April 2023 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

4S Open Panel: STS & Black Studies
by Seyi Olojo 24 Apr '23

24 Apr '23

Might be of interest to some! Please share within relevant networks!! ----------- *IYKYK: STS in Dialogue with Black Studies <https://4sonline.org/news_manager.php?page=31382>* Open Panel Description: Black Studies is a multidisciplinary academic discipline based on sociological, historical, critical, and literary exploration of the lived experiences of the African diaspora. Black Studies arose as the culmination of activist projects that threatened the university's privileged economic and cultural status by insisting that the material differences of race and class are foundational to knowledge production. Building on existing engagements between Black Studies and STS - Ruha Benjamin's formulation of carceral technoscience, for example-this call for submissions aims to continue the conversation between Black studies and STS. Rather than exploring what terms and concepts Black studies might contribute to STS, however, we aim to identify various points of theoretical departure and arrival that occur between these two disciplines. We invite scholars to consider questions such as these: What are the current political ambitions and commitments of STS? What are the political ambitions of Black Studies? Do they intersect? If so, how? Which STS methodologies might be employed to realize Black epistemologies? Additionally, how might STS practice its methods in such a manner as to pursue Black liberation? Submit HERE <https://www.4sonline.org/call_for_submissions.php>, Deadline: May 26, 2023 Panel Organizers: Dr. Roderic Crooks, Kinjal Dave, Lauren Chambers, Seyi Olojo We encourage you to consider submitting an abstract. If you have any questions, contact Seyi Olojo: oolojo(a)berkeley.edu. Best, Seyi -- *Seyi Olojo **(she/her) (hear my name <https://www.name-coach.com/seyi-olojo>)* PhD Student, School of Information <https://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/> University of California, Berkeley

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Call for proposals: Critical Meme Reader III: Breaking the meme
by Idil Galip 24 Apr '23

24 Apr '23

Hi everyone, I hope that you are all well. I would like to share the call for proposals for a reader that I am co-editing with Chloe Arkenbout from the Institute of Network Cultures in Amsterdam<https://networkcultures.org/>. We would like to invite thinkers and (meme) makers from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds to contribute manifestos, essays, interviews, fiction, poetry, artworks, memes and other yet-to-be-defined speculative interventions that aim to break and reassemble the ubiquitous concept of the meme. We are particularly interested in contributions from the Global South and marginalized communities and will prioritize radical perspectives. INC Reader #17 Critical Meme Reader III: Breaking the Meme edited by Chloë Arkenbout and Idil Galip. * Proposals/abstracts should be around 300-500 words. * Please send these to viralimageculture(a)networkcultures.org by the 15th of May 2023. * Final contributions should be 500-5000 words and submitted by the 4th of September 2023. * Contributors are welcome to join the conference in Amsterdam in April 2024 dedicated to the launch of the publication. For the complete call and submission details please visit: https://networkcultures.org/viralimageculture/2023/04/18/call-for-proposals… Thank you for reading this call. Dr İdil Galip Lecturer in New Media and Digital Culture University of Amsterdam The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336. Is e buidheann carthannais a th' ann an Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann, clàraichte an Alba, àireamh clàraidh SC005336.

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Deadline approaching - Decentralized techno-social systems
by Julian Morgan 24 Apr '23

24 Apr '23

Internet Policy Review Glossary of Decentralised technosocial systems - Call for entries [25 April 2023] https://policyreview.info/node/1702 The glossary of decentralised technosocial systems launched in 2021 aimed to build a shared working vocabulary regarding specific aspects of decentralised techno-social systems among researchers in an interdisciplinary fashion. Indeed, a comprehensive understanding of the technical, economic, and political aspects of these types of technologies transcends traditional boundaries of scientific fields and demands an interdisciplinary approach that seeks to better conceptualise and critically evaluate specific mechanisms or processes inherent to distributed technologies. The objective of this new Call for contributions is to enable researchers and practitioners to engage with techno-social developments, relevant academic debates, and a normative appraisal of their ability and efficiency to resist the prevalent dynamics of centralisation and erosion of autonomy. In turn, the concept of decentralisation in the Glossary is understood to include the developments within the infrastructure and systems of information sharing and distribution of various types of content that seek to challenge and/or provide alternatives to the current organizational structures through distributed technologies. Additionally, the glossary aims to consolidate the current list of terms in a way that allows for broad engagement across academic communities to inform parallel research in different fields by broadening current theoretical frameworks through analysis of the processes, structures and societal outcomes of decentralisation. Important dates - 25 April 2023 - 200-word abstracts should be emailed to julian.morgan(a)hu-berlin.de - 10 May 2023 - Decisions will be communicated to the authors by - 10 July 2023 - Submission of full entries (between 1,000 and 2,000 words) - 1 October 2023 - Submission of the revised paper to the journal - December - Publication The initiative is led by The Blockchain and Society Policy Research Lab (University of Amsterdam), in collaboration with the P2P Models (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), Trust in Distributed Environments (Weizenbaum Institut, Berlin) and Blockchain Gov teams (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris). -- Julian Morgan (He/Him) Humboldt-Univertity of Berlin -- Julian A. Morgan (He/Him) Ph.D. Researcher & Research Fellow Humboldt-University of Berlin Faculty of Law DFG Graduate School Dynamic Integration https://www.rewi.hu-berlin.de/en/lf/oe/rhp

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Downloading Twitter feeds
by Rotem Perach 24 Apr '23

24 Apr '23

Hi All, Can anyone recommend a way to download the feeds (historical tweets and re-tweets) of Twitter users? Is scraping for example using Data Miner a good idea? With the changes to Twitter's API rules, API-based websites such as Vicinitas.io have stopped working (or will stop soon), and I'm looking for other approaches. Thank you for your help. Kind regards, Rotem ----------- Dr Rotem Perach (he/him) Senior Research Fellow School of Social Sciences University of Westminster ORCID<https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8647-4367> | Twitter<https://twitter.com/DrRotemPerach/> The University of Westminster is a charity and a company limited by guarantee. Registration number: 977818 England. Registered Office: 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2HW. This message and its attachments are private and confidential. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender and remove it and its attachments from your system.

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postdoc in Copenhagen -- IT and climate change
by Ilana Gershon 22 Apr '23

22 Apr '23

PhD/Postdoc call DecouplingIT /The IT University of Copenhagen invites highly motivated individuals to apply for 2 fully funded PhD/postdoctoral positions starting 1 September 2023 or soon thereafter. PhD stipends are of a 3-year duration, whereas a postdoctoral position will be for 2 years./ We invite applicants who want to contribute to the IT University’s vision of creating and sharing knowledge that is profound and leads to groundbreaking information technology and services for the benefit of humanity; and to contribute to the Business IT Department's research profile. The applicants are expected to have a solid background in qualitative social science such as anthropology, science and technology studies (STS), geography, sociology or other relevant disciplines. Experience with ethnographic fieldwork is a prerequisite. The selected candidates will be part ofthe Technologies in Practice (TiP) research group, and employed in the ITUʼs Dept. of BusinessIT. There they will work as part of the research project DecouplingIT funded by a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council. The DecouplingIT project consists of a committed team of researchers working to ethnographically explore how (economic) growth is decoupled from climate impacts within various IT enterprises around the world. The project approaches this by exploring the practicesof IT enterprises andprofessionals who articulate climate change as a problem in need of IT-generated innovations, and inparticular how they practically deploy IT with the climate in mind. Theoretically, the project willexplore how sociocultural change is generated in the spaces between IT, climate change andcapitalism. *Job description* The DecouplingIT works with pre-defined regions where the studies must take place. The two PhDs/postdocs are expected to conduct independent ethnographic studies in either a European or an African climate/tech hub. That is, in ethnographic sites where climate and IT are in some form of interesting and/or problematic relationship.The ethnographic focus should be centred on how the climate becomes an object of attention and/or value within the world of IT organizations – broadly conceived as software developers or engineers, IT entrepreneurs, and so on. As an industry, IT is tasked with both reducing its own climate impacts while generating and facilitating ‘solutions’ for other industries. As such, the conjunction of climate and IT should be the central focus of the research proposal. The purpose of these sub-projects is tocontribute to anunderstanding of how IT organizations and IT professionals in European or African countries mediate the complex set of relationships that arise at the nexus of climate and environmental concerns, narratives of entrepreneurial agency, and aspirations towards decoupled growth. Possible examples include studying relations to environmental impacts and energy use within the Icelandic data and cryptocurrency industries fuelled by the extraction of cheap fossil free energy, or working in the Kenyan tech eco-system nick-named Silicon Savannah, which is an East African hub for innovation in IT solutions and digital entrepreneurship. An Icelandic case could addressthe conflicts and ambiguities produced within the Icelandic data and cryptocurrency industries as they grow their operations and extract value from digital landscapes through the extraction of cheap fossil free energy from Icelandic geothermal landscapes.A Kenyan case could focus on IT-based responses to local climate effects such as the drilling of ‘digital wells’ as a solution to water scarcity from frequent droughts, or the recent use of Internet of Things (IoT) concepts to reduce emissions and support circular economy approaches in handling different types of waste collection and management in Nairobi. The study could favourably be anchored in local incubator institutions, which are hailed as successful by development donors in driving local technological solutions to climate change, and in this way also approach how Kenya in relation to climate mitigation is implicated in a variety of North-South relationships. As part of the application, the applicant must provide a brief (max 3 pages) research proposal indicating where they will do fieldwork, how they will do so, and how the site chosen can address the overall theme of decoupling. This proposal should present the specific literature the applicant is using to ground their project as well as how they imagine their study can be carried out and concretized with due attention to its analytical framework, methodology, language barriers, ethics, etc. The successful candidates are expected to conduct independent ethnographic subprojects, while at the same time contributing to the general project’s overall purpose and aims. They must work within the practice- and process-oriented social science framework presented by the project while considering a series of cross-project research questions: * how do actors within the IT sector think about their work in light of the climate crisis? * how do these actors perceive or value ‘the climate’ or ‘the environment within their daily routines and practices? * what role does growth play in such work, and how (if at all) is it articulated as an overarching value? The core assessment criteria are the coherence and plausibility of the proposal’s key ideas, assumptions, and approach, how well the candidate demonstrates methodological, analytical, and theoretical capability, and how well the candidate is qualified to carry out the study they propose. Candidates are welcome to take inspiration from the above to develop alternative subproject ideas under the overall academic approach and within the regions specified by the DecouplingIT project. *About the department/BIT* Business IT is organized in three interdisciplinary research groups Technologies in Practice, Information Systems and Digital Innovation and REFLACT. The groups share an interest in the socio-technical fabric of digitalization and digital transformation and comprise more than 30 assistant, associate and full professors. Research at Business IT provides basis for reflecting on how digital technologies may be used mindfully and beneficially in the private and public sector. Business IT offers a BSc inGlobal BusinessInformatics, aMSc in Digital Innovation & Management, and a professional part-time masterprogramme in IT management. It hosts three research centers Center for Digital Welfare, Center for Climate IT and European Blockchain Centerin addition to two academic labs ETHOS lab and BUILD lab *General information* The IT University of Copenhagen (ITU) is a teaching and research-based tertiary institution concerned with information technology (IT) and the opportunities it offers. The IT University has more than 160 full-time Faculty members. Research and teaching in information technology span all academic activities which involve computers including computer science, information and media sciences, humanities and social sciences, business impact and the commercialization of IT. The TiP research group is an internationally leading hub for ethnographically oriented STS-research. The group currently houses 16 research faculty, 3 postdocs and 9 PhD students. The members of contribute to 3 interdisciplinary degree programmes at the ITU – BSc in Global Business Informatics, MSc in Digital Innovation Management and a professional masters in IT Leadership. *Qualification Requirements* The following qualifications are required: * PhD candidates must hold a two-year MA/MSc-degree (or equivalent) in a discipline such as those mentioned above. * Postdoctoral candidates must hold a PhD degree (or equivalent) in a discipline such as those mentioned above. * Documented competence with qualitative social science methods (preferably ethnographic). * Fluency in academic English. Highly Desired Qualifications: * Familiarity with practice- and process-oriented social science theories and analysis * Familiarity with social science discussions on climate change. * Familiarity with social science studies of digital technologies and the IT-sector. * Familiarity with regional literature pertaining to the fieldsite they wish to study. * Familiarity with the language(s) spoken at the fieldsite they wish to study.

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Nordic response to platform power
by Minna Aslama 22 Apr '23

22 Apr '23

Those studying DSA and other regulatory/policy responses to big tech may find this recent set of recommendations by the think tank of the Nordic Council of Ministers interesting: https://www.norden.org/en/publication/nordic-approach-democratic-debate-age… -- Dr. Minna Aslama Horowitz @aslama https://minnahorowitz.net/

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New article: Social Media, the Public Sphere, and Public Space in Authoritarian Settings: A Case Study of Egypt’s Tahrir Square and 18 Years of User Generated Content
by Dr. Rasha Abdulla 21 Apr '23

21 Apr '23

Dear colleagues, I'm writing to let you know of a recently published article of mine in Social Media and Society entitled "Social Media, the Public Sphere, and Public Space in Authoritarian Settings: A Case Study of Egypt’s Tahrir Square and 18 Years of User Generated Content." I've been working on this article for a long time, and I'm very excited about it, particularly that it's in a Q1, open access journal. The article includes a survey that I conducted in Tahrir Square right after Mubarak was ousted. I strongly felt that it needed to be published, and I'm glad I managed to do it within a good context. I also believe the article makes a good theoretical contribution to the literature on social media and the public sphere. Here's the link to the article: https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051231158824 I'd be very interested to hear your feedback. All the best. Rasha Rasha A. Abdulla, Ph.D. Professor Journalism and Mass Communication The American University in Cairo Twitter: @RashaAbdulla <http://twitter.com/rashaabdulla>

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Steve Jones Lecture features Sonia Livingstone in 2023 ICA
by Sarina Chen 21 Apr '23

21 Apr '23

Greetings! Sonia Livingstone will give the Steve Jones Internet Research Lecture at the 2023 annual conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) on Friday, May 26, 2023, 9am - 10:15am, in Toronto Sheraton, at Osgoode East. The title of Livingstone’s lecture is “The pros and cons of an age-blind internet: the challenge from a child rights perspective.” In this lecture, Livingstone brings the audience’s attention to the significance of age in examining the tensions and injustices in a digital world. Livingstone argues that "the user" - along with "the population" or "the public" - is generally assumed to be roughly between 15 and 65, and arguably the internet is built for them. It is also, as is often argued, built for those who are Western, educated, able-bodied, and so forth. When socialising research findings among policymakers, Livingstone indicates that she hears rising calls to protect children online through "solutions" that could transform the internet (e.g. content regulation, age gating and age verification, digital identity) and/or increase exclusion from civil freedoms online. In this lecture, she will explore the analytic and normative insights that can be drawn from a child rights approach. Then she will widen the lens to consider the implications of research and policy of a kind of coalition of the excluded: can those working with children join forces with those researching other marginalised or disadvantaged groups? Livingstone FBA, OBE is a Professor of Social Psychology at the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She has published 20 books including “Parenting for a Digital Future: How hopes and fears about technology shape children’s lives.” She directs the “Digital Futures Commission” (with 5Rights Foundation) and “Global Kids Online” (with UNICEF). She also works on a series of European Commission and UKRI funded projects concerned with children’s opportunities, risks and rights in a digital world. Since founding the 33 country EU Kids Online network, Sonia has advised the UK government, European Commission, European Parliament, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Council of Europe, OECD, ITU and UNICEF on children’s internet safety and rights in the digital environment. See https://www.lse.ac.uk/media-and-communications/people/academic-staff/sonia-… <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lse.a…> Steve Jones Internet Research Lecture Series, established by Carl Couch Center for Social and Internet Research (CCCSIR, www.cccsir.com) in 2003, brings leading Internet researchers to annual ICA conferences to promote the development and interest of Internet research. With the interdisciplinary nature of Internet research, the lecture series brings researchers from various disciplines as well as industry leaders to establish dialogues with communication researchers about topics and issues of Internet research. The theme of Steve Jones Lecture Series is " The Internet as Culture.” For more information about this lecture and lecture series please contact Shing-Ling Sarina Chen at sarina.chen(a)uni.edu.

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Digital health and rights at Warwick - Research Assistant and Research Fellow
by Sara Leila Margaret Davis 21 Apr '23

21 Apr '23

Dear colleagues, We now have two job adverts up for the Digital Health and Rights Project <https://www.graduateinstitute.ch/DigitalHealth-Rights>, which will be based at University of Warwick from June 1. We now seek both a full-time *postdoctoral research fellow* and a part-time *research assistant*. The applicants do not need to be Warwick students or graduates, but would need to live in the UK and work in the office in person, at least some of the time. - Digital Health and Rights Postdoctoral research fellow <https://atsv7.wcn.co.uk/search_engine/jobs.cgi?amNvZGU9MTg5MDc2NSZ2dF90ZW1w…> - closing May 4 - Digital Health and Rights Postdoctoral research assistant <https://atsv7.wcn.co.uk/search_engine/jobs.cgi?owner=5062452&ownertype=fair…> - closing May 16 More information about the project and partners, who include Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+), KELIN, Privacy International, Restless Development, STOPAIDS and Universidad de los Andes, is online here <https://www.graduateinstitute.ch/DigitalHealth-Rights>. Thank you for sharing, and happy to answer questions. best Meg -- *Sara ("Meg") Davis, Ph.D.* *Senior researcher, *Global Health Centre *Principal Investigator, *Digital Health and Rights Project <https://www.graduateinstitute.ch/DigitalHealth-Rights> *Pronouns:* She/hers *Hours:* I currently work Mondays-Fridays, 2-6pm Ho Chi Minh City time (8am-12pm CET), unless by prior arrangement. *Books:* *The Uncounted: Politics of Data in Global Health* <https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/uncounted/C0CC81C0F03D1822D05C13EE31FA…> *Song and Silence: Ethnic Revival on China's Southwest Borders <http://cup.columbia.edu/book/song-and-silence/9780231135269>* *Ted talk:* The Uncounted: The people left out of health data https://www.ted.com/talks/sara_meg_davis_the_uncounted_the_people_left_out_…

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Resource: 2023 digital guide for political campaigns, nonprofits & activists
by Colin Delany 20 Apr '23

20 Apr '23

Hi folks, I have a potential resource for you. The 2023 edition of my digital campaigning handbook has now hit the (virtual) bookshelves! If you've picked up a copy of the PDF version from me in the past, you should have received an email with a link to download the new edition (let me know if you haven't). If you've purchased it on Kindle before, I'm going to ask Amazon to allow you to substitute the new one for the old. As far as I'm aware, "How to Use the Internet to Change the World - and Win Elections" is by far the most comprehensive digital politics how-to guide available in public. The book's eighteen chapters cover online fundraising, digital advertising, social media of all stripes, political data, tech-enabled field organizing, GOTV and a whole lot more, along with extended discussions around campaign planning and logistics. Cool! Completely new in the 2023 edition? Sections covering how campaigns, nonprofits and activists are already using AI in their political work. You can pick up either the PDF or the Kindle edition here: https://www.epolitics.com/winning/ If you want to check out a review copy, drop me a line and I'm happy to send one over. This is the tenth edition of the book! I put the first version out way back in 2010, and man has it changed over the years. Very exciting to watch the field of digital politics evolve. Enyoy! --cpd "How to Use the Internet to Change the World - and Win Elections: A Comprehensive Guide to Digital Politics for Campaigns, Activists & Advocates" [Ebook] http://www.epolitics.com/winning Colin Delany Epolitics.com -- digital strategy for politics and advocacy http://www.epolitics.com 202-422-4682 cpd(a)epolitics.com @epolitics

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