April 2020 - 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: Gamevironments Regular Issue - Deadline 1. Feb 2020
by Lisa Kienzl 25 Feb '21

25 Feb '21

Dear Colleagues, below you find the Call for Papers for the online journal GAMEVIRONMENTS (Regular Issue) -- due Feb. 1 2020. We are looking forward to your contributions! Best, Lisa ---------------------------------------------------- Call for Papers: journal GAMEVIRONMENTS Regular Issue 2020 ================ To further explore the multilayered socio-cultural and political contexts of video games and gaming, the international peer-reviewed journal GAMEVIRONMENTS is calling for submissions for its Regular Issue 2020. https://www.gamevironments.uni-bremen.de/ DEADLINES The journal follows a fixed timeline for the Regular Issue each year: 01.02. Full Chapter Submission 15.03. Review Results Returned 01.05. Revised Chapter Submission summer Online-Publication GAMEVIRONMENTS seeks to explore both established approaches and new frontiers of researching video games/gaming as related to religion, culture, and society. The journal encourages inter- and multidisciplinary works combining for example Cultural Studies, History, Religious studies, Theology, Ludology, and Psychology. All submitted articles will be reviewed on a double-blind peer-review basis. PAPER TYPES We include different categories of texts in the journal: a) regular academic articles Normally, articles should be between 5.000 words and 10.000 words in length. In general, a clear structure is of course helpful to understand your argumentation (introduction, discussing the relevance of your idea, theoretical frame, used method(s), case study and amount of new knowledge). b) interviews Next to academic articles we are interested in projects related to games, gamers, gaming and religion, culture, and society. For instance, if you have an interview with a game designer, a pedagogue working with games, etc., please feel free to share it in our journal! c) research reports Sometimes you may just want to give an impression of your current research, an introduction to a new project, or just have a longing for acclamation of about the 5% of successful third part funding that we get for this "weird stuff" – please feel free to do so :) In general, such research reports should be short descriptions between 3000 and 5000 words in length. They are not peer-reviewed, but we as journal editors will give some revisions if necessary. d) book reviews There was a flow in publications concerned with games and religion/culture in the last years, so it could be interesting to introduce and discuss some of them. If you are reading a new book which you think can be helpful for other researchers, feel free to propose a review. Reviews should be around 1000 words. Please note that in most cases, the journal will not be able to provide a free copy for reviews, but will try to source a free copy for you. e) game reviews Due to the fact that we are a games journal that wants to collect, systematize and further develop the various recent multidisciplinary approaches in the research area, we need to know our way around in our field, namely GAMES! So if you are playing a game which you think can be an interesting and promising object of investigation, please send us proposals for a game review. Reviews should be around 1000 words. Please note that in most cases, the journal will not be able to provide a free copy for reviews. Video games are full of images, so it would be a good idea to include some of them, illustrating your argumentation. But, for any image, you need to hold the copyright. Please ensure that! Before publishing with the journal, you need to sign a copyright declaration which we provide. Please send all images as .jpg file(s) to us due to formatting issues. Besides your contribution and images, we need keywords (up to 10), an abstract of up to 200 words, and a brief biographical paragraph (100 to 150 words) with your current institutional address and email address. Please consult the gamevironments submission style sheet before submitting your paper, as well as the Help Desk for some general principles. There is no article processing charge. If you are ready, please send your contribution as an RTF file to the managing editor: kienzl(a)uni-bremen.de. https://www.gamevironments.uni-bremen.de/ -- Dr.Dr. Lisa Kienzl, MA wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin | postdoctoral researcher Arbeitsgebiet Literaturen und Medien der Religionen | Literature and Media of Religions Universität Bremen | University of Bremen Institut für Religionswissenschaft und Religionspädagogik | Institute of Religious Studies and Religious Education Sportturm (SpT) Postfach 330 440 D-28359 Bremen T. +49 (0)421 218 67912 https://www.gamevironments.uni-bremen.de/

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Gamevironments: Special Issue on "National(ism), Identity and Video Gaming" out now
by Lisa Kienzl 30 Dec '20

30 Dec '20

Dear Colleagues, we are really happy to share with you today news of GAMEVIRONMENTS newest Special Issue on "National(ism), Identity and Video Gaming" edited by Lisa Kienzl and Kathrin Trattner with contributions from: * "Glory to Trumpland! Critically Playing Border Games" by Melissa Kagen * Round Table Discussion on Nation(alism), Identity and Video Gaming with Megan Condis, Marijam Didžgalvytė, Georg Hobmeier and Souvik Mukherjee * "Playing America. An Introduction to American Culture through Video Games" by Michael Fuchs and Stefan Rabitsch * "Research Report on Curse the Fiends, Their Children, Too: Cultural Heritage and Subversion of Fictional Tropes in Bloodborne" by Sarah Zaidan, Richard Pilbeam and Elin Carstensdottir * Interview with Mira Wardhaningsih from StoryTale Studios on the Indonesian Horror Game "Pamali" * Interview with Déyfou-lah Sani Bah-Traore on the Togolese Game "Origin – the Rise of Dzitri" * "We. The Revolution, a Review. Vive la Révolution or Death and All His Friends" by Kevin Recher * "Kingdom Come: Deliverance. A Bohemian Forest Simulator" by Eugen Pfister You find all further information here: https://www.gamevironments.uni-bremen.de/completed-quests/. Best wishes, Lisa Kienzl managing editor gamevironments -- Dr.Dr. Lisa Kienzl, MA wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin | postdoctoral researcher Arbeitsgebiet Literaturen und Medien der Religionen | Literature and Media of Religions Universität Bremen | University of Bremen Institut für Religionswissenschaft und Religionspädagogik | Institute of Religious Studies and Religious Education Sportturm (SpT) Postfach 330 440 D-28359 Bremen T. +49 (0)421 218 67912 https://www.gamevironments.uni-bremen.de/

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senior and postdoc fellowships in global internet governance
by Jan Aart Scholte 01 Jun '20

01 Jun '20

Call for Research Fellowship Applications 2021/2022 (Global Internet Governance) Postdoctoral and Senior Researchers The Käte Hamburger Kolleg/Centre for Global Cooperation Research (KHK/GCR21) invites applications for Research Fellowships with duration of 12 months starting between February and September 2021. Proposals are especially welcome regarding: (1) critique, justification and legitimacy in global cooperation; and (2) global cooperation and competing conceptions of world order. The fully funded fellowships are available to both senior and postdoctoral researchers across the humanities and social sciences. Prioritized global policy fields include climate, Internet, migration, peacebuilding. Deadline for applications is 1st June 2020. We are aware that this call comes at a time of high uncertainty around COVID-19. We are monitoring closely the evolving situation and hope that circumstances will allow the advertised fellowships to start as planned from February 2021 onwards. We therefore urge you to apply if you are interested but still uncertain about the practicability of the fellowship! The KHK/GCR21 The Centre for Global Cooperation Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen is one of ten Käte Hamburger Kollegs sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Established in 2012, the Centre is an interdisciplinary and international learning community that seeks to enhance understanding of the possibilities and limits of global cooperation and to explore new options for global public policy. The working language at the Centre is English. In its second funding period (2018-2023), the Centre’s research and fellowships are organized around four broad themes: pathways and mechanisms of global cooperation; global cooperation and polycentric governance; critique, justification and legitimacy in global cooperation; and global cooperation and competing conceptions of world order. Empirical research on these themes focuses especially on the governance of climate change, the internet, migration, and peacebuilding. The Centre will issue thematic calls for application on an annual basis. Fellowships 2021-2022 For next year we invite fellowship applications from across the humanities and social sciences (including also psychology, law and economics) in relation to the second two main themes, as detailed below. We particularly encourage female researchers and scholars from the Global South to apply. Applications from scholars at risk are welcome. Benefits to Fellows * An intellectually stimulating and vibrant interdisciplinary learning community * Excellent infrastructure with fully equipped offices, library facilities, and administrative support (also with finding accommodation) * Funds to organize workshops (subject to approval, with preference especially to workshops that emerge from an interdisciplinary exchange with other researchers at the Centre) * Either a monthly stipend commensurate with experience or financing of a teaching replacement at the home institution Expectations from Fellows * A completed PhD * Personal research and publication in the Centre’s thematic areas * A contribution to the Centre’s own publications * Regular active participation in seminars and other Centre events * Collaboration with other fellows in interdisciplinary exchange * Work in residence at the Centre in Duisburg, Germany Themes 2021-2022 The Centre’s work in the period of 2021-2022 will focus on the themes ‘Critique, Justification and Legitimacy in Global Cooperation’ and ‘Global Cooperation and Competing Conceptions of World Order’, as described further below. We especially invite fellowship applications that address these themes. In addition, preference will be given to applications with an empirical focus on the governance of climate change, the internet, migration, and peacebuilding. How to Apply Applications (in English only) should include: * cover letter * concise research proposal (3-5 pages) * CV * list of publications * text of one relevant publication Please submit applications at http://www.gcr21.org/en/fellows/how-to-become-a-fellow/fellowships/. Deadline for receipt of applications is 1st June 2020. Please indicate in the cover letter your preferred start and end date of the fellowship. If you have any questions, please contact Matthias Schuler at <schuler(a)gcr21.uni-due.de>. Critique, Justification and Legitimacy in Global Cooperation Legitimacy – and its contestation – is a vital question for global cooperation. Legitimacy refers to the belief and perception that a governing force has rightful authority and exercises it appropriately. Legitimacy can be both normative (i.e. determined by moral judgement) and sociological (i.e. observed in political behaviour). Scholarship from various disciplines has usually examined legitimacy in relation to the state, but more recent scholarship understands legitimacy as a fragile, politicized, and contested phenomenon that involves a wider range of political forces, including multilateral institutions, private global governance, and transnational social movements. This processual notion of legitimacy – the interplay between critique and justification – leads to many conceptual, theoretical, and methodological challenges. It implies considering politicization processes and power relations across scales (at local, national and transnational levels), a broad spectrum of political actors in their complex relationships, and new forms of resistance against formal authorities (e.g. by whistleblowers, young climate activists, right-wing networks). Sites of resistance include – but are not limited to – civil society associations, social movements, and everyday practices of ordinary citizens. De-legitimation can come from ‘left-wing’ and ‘right-wing’ angles, from communitarians as well as cosmopolitans. If legitimacy is also created by civil society actors, new protest movements, and ‘ordinary citizens’, research questions emerge on how to conceptualize and study contested ‘legitimation work’ (Raymond Geuss) around multiple sites of global cooperation. We welcome projects that help us gain a better understanding of global cooperation and ‘politics of (de)legitimation’. Proposals are welcomed across a range of issue-areas, especially – though not limited to – climate change, Internet, migration, and peacebuilding. Questions for this research stream may include, though are not limited to:  Who are the protagonists who cooperate in legitimation and de-legitimation (or resistance) struggles (e.g. civil society organizations, social movements, indigenous groups)? How and why do these struggles emerge and develop? How does the global rise of populism play into such practices of cooperation?  What forms of trans-scalar cooperation can we distinguish in politics of (de-)legitimation (e.g. shared textual and visual narratives, performances, academic schools of thought)? For example, do young climate activists cooperate differently than right-wing networks?  How can we best study new protagonists and complex new forms of resistance against formal authorities, for instance as exercised/practiced by whistleblowers, feminist activists, artists, sportspeople and critical comedians?  How do certain concerns gain legitimacy as a “global” problem in need of “cooperation” (e.g. peace, climate change)? Global Cooperation and Competing Conceptions of World Order The broad question concerning competing conceptions of world order is a very traditional issue of global politics, which has operated on the basis of both systemic assumptions and more actor-focused concepts. Yet, under current polycentric conditions, these issues have taken many different forms and can be studied from a variety of perspectives, particularly with regard to their impact on global cooperation. Research projects in this stream are invited to explore the commonalities and differences between various conceptions of world order, as well as relationships between them in practices of global cooperation and non-cooperation. We welcome projects that help us to gain a better understanding of how different and often contested conceptions of world order shape, change or obstruct global cooperation. This includes abstract considerations about epistemological and anthropological foundations of world-order conceptions, as well as a focus on material conditions and repercussions. Also welcome are proposals that deepen understanding of populism and anti-global protest, the fight for global equality or the self-legitimation of organizations. Themes we are particularly interested in for the coming fellowship period include: How can we understand geopolitics (i.e. the strategic struggle for spheres of influence), beyond its form as classic theme of international politics? Can it result in new constellations of global cooperation? Or will we see a return of interstate conflict that seemed to have become obsolete? We invite research on perceptions, narratives and discourses to explore grand geopolitical/economic schemes in their conception in different regions or circles and also address new conflicting/cooperative areas. Can conceptions of world order based on the unity of humankind be imagined without relying on essentialist and simplifying anthropologies; and what are the implications of such ‘new cosmopolitanisms’ for global cooperation? What can be expected of approaches which substitute the focus on human rationality with the emphasis on other human capacities, such as empathy or awareness of common vulnerability? What is the role of different conceptions of time and historical directionality? How have conflicts between largely irreconcilable conceptions of world orders (and political agendas) impacted on global cooperation? For instance, while economic growth is seen as instrumental for improving the lives of people particularly in the Global South, a contrary position would hold that sustainable human life is only possible under conditions of reduced growth and consumption, respect for nature, clean energies etc. Can such guiding principles or even ideologies also pave the way for new ways in global cooperation, such as new alliances and forms or will these competing views generate future conflicts?

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Participations: Latest issue out now!
by Judith Rosenbaum-Andre 22 May '20

22 May '20

Participations: Journal of Audience and Reception Studies has just released its latest issue! This open-access journal features three special sections. The first is aimed at understanding readers, reading, and digital media, the second looks at interviews as a research method, and the third section features nine essays from the University of Wales at Aberystwyth conference on "Researching past cinema audiences: Archives, Memories and Methods". With an editorial introduction by Martin Barker and a series of articles that provide innovative theoretical, methodological, as well as empirical insights, including the audience reception of professional wrestling stars, the circulation of film and cultural capital, and the understanding of resistance as observed in online discussions, this issue is packed with relevant and contemporary insight into audience research in 2019. The issue can be found here: http://www.participations.org/Volume%2016/Issue%201/contents.htm -- Judith E. Rosenbaum, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Communication and Journalism University of Maine 414 Dunn Hall Orono, ME 04469 www.juditherosenbaum.com/ @JudithRBaum

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[CANCELLED] LSE Digital Ethnography Collective AoIR Satellite Event
by Glatt,ZA (pgr) 04 May '20

04 May '20

Hello all, It is with sadness that the LSE Digital Ethnography Collective announces the cancellation of our symposium 'Looking forward, looking back: Digital ethnography in 2020', due to take place on 26th October 2020. As the AoIR annual conference is now a virtual event, and this symposium was designed specifically as an AoIR satellite event, it does not make sense to hold this symposium in person. We have also decided not to turn this into a virtual event, as the main AoIR conference will now be spread over a period of two weeks and we felt it would be too much to add this as well. We wanted to announce this ASAP ahead of the submission deadline of 29th May so that people do not waste their time writing abstracts. We are very sorry that this event will not be going ahead, as we were really looking forward to it. But in this time of uncertainty it makes little sense to be organising IRL events. We hope that in the future when the dust has settled we will be able to hold this symposium. Wishing you all the best, Zoë ________________________ Zoë Glatt www.zoeglatt.com <http://www.zoeglatt.com/> ESRC PhD Researcher in Media & Communications London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) Managing Editor: Communication, Culture & Critique Co-Founder: LSE Digital Ethnography Collective @DigEthnogLSE <https://twitter.com/DigEthnogLSE> Graduate Student Rep: Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) Associate Lecturer in Media & Communications (2019/20): Goldsmiths University YouTube channel <https://www.youtube.com/user/Zedstergal> | Twitter <https://twitter.com/ZoeGlatt> | LSE bio <http://www.lse.ac.uk/media-and-communications/people/phd-researchers/zoe-gl…> On 02/03/2020, 12:50, "Air-L on behalf of Glatt,ZA (pgr)" <air-l-bounces(a)listserv.aoir.org on behalf of Z.A.Glatt(a)lse.ac.uk> wrote: Hello AoIRists, I hope you all met yesterday’s deadline without too much blood, sweat and tears. Now that it has passed, I am delighted to share with you the below call for papers for the LSE Digital Ethnography Collective’s one-day AoIR satellite event in London! As the Graduate Student Representative for AoIR, I’m really happy to be able to bring together these two groups, and I strongly encourage early careers researchers to submit as well as more senior researchers. We hope that we will get to meet lots of you who have only been able to participate so far via the livestream, as you'll be travelling to this part of the world for AoIR. When: Monday 26th October (3 days before AoIR) Where: London School of Economics (LSE) Submission deadline: Friday 29th May *** Digital ethnography is by no means a new methodology. In the 1990s researchers begun grappling with issues regarding the cultural impacts of the Internet and how to go about conducting ethnographic research in/on ‘virtual’ spaces. Since then, we have seen significant technological and cultural shifts, most notably the fact that in 2020 smartphones are commonplace and social media platforms have become a ubiquitous part of everyday life in many parts of the world. Whilst holding on to the valuable insights of earlier research, digital ethnographers are required to remain methodologically agile in order to keep up with rapidly changing socio-technological contexts. This one-day symposium hosted by the LSE Digital Ethnography Collective invites participants to discuss the state of digital ethnographic research in 2020, by both reaching back into its rich history and thinking about future directions. We are inviting submissions spanning from ‘finished product’ empirical work to presentations addressing common concerns in the practise of carrying out digital ethnographic research (methods, ethics, self-reflexivity etc.) in the hopes that the day will generate both interesting and useful conversations amongst attendees. The LSE Digital Ethnography Collective is an interdisciplinary group exploring the intersections of digital culture and ethnographic methods, with the aim to establish a global community of scholars of digital ethnography and to work through challenges in this growing subdiscipline. Researchers passionate about digital ethnography are dispersed around the globe, and whilst we foster international collaboration via our livestreams and mailing list, it’s always a pleasure to get together IRL! With this in mind, we are hosting this symposium at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) on Monday 26th October 2020. There is a sizeable overlap of membership between the LSE Digital Ethnography Collective and the Association of Internet Researchers and so we have arranged this as a ‘satellite event’ to the AoIR Annual Conference in the hopes that AoIR attendees interested in attending will be able to stop over in London before heading on the main conference in Dublin. The symposium welcomes digital ethnographers at all levels from PhD upwards to submit proposals for 20-minute presentations relating to any of the following areas (this is a non-exhaustive list): * bridging the old and the new: innovative but historically-grounded approaches to digital ethnographic methodologies * digital culture and everyday life * empirical work relating to the Internet/platforms/social media/gaming cultures * digital transformations in work and labour – the gig economy, creative industries, datafication, algorithms etc. * critical intersectional feminist ethnography in digital contexts * approaches from the Global South that challenge Western-centric digital ethnographic research * self-reflexive accounts of challenges and opportunities in digital ethnographic research * inside/outside: entering and exiting the digital ‘field’, navigating or moving beyond the online/offline binary, accessing private online spaces, local/global and the role of geography in digital ethnography, etc. * conducting ethical digital ethnographic research Please send proposals of 300 words (word document or PDF) to Media.DigEthnog(a)lse.ac.uk<mailto:Media.DigEthnog@lse.ac.uk> by 29th May 2020. This deadline is designed to be after the notification of acceptances for presenters to AoIR, so that applicants will be certain that they are going to Dublin beforehand. Selected participants will be notified by 1st June 2020 so that they will have plenty of time to make travel and accommodation arrangements. Please note that, while the symposium is free to attend, we cannot provide funding for travel or accommodation. All the best, Zoë and Branwen LSE Digital Ethnography Collective useful links: CfP also here: https://zoeglatt.com/?page_id=598 Twitter: https://twitter.com/DigEthnogLSE Mailing List: https://tinyurl.com/y5a6odte Livestreams: http://tinyurl.com/w252kvq Digital Ethnography Reading List: http://tinyurl.com/ubczhsq ________________________ Zoë Glatt www.zoeglatt.com<http://www.zoeglatt.com/> ESRC PhD Researcher in Media & Communications London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) Managing Editor: Communication, Culture & Critique Co-Founder: LSE Digital Ethnography Collective @DigEthnogLSE<https://twitter.com/DigEthnogLSE> Graduate Student Rep: Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) Associate Lecturer in Media & Communications (2019/20): Goldsmiths University YouTube channel<https://www.youtube.com/user/Zedstergal> | Twitter<https://twitter.com/ZoeGlatt> | LSE bio<http://www.lse.ac.uk/media-and-communications/people/phd-researchers/zoe-gl…> _______________________________________________ The Air-L(a)listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/

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CFP for autoethnographic accounts of macro/micro of lived experience in times of global trauma
by Annette Markham 04 May '20

04 May '20

Hello, AoIRists, In these times, how are we making sense of the Self, the Other, and the World? How might we use this moment to reflect on the relation between massive and microscopic ways of knowing? Anne Harris and I are launching a short turnaround project in association with the journal of Qualitative Inquiry. I think some of you might be interested in participating, so please see the blurb below, with link to longer version of the CFP. Deadline is necessarily short for submission of 300 word expression of interest or abstract of your idea: May 5, 2020 Greetings from indoors, Annette Markham, also on behalf of Anne Harris *-*-*- // with the usual apologies for crossposting // *-*-*- "Massive and microscopic sense-making in the time of COVID" How does this pandemic moment help us to think about the relationships between self and other, human and nonhuman, humans, machines, and the planet? We invite participants into an experimental and collaborative process of using autoethnographic methods to consider how these relationships are characterized, understood, and being enacted during this pandemic, by paying attention to dynamics of scale— how the microscopic materializes, how to consider part as whole, or whole as granular, or how the massive/global collides or interweaves with the microscopic/granular as we make sense. Participant-author-makers will propose to be a part of the process by submitting a 300 word abstract with an idea (Due May 5, 2020). We will then workshop our ideas through a series of provocations and mini-masterclasses, moving toward (but not limited to) a special issue of _Qualitative Inquiry_. This is an experimental, speculative coming-together, so those with a tolerance for ambiguity are urged to apply. The timeline is intensive and short because we seek to capitalize on lived experience as it is happening now or happened recently. No former experience in autoethnography is required. People from outside and inside academic spheres are welcome. Feel free to spread this call as widely as possible. If interest is significant, selection of participation will reflect a desire for diversity (of perspectives, geography, experiences). Complete CFP with longer explanation, timeline, and link to submission form: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16uuMrARpfNYbNjzEDApF_Y5_iAh6CrrJypYMU_o…

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CFP Data Visualisation & Policymaking
by Verity Trott 30 Apr '20

30 Apr '20

Dear Colleagues, Below is a call for submissions for a special issue on the theme of “Data Visualisation & Policymaking” Editors: William Allen (University of Oxford); Verity Trott (Monash University); Kathryn Nash (University of Edinburgh) Deadline Abstracts for articles: 31 May 2020 Decisions announced by 15 June 2020 Theme We are witnessing a proliferation of data visualisations – defined by a leading visualiser as ‘the presentation and representation of data to facilitate understanding’ (Andy Kirk, 2016: 19). There has been significant research (notably Cukier and Mayer-Schonberger’s 2013 book) drawing attention to the limitations particularly of big data and new data sources, yet despite these concerns we are seeing an increasing popularity of data visualisations in policy debates. Visualisation can simplify data and convey a rhetoric of neutrality making them powerful conduits for the spread of information. It is these same characteristics that can make data visualisation dangerous for the spread of misinformation, the misrepresentation of data, and the erasure of key information that is absent from the data or that does not translate well into the logic of visualisation or datafication. It is imperative then to ask: How and in what circumstances do data visualisations shape policy and how are they simultaneously influenced by the demands and constraints that exist within policy and the political, social and cultural climates more broadly? We frame this special issue by asking how do data visualisations relate to the domain of policymaking across multiple topics. The purpose of this special issue is to provoke a reflection and consideration of what forms of knowledge, and epistemologies more broadly, are privileged in a world that is increasingly preoccupied with datafication and data visualisations. Is this a particularly effective way to convey data or are we being swept up in a trend that may not be conveying our data in the ways we understand? With these themes and questions in mind, we ask for article abstracts to address the following: · How are data politics present in data visualisation? · How do data visualisation and policymaking inform and relate to each other? · What is ‘effective’ policy impact, and to what extent does (or can) data visualisation achieve this? · What are best practices in data visualisation? · How has data visualisation been used to influence policy (in any field), and how has policy influenced the use and practice of sharing academic findings? This special issue call is part of a project supported by seed funding from the British Academy, and we expect to hold a workshop to support its publication. If the COVID-19 crisis continues to prevent travel, then we will hold a digital forum, and any accepted participant may participate in the forum remotely if they are unable to travel. We recognise that the current crisis has brought unprecedented workloads and caring obligations, and we are concerned about recent journal submission data showing a widening gender gap. We will accept multi-author submissions that allow for burden sharing. Furthermore, if you would like to be a part of this but are concerned about workload and caring responsibilities, please submit a proposal and let us know what article length and deadlines would be feasible. Submission Details Please send a 300 word abstract with a 100-word author bio to the following address by 31 May, 2020: Kathryn.Nash(a)ed.ac.uk <mailto:Kathryn.Nash@ed.ac.uk> Completed articles should be 6,000 – 8,000 words and article drafts will be expected to be completed by 15 September, 2020. –––– Dr Verity Trott Lecturer | Monash University | School of Media, Film and Journalism Office: B4.24 Caulfield Phone: +61 3 9903 4122

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