email an MS Word document of no more than 500 words with author information to feeza.vasudeva@helsinki.fi and cc: dayei.oh@helsinki.fi using the subject header, “Religious Populism in Hybrid Media Special issue.” The deadline for receiving abstracts is Sunday 7th April 2024. Invited manuscripts of no more than 10,000 words (inclusive) must be submitted by Sunday 25th August 2024 to the journal submission page to receive a double-blind peer review. No payment from the authors will be required.

August 18-25, 2024

Jönköping University Sweden

Deadline: May 17, 2024

About the Course

Democracy depends on engaged citizens. And yet, the most powerful discourses surrounding engagement are strategically designed to drive commercial markets. As a counterpoint to this horizon, the main purpose of this PhD residential course is to understand theories and methods of media engagement not as a metric but as a marker of power relations.

This 7.5 credit course offers an international platform for PhD researchers to write, present and receive feedback on work in progress from global experts on theories and methods for media engagement. The course will cover key concepts for engagement, including political and public spheres, digital media and AI related technologies, social movements and mobilisation, transmedia engagement, and cultural citizenship and popular culture.

Key Highlights: Mentoring and networking with world leading scholars and international doctoral researchers; slow thinking, with time to write thesis chapters and peer reviewed journal articles; residential setting of Gränna Campus, overlooking the great lake of Vättern, with easy access to local food and crafts, clear water swimming, nature walks and mountain views; social events, including trips to the historical island of Visingsö.

Teaching Team: course leader Annette Hill (co author with Dahlgren of Media Engagement Routledge 2023), and Peter Dahlgren (author of Media and Political Engagement 2009), Renira Rampazzo Gambarato (co-author of Theory, Strategy, and Development in Transmedia Storytelling 2020), and Joke Hermes (author of Cultural Citizenship and Popular Culture 2023).

Website and application: for information on the course, application process, fees, and key dates see https://ju.se/mediaengagement. Contact Annette Hill (Annette.hill@ju.se)  

June 7, 2024

Coventry University (UK)

Deadline (EXTENDED): April 14, 2024

The Local and Community Media Network of MeCCSA is calling for contributions to a one-day symposium looking at the future of local and community media archives. 

While digitisation might be perceived to be making some aspects of local media more readily available, the consolidation of outlets has led to the disposal and destruction of many of the records relating to its outputs, production and significance. This may include, but is not limited to, the destruction of analogue formats of media, photographic collections and business records archives. In some places, organisations are stepping in to preserve collections; this includes community groups who seek to salvage what they consider to be the collective memory of a place. All collectors find themselves faced with the myriad challenges which are associated with preservation and recognition for items relating to an often-undervalued aspect of media.  

This symposium will bring together academics, publishers, archival practitioners and community representatives to explore the issues and possible solutions in relation to preserving local media archives across the range of formats, including newspapers, radio, local television and film archives, and alternative publications. The event will be held at the university library (Frederick Lanchester building). It will include the chance to visit the Lanchester Innovation Archive based in the library which documents the life and work of legendary motor designer and inventor Frederick Lanchester. 

Themes for exploration might include: 

• Locating local media archives 
  
• The physicality of archives – including preservation and accessibility 
  
• The good and the bad of digitisation 
  
• The place of local media archives in the memory of localities 
  
• Community usage and involvement with local media archives   
  
• Archives and well-being 
  
• Oral history and local archives  
  
• Practical approaches to dealing with local media archives 
  
• Creative responses to local media archives 

The organisers welcome submissions for academic papers, panels, workshops and posters.  Abstracts outlining your contribution should be limited to 350 words and should be sent to r.matthews@coventry.ac.uk by the extended deadline of April 14, 2024. It is expected that a publication will result from the event. 

A fee of £40 will be charged to cover conference costs. A limited number of bursaries will be available to help support attendance by post-graduate students. Please indicate on your abstract if you would like to be considered for an award. 

October 14-16, 2024

Rome, Italy

Deadline: April 12, 2024

We are pleased to announce a workshop hosted by the German Historical Institute in Rome dedicated to exploring the rich and complex landscape of European film production, distribution and exhibition during the period of European Fascism from 1933 to 1945. Please submit your abstract (max 300 words), brief biography and contact details using this form by the submission deadline of 12 April 2024: https://forms.gle/yWuE94xQmLizSS199

CALL FOR PAPERS

A perennial problem in the history of cinema, “Film Europe” has remained a constant theme since the 1920s, both in practical, economic and political terms, and as a response to the cultural challenges of what “European cinema” is or should be. A decisive moment in the history of “Film Europe” as an idea and organizational effort was the establishment of the International Film Chamber (Internationale Filmkammer, IFK). Launched in 1935 to bolster a European film bloc to combat the international dominance of American films, the IFK resurfaced in 1941 under German and Italian control and swiftly became a tool for the expansion of these national industries. Membership included representatives of the film and commercial branches of various European and international countries. The IFK warrants further examination given that it served as a consultative body for European film industries and led discussions on production, exhibition, and distribution. Questions around the circulation of Nazi cinema are likewise intricately linked to the IFK: given the growing dominance of the German film industry and market at this time, IFK negotiations often revolved around the dissemination of German productions and questions of film import into the Reich. Our findings will therefore also provide the foundations for a large-scale future research project entitled “Nazi Film in Transit”.

We invite scholars from around the world to reevaluate the history and legacy of the IFK, its vision of “Film Europe” and its significance for the export and import of Nazi cinema. Our goal is to provide a platform for scholars to share research to develop our understanding of this period in European film history, as well as its significance for the pre- and post-war film industries and their socio-political contexts. We welcome comparative research into the activities and aspirations of various member states of the IFK, as well as into the international networks of film production and distribution that it facilitated. Our focus encompasses the national cinemas and film industries of the following countries in the 1930s and 40s: Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and Yugoslavia; as well as the political, economic, or cultural histories of Film Europe in a broader perspective.

Focusing on the period 1933-45, submission topics might include (but are not limited to):

• Transnational collaborations and exchanges within the European film industry
  
• Censorship, regulation, and state intervention
  
• Experiences of filmmakers, actors, and technicians
  
• Film distribution and exhibition networks
  
• Propaganda and ideology in European cinema
  
• National cinemas and transnational influences
  
• Technological innovations and production constraints
  
• Star and celebrity culture

We plan to publish a selection of papers in a special issue of a leading academic journal or edited volume.

References

Kasten, J., Lang, F. & Stiasny, P. (eds) (2021), Ufa international. Ein deutscher Filmkonzern mit globalen Ambitionen. Edition Text+Kritik.

Maltby, R. & Higson, A. (eds) (1999), Film Europe and Film America : cinema, commerce and cultural exchange,1920-1939 (1999). University of Exeter Press.

Martin, B.G. (2011 rev.), ‘European Cinema for Europe!’ The International Film Chamber, 1935–42. In: Vande Winkel, R.., Welch, D. (eds), Cinema and the Swastika. Palgrave Macmillan.

Martin, B.G (2016), The Nazi-Fascist New Order for European Culture (2016). Harvard University Press.

Skopal, P. & Vande Winkel, R. (eds) (2021). Film Professionals in Nazi-Occupied Europe. Mediation Between the National-Socialist Cultural “New Order” and Local Structures, Springer.

Vande Winkel, R. & Welch, D. (eds) (2011 rev.). Cinema and the Swastika : the international expansion of Third Reich cinema, Palgrave Macmillan.

Practicalities

The workshop will be hosted by the German Historical Institute in Rome.

Registration is free and includes lunches, refreshments and a closing dinner. A research trip to the Cinecittà studios–visited by members of the International Film Chamber during their meeting in Rome in 1942–is also planned. Participants must cover their own costs of travel and accommodation; rooms at a nearby hotel will be available for a reduced price of 135 EUR per night (double-rooms only). We aim to offer a contribution toward travel and accommodation costs of scholars with limited or no institutional funding.

Organizing committee

• Emily Dreyfus (Film University Babelsberg, Germany)
  
• Maria Fritsche (NTNU, Norway)
  
• Benjamin Martin (Uppsala University, Sweden)
  
• Fabian Schmidt (Film University Babelsberg, Germany)
  
• Roel Vande Winkel (KU Leuven - LUCA School of Arts, Belgium)
  

This conference is sponsored and co-hosted by

• The German Historical Institute in Rome
  
• NOS-HS Workshop Series “Cinema, War and Citizenship at the Periphery. Cinemas and their audiences in the Nordic countries, 1935-1950”
  
• The Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam (ZZF)
  

Annals of the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi

Deadline: April 24, 2024

Editors:

Prof. Veronica Barassi (veronica.barassi@unisg.ch)

Dr. Philip Di Salvo (philip.disalvo@unisg.ch)

School of Humanities and Social Sciences

University of St. Gallen

Generative artificial intelligence tools and large language models are gaining a prominent space in our society. Probably for the first time in history, humans have now to relate and interact with technological systems capable of producing and generating new content and knowledge mimicking humans’ imagination, speech, and behaviors in ways that was not possible before. This new state of things brings inevitably profound consequences and potential sea changes for numerous social, scientific, and cultural fields raising epistemological, ethical, political economical and philosophical questions about the epistemologies of AI and the processes of knowledge production of these systems. The race for AI innovation is being framed with reference to the ‘superintelligence’ of our machines, their processing power, their ability to learn and generate knowledge. In public debate, AI technologies are admired for their powers, and feared for their threats. Yet, we are increasingly confronted with the fact that these machines make errors and mistakes, they are fallible and inaccurate, and they are often culturally biased. From Generative AI technologies that ‘hallucinate’ and invent facts to predictive policing technologies that lead to wrongful arrests, our world is quickly coming to terms with the fact that the AI we are building is not only astonishing and incredibly powerful, but often unable to understand the complexity of our human experience and our cultural worlds. Research has shown that AI errors and their problematic outcomes can’t be considered as mere coding glitches, but as the direct expression of the structural inequalities of our societies and they confront us with critical questions about our supposed anthropocentric position as knowledge-creators.

The aim of this special issue is to gather scholars coming from different fields of the social sciences and humanities to investigate how artificial intelligence systems are challenging epistemological assumptions in various societal areas and how the failures of such systems are impacting on knowledge creation and diffusion in their areas of interest. Overall, the special issue aims at overcoming dominant and hyped takes and narratives around AI and its supposed (super)powers, and critically reflect on how we can identify and learn how to coexist with the limitations of AI driven knowledge production.

Possible topics include, but are not restricted to:

• Impacts of AI Errors and Failures: Exploring the ways in which AI failures, inaccuracies and errors in AI impact human understanding, decision-making, and interpersonal relationships.
  
• Cultural Limitations of AI Knowledge: Investigating how AI systems intersect with cultural norms, values, and belief systems, and assessing the limits to cultural diversity and inclusivity of these technologies.
  
• Fake News and DeepFakes: Generative AI, democracy, disinformation, and the public sphere
  
• Social Construction of AI Truth: Investigating how AI systems construct and perpetuate particular truths, shaping public perceptions and influencing social narratives.
  
• Bias and Discrimination in AI: Analyzing how inherent biases in training data, algorithms, and decision-making processes contribute to perpetuating social inequalities and reinforcing existing power structures.
  

Submission procedure

We invite interested scholars to submit an abstract (300 words, 3 to 5 keywords) by 24th of April, 2024 to editors@annalsfondazioneluigieinaudi.it, veronica.barassi@unisg.ch; philip.disalvo@unisg.ch.

The issue’s editors will review the abstracts and send notifications of acceptance or rejection by the 8th of June, 2024.

The special issue will include up to 8 contributions among those received through the call for papers. Final papers (about 8000 words) will be due on 8th of December 2024. Please note that acceptance of abstracts does not necessarily imply acceptance of the paper for the special issue. For further information (including the aim and scope of the Journal), please refer to the Journal’s website.