December 2017 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

Polymedia
by Traci Belanger 11 Jul '25

11 Jul '25

Hi everyone, does anyone have suggestions for articles on "polymedia" or specifically how polymedia interacts with media ecology? Thanks so much! Traci Belanger --- May all winds at your back inspire you, and may you have harmony and peace today.

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For my US colleagues: an 8 minute survey, where your input might make a difference
by Patricia Aufderheide 08 May '25

08 May '25

I know, exactly what you don't need to do at this crazy point in the semester. At AU, Profs. Aram Sinnreich, Joseph Graf and I have been working with Electronic Frontier Foundation and New Media Rights to design a survey about DMCA exemption language and its accessibility. Would you be interested in taking, sharing with your students and networks, including putting on social media the survey link <http://bit.ly/2nEfY8j>? Here it is again: *http://bit.ly/2nEfY8j <http://bit.ly/2nEfY8j>* Your generosity much appreciated! 👏 -- Patricia Aufderheide, University Professor, School of Communication Founder, Center for Media & -- Patricia Aufderheide, University Professor, School of Communication Founder, Center for Media & Social Impact American University 4400 Massachusetts Av., NW American University, Washington, DC 20016-8017 McKinley Hall 323 @paufder @cmsimpact cmsimpact.org paufder(a)american.edu 202-885-2069 office <202-643-5356> 240-643-4805 mobile <202-643-5356> "The world we have received also belongs to those who follow us." --Pope Francis

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Non-software uses of GitHub
by Jim Herbsleb 16 Apr '25

16 Apr '25

I’m looking for GitHub repositories that are used for things other than software, especially where users are actively collaborating rather than just putting together static collections. So far, we have found a few books being written, some musical transcriptions being error-checked, and some policy documents maintained online. Does anyone know of any examples of these or other categories? Any pointers much appreciated. Happy to share what we find with anyone interested. Jim ---- Jim Herbsleb Carnegie Mellon University http://herbsleb.org/ Google Scholar profile: https://goo.gl/sv3p7l

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CFP: ACM RecSys'18: ACM Conference on Recommender Systems 2018
by Yong Zheng 08 Mar '18

08 Mar '18

*** Please forward to anyone who might be interested *** --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Call for Papers: ACM RecSys 2018 to be held in Vancouver, Canada, 2nd-7th October 2018 https://recsys.acm.org/recsys18/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Call for Papers: We are pleased to invite you to contribute to the Twelfth ACM Conference on Recommender Systems (RecSys 2018), the premier venue for research and applications of recommendation technologies. The upcoming RecSys conference will be held in Vancouver, Canada on October 3rd 2018. The conference will continue RecSys’ practice of connecting the research and practitioner communities to exchange ideas, frame problems, and share solutions. All accepted papers will be published by ACM. We construe recommender systems broadly, including applications ranging from e-commerce to social networking, and a wide variety of technologies ranging from collaborative filtering to knowledge-based reasoning or deep learning. We welcome new research on recommendation technologies coming from very diverse communities ranging from psychology to mathematics. In particular, we care as much about the underlying algorithms and systems as we care about the human and economic impact of these systems. Topics of interest for RecSys 2018 include (but are not limited to): - Conversational recommender systems - Novel machine learning approaches to recommendation algorithms - Evaluation metrics and studies - Explanations and evidence - Algorithm scalability, performance, and implementations - Innovative/New applications - Voice, VR, and other novel interaction paradigms - Case studies of real-world implementations - Preference elicitation - Privacy and Security - Economic models and consequences of recommender systems - Personalisation - Social recommenders - User modelling Authors will be asked to assign a selection of predefined custom tags to describe their paper in the submission system. Tags can be assigned to indicate algorithms, interfaces, automated or user-centric evaluations, for example. Reviewers will also report their expertise over these tags, and the information will be used in review assignments. PAPER SUBMISSION CATEGORIES LONG PAPERS should report on substantial contributions of lasting value. The maximum length is 8 pages (plus up to 1 page references). Each accepted long paper will be included in the conference proceedings and presented in a plenary session as part of the main conference program. Each accepted long paper will also be allocated a presentation slot in a poster session to encourage discussion and follow up between authors and attendees. We expect the review process to be highly selective: the acceptance rates for full papers in the past three years was slightly over 20%. SHORT PAPERS typically discuss exciting new work that is not yet mature enough for a long paper. In particular, novel but significant proposals will be considered for acceptance to this category despite not having gone through sufficient experimental validation or lacking strong theoretical foundation. Applications of recommender systems to novel areas are especially welcome. The maximum length is 4 pages (plus up to 1 page references). Each accepted short paper will be included in the conference proceedings and presented in a poster session. The poster presentation may include a system demonstration. Selected short papers will be invited as oral presentations. Note that rejected long paper submissions will not be considered as short papers. SIGCHI SUBMITTER AGREEMENT RecSys 2018 is a SIGCHI conference and making a submission to a SIGCHI conference is a serious matter. Submissions require time and effort by SIGCHI volunteers to organise and manage the reviewing process, and, if the submission is accepted, the publication and presentation process. Thus, anyone who submits to RecSys 2018 implicitly confirms the following statements: 1. I confirm that this submission is the work of myself and my co-authors. 2. I confirm that I or my co-authors hold copyright to the content, and have obtained appropriate permissions for any portions of the content that are copyrighted by others. 3. I confirm that any research reported in this submission involving human subjects has gone through the appropriate approval process at my institution. 4. I confirm that if this paper is accepted, I or one of my co-authors will attend the conference. Papers that are not presented at the conference by an author may be removed from the proceedings at the discretion of the program chairs. PAPER FORMAT AND SUBMISSION All submissions and reviews will be handled electronically. RecSys 2018 submissions should be prepared according to the standard double-column ACM SIG proceedings format. Additional information about formatting and style files is available online <http://www.acm.org/publications/article-templates/proceedings-template.html>. Papers must be submitted to PCS2 by 23:59, AoE (Anywhere on Earth) on May 7th, 2018. There will be no extensions to the submission deadline. The peer review process is double-blind (i.e. anonymised). This means that all submissions must not include information identifying the authors or their organisation. Specifically, do not include the authors’ names and affiliations, anonymise citations to your previous work and avoid providing any other information that would allow to identify the authors, such as acknowledgments and funding. Please take note that the official publication date is the date the proceedings are made available in the ACM Digital Library. This date may be up to two weeks prior to the first day of the conference. The official publication date affects the deadline for any patent filings related to published work. IMPORTANT DATES - Abstract submission deadline: April 30th, 2018 - Paper submission deadline: May 7th, 2018 - Author notification: July 9th, 2018 - Camera-ready version deadline: August 6th, 2018 Deadlines refer to 23:59 (11:59pm) in the AoE (Anywhere on Earth) time zone. PROGRAM CHAIRS - Xavier Amatriain, Curai, USA - John O’Donovan, UCSB, USA Publicity CHAIRS - Yong Zheng, Illinois Institute of Technology, USA - Humberto Corona, Zalando, Ireland

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CfP: "Rethinking AI Neural Networks, Biopolitics and the New Artificial Intelligence"
by Ramón Reichert 22 Feb '18

22 Feb '18

Dear AoIR/AoIR-Grad list members, enclosed please find the second call for proposals for: "Rethinking AI Neural Networks, Biopolitics and the New Artificial Intelligence" Digital Culture & Society Abstract submission: 01 September, 2017 Ramón Reichert, Mathias Fuchs (eds.) Rethinking AI Neural Networks, Biopolitics and the New Artificial Intelligence Ramón Reichert, Mathias Fuchs (eds.) The meaning of AI has undergone drastic changes during the last 60 years of AI discourse(s). What we talk about when saying “AI” is not what it meant in 1958, when John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky and their colleagues started using the term. Take game design as an example: When the Unreal game engine introduced "AI" in 1999, they were mainly talking about pathfinding. For Epic Megagames, the producers of Unreal, an AI was just a bot or monster whose pathfinding capabilities had been programmed in a few lines of code to escape an enemy. This is not "intelligence" in the Minskyan understanding of the word (and even less what Alan Turing had in mind when he designed the Turing test). There are also attempts to differentiate between AI, classical AI and "Computational Intelligence" (Al-Jobouri 2017). The latter is labelled CI and is used to describe processes such as player affective modelling, co-evolution, automatically generated procedural environments, etc. Artificial intelligence research has been commonly conceptualised as an attempt to reduce the complexity of human thinking. (cf. Varela 1988: 359-75) The idea was to map the human brain onto a machine for symbol manipulation – the computer. (Minsky 1952; Simon 1996; Hayles 1999) Already in the early days of what we now call “AI research” McCulloch and Pitts commented on human intelligence and proposed in 1943 that the networking of neurons could be used for pattern recognition purposes (McCulloch/Pitts 1943). Trying to implement cerebral processes on digital computers was the method of choice for the pioneers of artificial intelligence research. The “New AI” is no longer concerned with the needs to observe the congruencies or limitations of being compatible with the biological nature of human intelligence: “Old AI crucially depended on the functionalist assumption that intelligent systems, brains or computers, carry out some Turing-equivalent serial symbol processing, and that the symbols processed are a representation of the field of action of that system.” (Pickering 1993, 126) The ecological approach of the New AI has its greatest impact by showing how it is possible “to learn to recognize objects and events without having any formal representation of them stored within the system.” (ibid, 127) The New Artificial Intelligence movement has abandoned the cognitivist perspective and now instead relies on the premise that intelligent behaviour should be analysed using synthetically produced equipment and control architectures (cf. Munakata 2008). Kate Crawford (Microsoft Research) has recently warned against the impact that current AI research might have, in a noteworthy lecture titled: AI and the Rise of Fascism. Crawford analysed the risks and potential of AI research and asked for a critical approach in regard to new forms of data-driven governmentality: “Just as we are reaching a crucial inflection point in the deployment of AI into everyday life, we are seeing the rise of white nationalism and right-wing authoritarianism in Europe, the US and beyond. How do we protect our communities – and particularly already vulnerable and marginalized groups – from the potential uses of these systems for surveillance, harassment, detainment or deportation?” (Crawford 2017) Following Crawford’s critical assessment, this issue of the Digital Culture & Society journal deals with the impact of AI in knowledge areas such as computational technology, social sciences, philosophy, game studies and the humanities in general. Subdisciplines of traditional computer sciences, in particular Artificial Intelligence, Neuroinformatics, Evolutionary Computation, Robotics and Computer Vision once more gain attention. Biological information processing is firmly embedded in commercial applications like the intelligent personal Google Assistant, Facebook’s facial recognition algorithm, Deep Face, Amazon’s device Alexa or Apple’s software feature Siri (a speech interpretation and recognition interface) to mention just a few. In 2016 Google, Facebook, Amazon, IBM and Microsoft founded what they call a Partnership on AI. (Hern 2016) This indicates a move from academic research institutions to company research clusters. We are in this context interested in receiving contributions on the aspects of the history of institutional and private research in AI. We would like to invite articles that observe the history of the notion of “artificial intelligence” and articles that point out how specific academic and commercial fields (e.g. game design, aviation industry, transport industry etc.) interpret and use the notion of AI. Against this background, the special issue Rethinking AI will explore and reflect the hype of neuroinformatics in AI discourses and the potential and limits of critique in the age of computational intelligence. (Johnston 2008; Hayles 2014, 199-210) We are inviting contributions that deal with the history, theory and the aesthetics of contemporary neuroscience and the recent trends of artificial intelligence. (cf. Halpern 2014, 62ff) Digital societies increasingly depend on smart learning environments that are technologically inscribed. We ask for the role and value of open processes in learning environments and we welcome contributions that acknowledge the regime of production as promoted by recent developments in AI. We particularly welcome contributions that are historical and comparative or critically reflective about the biological impact on social processes, individual behaviour and technical infrastructure in a post-digital and post-human environment? What are the social, cultural and ethical issues, when artificial neuronal networks take hold in digital cultures? What is the impact on digital culture and society, when multi-agent systems are equipped with license to act? Submissions might cover the following topics or extend beyond that: A historical perspective of object/pattern recognition/identification/detection and AI Artificial intelligence recognition algorithms Computer vision Deep learning Device ecology Digital education governance Epistemology of learning in artificial neural networks Evolutionary computation Fuzzy systems and neural networks Games and virtual worlds Genetic algorithms Human enhancement and transhumanism Media archaeology Philosophical Posthumanism Philosophy of robotics Prognostics and predictive modelling Science history of neural nets and deep learning Socio-cultural Posthumanism Deadlines and contact information - Expressions of interest/Initial abstracts (max. 300 words) and short biographical note (max. 100 words) are due on: September 04, 2017. - Authors will be notified by September 10, 2017, whether they are invited to submit a full paper. - Full papers are due on: November 20, 2017. - Notifications to authors of referee decisions: January 15, 2018. - Final versions due: March 01, 2018. - Please send your abstract and short biographical note to Ramón Reichert ramon.reichert(a)univie.ac.at and Mathias Fuchs mathias.fuchs(a)leuphana.de. About the Journal: Digital Culture & Society seeks contributions that display a clear, inspiring engagement with media theory and/or methodological issues. Emphasising the relevance of new practices and technology appropriation for theory as well as methodology debates, the journal also encourages empirical investigations. For more info please visit: http://digicults.org/callforpapers/cfp-rethinking-ai/ For more information, see the official journal website: http://digicults.org/callforpapers/cfp-rethinking-ai/ With best wishes, Ramón -- Ramón Reichert tfm | Department for Theatre, Film and Media Studies Vienna University Althanstraße 14 1090 Vienna E-Mail: ramon.reichert(a)univie.ac.at Twitter: Ramón Reichert Skype: ramon_reichert NEW: CfP „Rethinking AI: Neural Networks, Biopolitics and the New Artificial Intelligence”. Spring Issue of Digital Culture & Society. Abstract deadline: July 10, 2017, http://digicults.org/callforpapers/cfp-rethinking-ai/ Co-Editor Journal Digital Culture & Society: http://www.transcript-verlag.de/zeitschriften/digital-culture-und-society/ Head of the post-graduate master’s course Data Studies at the Danube University Krems: http://www.donau-uni.ac.at/en/studium/data-studies/index.php European Project Researcher "Visual/video literacies", Erasmus+: http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/projects/eplus-project-details-… Lectrice Département des sciences de la communication et des médias Université de Fribourg, Suisse, http://www.unifr.ch/dcm/?page=accueil Lecturer in Contextual Studies School of Humanities and Social Sciences, St. Gallen, Switzerland http://www.unisg.ch/de/universitaet/schools/humanities+and+social+sciences Expert evaluator on behalf of the European Commission: https://erc.europa.eu/ Reviewer on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research: https://www.bmbf.de/ Current publications: http://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-2592-9/big-data http://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-3665-9/selfies-selbstthematisier… Residential Address: Feuerbachstraße 4/11 A-1020 Vienna Tel.: +43 699 171 88 401

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CfP EASST 2018 After Data Activism
by Katja Mayer 12 Feb '18

12 Feb '18

Dear all, please consider submitting a paper to our session E07 until midnight CET on February 14th, 2018. https://nomadit.co.uk/easst/easst2018/conferencesuite.php/panels/6257 Happy holidays! Katja, Guillén, Stefania After Data Activism: reactions to civil society's engagement with data Convenors * Guillén Torres (University of Amsterdam) * Katja Mayer (Technical University Munich) * Stefania Milan (University of Amsterdam) Short abstract This panel focuses on data practices that hinder rather than foster civil society's political engagement. We invite you to discuss how data governance, data science and social technologies are co-producing asymmetries of power. Long abstract By foregrounding the constitutive power of information to shape social reality (Braman, 2006), recent approaches to datafication have highlighted data's active role in configuring new ways of engaging politically with -while dissolving the barriers between- public policy, economy, science, nature and culture (Milan & van der Velden, 2016). Thus, the term data activism has been used to study practices in which data plays a crucial role in shaping civil society's agenda, in particular when taking action against governmental or corporate practices of injustice or misinformation. Today, various actors embrace the "data as new oil" metaphor and we even witness multiple forms of "open-washing" of politics and economies (e.g. transparency). Other actors however, have lately shown reluctance to support civic engagement with data, implementing strategies of information control at different scales: from the enactment of government-wide policies that make difficult access to data, to recurrent denials of information requests, passing by the wilful production of the opaqueness of Automated Decision Making or scoring systems. This panel focuses on how certain actors are taking advantage of information's capacity to shape social reality, with a special focus on data practices that resist rather than foster citizens' political engagement. We invite you to discuss how mechanisms of information control produce and sustain asymmetries of power, often in complicity with data science and social technologies. We further welcome contributions focused on experiences with data activism through the mobilisation of open data and public sector information, or dealing with the political aftermath of data-driven projects.

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New Publications - Jewish Gamevironments
by Zeiler, Xenia 30 Dec '17

30 Dec '17

Shortly before the year comes to an end, we are happy to announce the special issue on Jewish Gamevironments, edited by Owen Gottlieb! http://www.gamevironments.uni-bremen.de/current-papers-and-archive/ In this issue, #7 (2017), you will find articles, books and games reviews, a report about current activities in the field of gaming and religion in Asia, and an interview: Introduction: Jewish Gamevironments – Exploring Understanding with Playful Systems. Article by Owen Gottlieb, 1-4. Global Conflicts, Episodic Framing and Attitude Change Towards the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Article by Ronit Kampf, 5-41. Finding Lost & Found. Designer’s Notes from the Process of Creating a Jewish Game for Learning. Article by Owen Gottlieb, 42-65. The Shivah: Kosher Edition. A Review. Review by Steve Jacobs, 66-76. Defeat Mom using the Bible. The Controversial Debate in The Binding of Isaac. Review by Isabell Gloria Brendel, 77-86. Video Games Around the World. A Review. Review by Xenia Zeiler, 87-93. Interview with Joonas Laakso, Executive Producer at Next Games Oy, Finland. Interview by gamevironments, 94-101. Video Game Development in Asia. A Research Project on Cultural Heritage and National Identity. Report by Gregory Grieve, Christopher Helland, Kerstin Radde-Antweiler and Xenia Zeiler, 102-115. Enjoy:) Kerstin Radde-Antweiler and Xenia Zeiler (editors-in-chief) -- Prof. Dr. Xenia Zeiler Tenure-Track Professor, South Asian Studies P.O. Box 59 (Unioninkatu 38B) 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland +358 50 4482713 http://tuhat.halvi.helsinki.fi/portal/en/person/zeiler

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CPF - OBS* Special issue on The co-option of audience creativity on digital platforms
by Inês Amaral 27 Dec '17

27 Dec '17

[With apologies for cross posting] *Call for papers - OBS* Special issue on *The co-option of audience creativity on digital platforms *Guest Editors: *Ana Jorge (CECC-UCP), Inês Amaral (CECS/ISMT), David Mathieu (Roskilde University/ECREA Audiences and Reception Studies Section Chair) Submission deadline: 30th March 2018 Through its 3-year of activity, the Consortium on Emerging Directions in Audience Research (CEDAR), a network funded by the AHRC in the UK <https://cedarahrc.com/>, has observed that the co-option of audiences by large, global players is becoming more intricate than previously. While a number of factors account for this development, the co-option of audiences is increasingly made possible by the appropriation of technology in the development of digital media platforms. These media are able to turn audience’s work and engagement into commodities for attracting attention, metrics to be sold to advertisers and business models (Andrejevic, 2009; van Dijck, 2013; Hearn & Schoenhoff, 2016). While user-generated content such as blogging or vlogging is a clear sign of audience agency, there is an increased tendency for that work to be co-opted by private and public media, hence leading to new forms of power imbalance between media and audiences. The co-option of audiences refers generally to the appropriation of audience labour, their ideas or the content of their productions, for one’s own purposes, be it by media and other organisations. But it also involves the process of gaining the audience’s agreement and consent in contributing to the objectives of the organisation and the establishing of new forms of relationship between audiences and platforms. On the other hand, audiences sometimes appreciate the recognition of their production by more established media or producers, such as fan communities. Hence, there is an important dialectic dimension in which co-option is negotiated, in which conflicts and tensions arise, and in which norms, rules and roles are redefined (Stehling *et al.*, forthcoming). This topic has been discussed by political economy of communication and in particular of the web 2.0, focusing on the exploitation of audiences’ work as free labour (Andrejevic, 2009; Wasko, Murdock & Sousa, 2014; Fuchs & Sevignani, 2013), and by cultural studies through the notion of participation (Jenkins, 2006; Jenkins & Carpentier, 2013). However, Vesnić -Alujević and Murru (2016) claim the urgency of finding bridges between those perspectives. *This special issue wishes to investigate the dialectic nature of co-option of audience creativity in blogging and vlogging platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram etc. Can the commodification of audience creativity and the emancipation it creates live side by side within the same model? When a YouTuber advertises a product, is the content different and does it entail different forms of communication to and from the audiences? How do popular and professional or semi-professional Youtubers, Instagrammers, etc negotiate the boundaries of their work and retain their integrity and authenticity?* We invite contributions to answer these and other related questions by paying attention, amongst others, to: - the processes of produsage and co-creation of media content by the audiences within new practices of co-option by different kinds of power; - the commercialisation of “micro-celebrities”/“social media influencers” (in digital platforms as YouTube, blogs, Instagram and Facebook); - the use of algorithms and its impact on audience creativity; - the strategies deployed to encourage and orient (or block and prevent) the production of content that (dis)serves the interests of non-audience actors (owners, administrators, advertisers, etc.); - the processes and mechanisms of translation, such as datafication, metrification, by which audience creativity is co-opted; - the formation and negotiation of new business models throughout the co-option of audience labour; - the complex landscape of cross-interests and mutual influences between content users and producers; - the redefinition and negotiation of audience’s roles and relations with other actors. For questions, please contact Special Issue Guest Editor Ana Jorge: anajorge(a)fch.lisboa.ucp.pt Submissions should follow the manuscript format guidelines for OBS* at http://obs.obercom.pt/index.php/obs/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions. All manuscripts should be submitted to anajorge(a)fch.lisboa.ucp.pt , until March 30th 2018. Manuscripts will go through a peer review process, and the Special Issue is planned to appear in the last issue of OBS* 2018 (Sept-Dec). *Inês Amaral*---------------- Professora Auxiliar *ISMT* <http://www.ismt.pt> | Investigadora *CECS* <http://www.cecs.uminho.pt/> - UMinho Assistant Professor *ISMT* <http://www.ismt.pt/> | Researcher *CECS* <http://www.cecs.uminho.pt/> - UMinho *website <http://ciberesfera.com> | degóis.pt <http://www.degois.pt/visualizador/curriculum.jsp?key=2537238587233433> | researchgate <https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ines_Amaral2>*

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Please help my 87-year-old grandmother
by Yosem Companys 26 Dec '17

26 Dec '17

Dear Friends, I hope you're having a wonderful holiday season with your friends and family, and I wish you a Happy New Year. My 87-year-old grandmother collapsed on Christmas Day and was hospitalized. After all that she has been through this year in Puerto Rico with Hurricane Maria, I'm trying to help her. Could you please make a donation, no matter how small? https://www.youcaring.com/theresapedreira-1052331 I truly appreciate your generosity. Thanks, Yosem

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Call for Papers - Big Data Section, ECPR General Conference 2018 - Hamburg (22-25 Aug 2018)
by Elena Pavan 22 Dec '17

22 Dec '17

*** Apologies for cross-posting*** In occasion of the next ECPR General Conference (22-25 August 2018, Hamburg) we invite papers for any of the panels in the section "Political Sciences and the Big Data Challenge From Big Data in Politics to the Politics of Big Data". More detailed info on panels and the overall section can be found below. Please submit paper proposals to elena.pavan(a)sns.it <mailto:elena.pavan@sns.it> and alice.mattoni(a)sns.it <mailto:alice.mattoni@sns.it> by *January, 30^th 2018* including the following info: - papers titles, abstracts (no more than 500 words) and 3 keywords - institutional affiliation - institutional email address We will then arrange the selected papers in panels and submit them to the ECPR via their electronic platform. Please note that paper authors must be registered in the ECPR electronic platform with the email address they will include in the paper proposals. All the best Alice Mattoni and Elena Pavan *** *CALL**FOR PAPERS* *ECPR General Conference – 22-25 August 2018, Hamburg* ** *Section title: Political Sciences and the Big Data Challenge From Big Data in Politics to the Politics of Big Data* *Section organizers* Chair: Elena Pavan, Scuola Normale Superiore Co-chair: Alice Mattoni, Scuola Normale Superiore *Section outline and themes* In continuity with the successful set of Panels organized during the 2017 ECPR General Conference in Oslo, the Section aims to offer a space within the ECPR context to critically discuss the nexus between Big Data and political science. It will do so by promoting a theoretically informed and empirically sound discussion along three lines of reflection. First, the Section will deal with the potentialities and the limitations of using large-scale datasets and supervised and unsupervised analytic techniques for leveraging our understanding of political dynamics from party dynamics, to political communications, to social movements and digital activism. Second, by considering Big Data as a complex set of cultural, political and scientific knowledge practices, the Section will offer an occasion to engage with the modes in which Big Data become a “political object” that is critically addressed by contentious grassroots efforts but also dealt within more conventional governance processes. Finally, the Section confronts the outcomes of Big Data usages in the political realm oscillating between enhanced accountability on the side of institutions and the reduction of citizens and their will to objectified data-assemblages that are mechanically treated rather than constructively accounted for. The Section comprises a set of Panels that aim to foster the convergence of scholars and researchers currently working on the value of Big Data for studying politics but also on the forms and the impacts of the politics of Big Data employing different theoretical, empirical and methodological approaches on Big Data. *1. Big data for the study of political participation *Chair: Alexandra Segerberg This Panel looks at how Big Data and related methodological and analytical practices can leverage our understanding of political mobilization and participation – from social movements to voting behaviours. While more traditional forms of collective action still exist, activists lean increasingly on web-based platforms and internet services that produce Big Data flows worldwide. Moreover, Big Data are increasingly considered a fundamental component of electoral campaigns, governmental and legislative dynamics as well as of the interactions between political leaders with their constituencies. To shed light on this complex context, the Panel hosts Papers that investigate to what extent Big Data are changing the way in which conventional and unconventional forms of political participation can be investigated from a broad array of methodological lenses, in different national contexts, transnationally or fluidly across the online/offline boundary. *2. From data-activism to data justice. The contentious politics of Big Data *Chair: Stefania Milan Big Data are not a neutral field of practice and knowledge. When engaging with Big Data, political actors develop specific arrays of data-related practices that construct, manipulate, and even subvert their political relevance. In so doing, the same political actors evoke specific, and sometimes contrasting, understanding of what datafication processes means in and for politics, both today and in the near future. Thus, Big Data become an object of political contestation that fosters the emergence of new collective actors and, at the same time, intersects longer-term mobilizations in other fields - e.g. labour, women and environmental issues. To grasp the multiple lines of contention that characterize Big Data in grassroots politics, the Panel hosts Papers that investigate the relationship between Big Data cultures and practices in different arenas of contention from an empirical perspective in different national and transnational contexts relying on qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods approaches. *3. Big data Governance and Policies *Chair: Lina Dencik Data increasingly regulate our lives. We are assessed, ranked, profiled and categorized according to data that is collected about us. These assessments enable - or limit - our access to services and our ability to cross borders; they define us as potential 'risk'; and they affect core aspects of citizenship. New publics are created and receive differential treatment based on data analysis. While data regulate society, the regulation of data is becoming a pressing concern. Policies are required for data collection, sharing and analysis, and struggles over policy development have picked up, not least, since the Snowden revelations. Against this backdrop, this Panel invites Paper addressing the role of big data as both tools for and objects of governance processes at different levels - from the national to the supranational ones. *4. The outcomes of big data in politics: from the accountability of institutions to the invisibility of the citizens *Chair: Alice Mattoni In the past few years, a wide array of online services and platforms that rest on Big Data became available that promised to render citizens’ voices more visible within governmental institutions through the enhancement of different mechanisms: from citizens’ monitoring capabilities aimed at increasing accountability to participatory policy making including citizens’ viewpoints. In this respect, while Big Data might offer empowering opportunities, it is also likely that governmental institutions would ignore, silence or even reduce to objectified data-assemblages grassroots creative usages of Big Data. To cast light on the outcomes of Big Data usages at the crossroads between governmental institutions and grassroots citizens initiatives, the Panel hosts Papers that empirically address how Big Data might (or not) increase the accountability and transparency of political institutions at the local, national and transnational levels. *How to submit a paper* Please submit paper proposals to elena.pavan(a)sns.it <mailto:elena.pavan@sns.it> and alice.mattoni(a)sns.it <mailto:alice.mattoni@sns.it> by *January 30^th, 2018* including the following info: - papers titles, abstracts (no more than 500 words), and 3-8 keywords - institutional affiliation - institutional email address We will then arrange the selected papers in panels and submit them to the ECPR via their electronic platform. Please note that *paper authors must be registered in the ECPR electronic platform with the email address they will include in the paper proposals*. -- Elena Pavan, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Istituto di Scienze Umane e Sociali Scuola Normale Superiore Palazzo Strozzi - Piazza degli Strozzi, 1 50123 Firenze email: elena.pavan(a)sns.it telephone: +39 055 2673330 Adjunct Professor Dipartimento Sociologia e Ricerca Sociale Università di Trento via Verdi 26 38122 Trento email: elena.pavan(a)unitn.it telephone: +39 (0)461 28 1378 --- Questa e-mail è stata controllata per individuare virus con Avast antivirus. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

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