December 2024 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

critical hype studies panel STS Italia
by Jascha Bareis 15 Dec '24

15 Dec '24

Dear all, f you are looking for a reason to visit Milan and critically interrogate hype as a sociotechnical phenomenon, nothing prevents you from submitting an abstract to our panel at STS Italia. *The Call for Abstracts closes on February 3, 2025 with no extensions to this deadline to be granted.* The field of hype studies is ever-growing, but what remains a challenge is its absence of a unified approach. During last year’s 4S/EASST conference, we called to leverage collective experiences, to cocreatively build foundational structures and establish an STS-rooted, but outer-disciplinary, field of critical hype studies. This panel will target a twofold aim: (1) firstly, we want present our current progress as a collective of researchers focusing on critical hype studies as part of our introductory presentation; (2) secondly, we aim to invite new contributions explore dynamic transformations, implications, and theoretical underpinnings of hype. We, thus, invite researchers and scholars interested in problematising the complexities of hype as a multi-dimensional phenomenon that operates at sociotechnical, epistemic, psychological, transmedial, and environmental levels. We are particularly interested in insights into the intentional production of hype as a media and persuasion strategy or the unintentional emergence of hype driven by, or influencing, material, political and economic factors, as well as psychological, affective, and embodied ones. We wish to explore and problematise deterministic narratives about hype cycles, the social and psychological processes engendering hype, and the consequent effects on both innovation and public perception. Further, and in alignment with the theme of STS Italia 2025, we are committed to explore aspects of hype that have been revealed as nascent tendencies during our research, such as responsible hype or the mobilisation of hype for socially beneficial purposes. We are therefore interested in treatments of hype as boundary object, not only as a force of alienation, but also as motivational force, with heightened focus on the empowerment of marginalised social groups while attentive to capitalist processes of co-optation and appropriation of critical voices for profitable gain. In this regard, we are interested in investigations regarding responsible hype or hype assessment. *https://stsitalia.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/11.Critical-Hype-Studies_-Towards-a-Collaborative-and-Unified-Approach-ID_31.pdf * *https://stsitalia.org/call-for-abstracts/ * Best in the name of the critical hype studies research group (PS. probably some of the group will also be present at theEU-SPRI <https://euspri-forum.eu/eu-spri-2025-conference-call-for-abstracts-and-pape…> in Dortmund, happening at the same days). Jascha Bareis -- *Jascha Bareis*(Profile) <https://www.itas.kit.edu/english/staff_bareis_jascha.php>(Scholar) <https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=bf1gf9AAAAAJ&hl=de&oi=ao>(LinkedIn) <https://www.linkedin.com/in/jascha-bareis-36082523b/> Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis(ITAS) <https://www.itas.kit.edu/english/index.php> Karlsruher Institute of Technology(KIT) <https://www.kit.edu/english/index.php> Research Group Digital Technology and Societal Change(FG DigIT) <https://www.itas.kit.edu/english/rg_digit.php> *Recent Publications* Ask Me Anything ! 😈How ChatPGT Got Hyped Into Being.SOC ARXIV Preprint <https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/jzde2> The Trustification of AI. Disclosing the bridging pillars that tie Trust and AI together.Big Data & Society <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20539517241249430> Technology Hype: Dealing with bold expectations and overpromising, with M. Roßmann and F.Bordignon.Journal of Technology Assessment in Theory and Practice <https://www.tatup.de/index.php/tatup/article/view/7073>

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Generative AI for Academics
by Mark Carrigan 15 Dec '24

15 Dec '24

My new book Generative AI for Academics <https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/generative-ai-for-academics/book288289> is being published by SAGE next week. Drawing on a year of experimentation with LLMs, it explores how we might incorporate them into scholarship in ways that enrich rather than diminish our work. The book combines a sociological analysis of the profound challenges these tools pose to academic practice with a practice-orientated exploration of their use in scholarship (in a similar way to Social Media for Academics <https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/social-media-for-academics/book261904>). With these tools beginning to be integrated into university systems and many academics already using them in their work, we urgently need to understand what this means for the future of scholarship. Publisher link: https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/generative-ai-for-academics/book288289 Bookshop.org: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/generative-ai-for-academics-mark-carrigan/7…

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20th International Conference on Persuasive Technology (PERSUASIVE 2025) : Call for Workshop Proposals
by Announce 13 Dec '24

13 Dec '24

*** Call for Workshop Proposals *** 20th International Conference on Persuasive Technology (PERSUASIVE 2025) May 5-7, 2025, 5* St. Raphael Resort and Marina, Limassol, Cyprus https://2025.persuasivetech.org (*** Workshop proceedings to be published by Springer in LNCS ***) In a world in which technology is increasingly present in people’s lives, and changing human behavior and attitudes is often the key to solving many societal and personal problems, studying how technology might be used to influence humans (in their behavior, attitudes and information processing), is paramount. Persuasive Technology is a vibrant interdisciplinary research field, focusing on the design, development and evaluation of interactive technologies aimed at influencing people’s attitudes and/or behaviors through persuasion, but not through coercion or deception. The research community aims at enriching people’s lives in various domains such as health and sustainability by supporting people in setting and achieving their own goals, thus helping them change their behavior. The 2025 conference will be hosted in Limassol, Cyprus at the 5* St. Raphael Resort and Marina. The previous successful conferences have been organized in Wollongong, Limassol, Eindhoven, Stanford, Oulu, Claremont, Copenhagen, Columbus, Linköping, Sydney, Padua, Chicago, Salzburg, Amsterdam, and Waterloo. The conference series seeks to bring together researchers and practitioners from industry and academia working with various topics of persuasive technology. SCOPE The scope of the conference includes (but is not limited to) the following topics: • Persuasive systems’ design • Behavior change support systems • Interaction with persuasive systems, interfaces, visualization • Interactive agents in persuasive systems • (Generative) AI for persuasive technology • Tailored and personalized persuasion • Gamification for persuasion • Evaluation and validation of persuasive applications • Fitting methods for development, evaluation and implementation of persuasive systems • Optimizing engagement with persuasive systems • Software architectures and technical infrastructures for persuasive systems • Smart environments, e.g. IoT, and persuasion • Digital Marketing, eCommerce, eTourism and SMART ecosystems • Motivational, cognitive and perceptual factors in persuasive technology • Application domains for persuasive technologies such as safety, healthy living, sustainable behaviors, learning and training, marketing and commerce, work environments, organizations • Positive technology • Humanizing and/or dehumanizing effects of persuasive technology • Values and ethics in persuasive technology • Privacy, perceived security and trust in persuasive technology • Resilience and counter-persuasion • Detecting persuasive strategies in social media posts • Encouraging adherence to safety measures in pandemic situations Questions that we hope to be addressed include, but are not limited to: • How to recognize and demonstrate the real life effects of persuasive technology on people’s attitudes and behaviours? • How to conduct studies that not just show their effectiveness but are also able to explain in more detail why a design or intervention works? • How to design an evaluation study so that it yields insights that are applicable to other designs or interventions? • How theoretical insight can help improve application and/or intervention planning and design? • How can design and intervention studies improve theory? WORKSHOP PROPOSALS Workshops are meant to gather a number of people to work interactively on an emerging topic and exchange ideas. Approved workshops will be announced on the conference website. Workshops will take place during a half- or full-day session before the conference. If you want to organize a workshop, please submit a proposal as a maximum 4-page description in Springer LNCS format (https://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-gu…) including a description of the topic, motivation, organization (including the list of organizing members, how the organizers will form a program committee), duration of the workshop, expected outcome, and supporting materials (if applicable). Accepted workshop papers will be included in the adjunct conference proceedings to be published by Springer in LNCS (pending approval). Alternatively, the workshop organisers have the option of publishing the accepted papers to their workshops in CEUR (https://ceur-ws.org/HOWTOSUBMIT.html) Workshop organisers must commit to creating their Call for Papers and their website within one week of the notification. Please email your proposal by January 10, 2025, to the workshop chairs: Wenzhen Xu (wenzhen.xu AT r.hit-u.ac.jp), Rhoda Abadia (Rhoda.Abadia AT unisa.edu.au), and Kaoru Sumi (kaoru.sumi AT acm.org) The organizing committee will review the proposals and communicate the results by January 17, 2025. IMPORTANT DATES Workshop and tutorial proposals: • Submission deadline: January 10, 2025 (AoE) • Decision notification: January 17, 2025 Workshop papers submission: • Submission deadline: March 1, 2025 (AoE) • Decision notification: March 15, 2025 • Camera ready and author registration: March 28, 2025 ORGANISATION General Chairs • Evangelos Karapanos, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus • George A. Papadopoulos, University of Cyprus, Cyprus Program Chairs • Raian Ali, HBKU, Qatar • Khin Than Win, University of Wollongong, Australia Demo, Poster and Artefacts • Ruben Hgouveia, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal • Hanne Spelt, Philips, Netherlands Workshops and Tutorial Chairs • Rhodora Abadia, University of South Australia, Australia • Kaoru Sumi, Future University of Hakodate, Japan • Wenzhen Xu, Hitotsubashi University, Japan Doctoral Consortium Chairs • Sriram Iyengar, University of of Arizona, USA • Roberto Legaspi, KDDI, Japan • Shahla Meedya, Australian Catholic University, Australia Proceedings Chairs • Elena Vlahu-Gjorgievska, University of Wollongong, Australia • Kiemute Oyibo, University of York, Canada Society for Persuasion and Technology Steering Committee • Raian Ali – Chair Professor, College of Science and Engineering, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar • Luca Chittaro – General Member Professor, Human-Computer Interaction Lab, Department of Mathematics, Computer Science, and Physics, University of Udine, Italy • Roberto Legaspi – General Member Research Scientist, Collaborative AI Lab, Human-centered AI Laboratories KDDI Research, Inc., Japan • Harri Oinas-Kukkonen – General Member Professor, Information Systems Science and Dean of Graduate School, University of Oulu, Finland • Kiemute Oyibo – General Member Assistant Professor, Interactive Systems Research Group, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, York University, Canada • Khin Than Win – Secretary Professor at the University of Wollongong, Australia

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🌟Fully-Funded PhD Opportunity at UCL: Technology-Facilitated Abuse🌟
by Leonie Tanczer 13 Dec '24

13 Dec '24

Dear All, I’m excited to share a fully-funded PhD opportunity (starting October 2025) at University College London (UCL) that merges cutting-edge research in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) with a commitment to tackling technology-facilitated intimate partner abuse (tech abuse). This position offers a unique chance to create safer online spaces and drive research and social impact through technical innovation and user-centred design. 🔍 Project Overview Hosted by UCL’s “Gender and Tech<https://www.genderandtech.net/>” Lab within the Information Security Research Group<https://sec.cs.ucl.ac.uk/>, this PhD project will focus on: * HCI-driven user research to design interfaces and interventions that support and empower at-risk users. * Using NLP to uncover harmful language patterns and behaviours online, informing policy and protections. * Collaborating with NGOs, policymakers, and industry experts to shape proactive technical safeguards and regulatory frameworks. ✨ Why Join Us? * Full funding for tuition, stipend, and research costs. * Opportunity to publish in top journals and conferences. * Engage with a vibrant, interdisciplinary community passionate about digital safety, policy-relevant research, and social justice. * Access to world-class resources, mentorship, and collaboration networks. 🔧 Ideal Candidates Will Have: * HCI and User-Centred Design Knowledge: Skills or interest in designing intuitive and secure user interfaces for vulnerable populations, incorporating user research and usability testing. * Technical Expertise in Python/NLP: Experience with text classification, information extraction, and deep learning frameworks. A strong understanding of ethical AI principles, including fairness and transparency, is essential. * Research Independence and Rigour: Ability to define research questions, apply robust methodologies, manage large datasets, and work autonomously. Strong English language skills are essential. 📅 Deadline to Apply: 28 January 2024 🔗 Full project details and application information: * Project Details: https://ucl-epsrc-dtp.github.io/2025-26-project-catalogue/projects/2531ad15… * Application Information: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/epsrc-doctoral-training/prospective-students/apply-uc… Thank you for helping us spread the word, and don’t hesitate to contact us if you or your networks have any questions. Best wishes, Leonie ________________________________________________________________ Dr Leonie Maria Tanczer Associate Professor in International Security and Emerging Technologies Department of Computer Science University College London Twitter: @leotanczt<https://twitter.com/leotanczt> Website: http://www.leonietanczer.net/ Key Fingerprint: 9F21 A6A6 913E 1393 1BC6 73DA EBEF 07A4 F61F 79DA

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Call for Abstracts: Human-AI feedback loops in platformized consumption - (STS Conference, Milano)
by Alessandro Caliandro 13 Dec '24

13 Dec '24

We are excited to announce the Call for Abstracts for the upcoming 10th STS Italia Conference “Technoscience for Good: Designing, Caring and Reconfiguring” which will be held on 11-13 June 2025 at the Politecnico di Milano, Milan (Italy) – ( https://stsitalia.org/news/10th-sts-italia-conference-technoscience-for-goo…) In particular, we invite you to submit an abstract to our panel: *Human-AI feedback loops in platformized consumption* (Convenors: Massimo Airoldi, Alessandro Gandini, Gabriella Punziano & Alessandro Caliandro) (further details here: https://stsitalia.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/23.Human-AI-feedback-loops…) The panel encourages the study of platformized human-AI interactions in light of the notion of ‘*feedback loop*’. From a cybernetic perspective, feedback mechanisms make learning possible to both humans and machines. When platform users and recommender systems interact, feedback-based learning regularly happens both ways: on the one hand, AI recommendations expose users to selections of content they “may also like”, orchestrating their digital consumption habits; on the other, based on users’ datafied behaviour, machine learning systems iteratively update their parameters, aiming to better anticipate future consumption desires. Focusing on this complex phenomenon, the panel tries to address some key questions, such as: *What are the effects of human-AI feedback loops on platformized consumption and “consumer culture” more broadly?* *How does the accelerated temporality of online content consumption habits intersect with the predictive habits (and habitus) of machines? In what ways can we trace and interpret the recursive interactions between the users of TikTok, Instagram, YouTube or Spotify, and the opaque recommender algorithms at work within such data-intensive infrastructures?* Contributions may cover, from both a theoretical and methodological perspective, the following topics (but are not limited to): · feedback loops, AI recommendations and the platformization of consumer culture; · the interplay between platform personalization and (more-than-human) habits; · how feedback loops vary across social categories and platformized cultures; · market infrastructures and the engineering of feedback loops; · platform-based feedback loops in music streaming and cultural consumption; · cross-platform analyses of human-AI feedback loops; · innovative methodological solutions in the study of platformized consumption. Abstracts (500 words max) are due by February 3, 2025. Further information about the submission process and key deadlines can be found here: https://stsitalia.org/call-for-abstracts/ We look forward to receiving your contributions and seeing you in Milano! Best Wishes Massimo Airoldi, Alessandro Gandini, Gabriella Punziano, Alessandro Caliandro -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alessandro Caliandro Associate Professor in Sociology of Culture and Communication Researcher V-DATA project (Surveillance Capitalism in Italy): https://vdataresearch.com/ Research Stream 3 Leader of ACTIVE-IT: https://ageingsocieties.unimib.it/active-it/ Member of Ageing Societies: https://ageingsocieties.unimib.it/ Università degli Studi di Pavia Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche e Sociali Strada Nuova 65 27100 Pavia phone: 0382 984325 e-mail: alessandro.caliandro(a)unipv.it Alessandro Caliandro's Personal Meeting Room (ZOOM) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8629741587 *If you please, check out my most recent publications ; ) * Caliandro, A., Gandini, A., Bainotti, L., & Anselmi, G. (2024). The Platformization of Consumer Culture: A Digital Methods Guide. Amsterdam University Press [OPEN ACCESS]. https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/90094 Caliandro, A., Gandini, A., Bainotti, L., & Anselmi, G. (2024). The platformization of consumer culture: A theoretical framework. *Marketing Theory*, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14705931231225537

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TUESDAY DEC 17: Online Talk – Behind the Scenes, with Diyi Liu "Legitimacy of Platformized Speech Governance"
by Christian Katzenbach 13 Dec '24

13 Dec '24

Dear all, We're excited to announce our 15th instalment of "Behind the Scenes: Conversations on Empirical Platform Governance Research" session, happening online this coming 17th of December from 3-4 pm (CET). For the occasion, we have Diyi Liu with a talk titled The Legitimacy of Platformized Speech Governance: A Mixed-Methods Case Study Approach <https://platform-governance.org/online-talk-series/session-14-diyi-liu-the-…> Diyi Liu is a DPhil candidate in Information, Communication, and the Social Sciences at the Oxford Internet Institute. Her doctoral research examines algorithmic content moderation and the legitimacy of platformized speech governance in South and Southeast Asian contexts. Currently a DPhil candidate at the OII, Diyi is also a visiting researcher at the National University of Singapore (Fall 2023), an Open Research Fellow at the Weizenbaum Institute in Germany (Spring 2024), and a research fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta Indonesia (Fall 2024). Register and more info here: https://platform-governance.org/online-talk-series/session-14-diyi-liu-the-… (If you have registered already for the series, you do not need to register again for this talk. You will receive the online link one day in advance of the session.) Best, Christian Paloma Joao — Prof. Dr. Christian Katzenbach Professor of Media and Communication Centre for Media, Communication & Information Research (ZeMKI), University of Bremen www.uni-bremen.de/zemki Lab Platform Governance, Media and Technology (PGMT) platform-governance.org Associated Researcher Alexander von Humboldt Institut for Internet and Society (HIIG) www.hiig.de

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Call For Papers: Murmurations in Avian Technoscience - Catalyst Special Section
by Marika L. Cifor 12 Dec '24

12 Dec '24

Call For Papers: Murmurations in Avian Technoscience a Special Section of *Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience**Guest Editors: **Maya Livio* (American University), *Pamela Perrimon* (University of Southern California), *Hamsini Sridharan* (University of Southern California) https://catalystjournal.org/index.php/catalyst/announcement/view/976 Birds have long been subjected to technological collection from shotguns to mist nets, cameras to algorithms. They have also been made into tools of data gathering themselves, as canary sensors in coal mines, pigeon messengers, and aerial photographers. Ornithology, one of the oldest organized scientific disciplines, centers on bird data that extends from specimen bodies to digital repositories. Across these sites of bird/technology encounter, power is surfaced—to identify, to count, to kill, to conserve—raising questions around classification, control, and the logics of capture. Nonhuman animals such as birds have offered invaluable perspectives to feminist STS scholarship. As early as the nineteenth century, feminist and more-than-human concerns have been brought into dialogue regarding the treatment of women and nonhuman animals by science (Adams and Donovan 1995, 34-35). More recently, feminist STS scholars such as Lynda Birke have emphasized the stakes for separating the study of human and more-than-human animals as leading to “a fragmented knowledge” that limits understandings of concepts like gender (Birke 2010, 341). “Feminist politics,” Birke calls to action, “stands to gain by a more sustained examination of concepts of species—how we use them, what purposes they serve, how they are sustained by material practices” (Birke 2010, 346). Similarly, Yuka Suzuki demonstrates the urgency of more-than-human study for addressing racialized oppression, reminding us that the maintenance of the human-animal boundary “render[s] certain groups of humans more beastly and other types of animals more human” (Suzuki 2017, 109). Nonhuman beings like birds therefore direct our attention to the processes, technologies, and injustices of categorization (of race, of gender, of species, etc.), as well as to the relational webs that bind human and nonhuman together. Jody Berland observes that “of all species, birds are the most common mediators between people and wildlife” (2019, 178). It is not surprising, then, that birds in particular are present in recent STS explorations in what could be called “avian technoscience.” Etienne Benson (2017), for example, examines the historical community science practices of bird banding, while Frédéric Keck (2020) maps the circulation of flu viruses in cross-species interactions between humans and birds. Feminist avian technoscience, more specifically, has engaged with the questions surfaced by birds around areas such as knowledge hierarchies, care, and materiality. Vinciane Despret, reflecting on her nighttime encounter with a blackbird, considers how scientific accounts of the avian may open or foreclose birdy possibilities: “There are explanations which end up multiplying worlds and celebrating the emergence of an infinite number of modes of existence,” she writes, “and others which seek to impose order, bringing them back to a few basic principles” (2021, 6). Selen Eren and Anne Beaulieu (2023), meanwhile, draw attention to the “intermittent care” between researchers and black-tailed godwits, examining how ecologists oscillate between caring for individual bird welfare and caring for the species as a whole through data collection. And following a tissue sample taken from a bird carcass on its journey through a natural history museum, Adrian Van Allen (2020) examines how the material practices of preserving birds as specimens and data sustain dominant standardizations of nature. Linking this work back to human-centered feminist thought, Maya Livio (2023) brings a queer ecological lens to the study of avian data. Noting the male and heterosexual biases in scientific and cultural bird datasets—where female, intersex, and queer birds are largely absent or misclassified—Livio highlights the power of avian science to naturalize normative assumptions of sex and sexuality for all species, including humans. Nicholas Mirzoeff (2022) unpacks ornithology as “a white way of seeing,” (123) reflecting on the racist and settler colonial histories of birding and its technologies of capture in the wake of the 2020 Central Park birdwatching incident. And Sunaura Taylor (2017) calls attention to the disabling effects of the technologies of forced egg production on the bodies of battery hens. She argues that by refusing to acknowledge disability in nonhuman animals, humans sustain the human/nonhuman divide at the expense of recognition of mutually resonant vulnerabilities that could lead to collective liberation. Taylor asks, “if humans can share this sort of vulnerability with nonhuman animals, what else might we share?” (31). This question only becomes more salient in the face of escalating environmental crises. In this special issue, we call for a motley flock of research and practice-based approaches to the avian-machine interface. We invite birders, that is, those who notice avian relations, to explore how birds enter, become, confound, or mutate technology (expansively defined). We seek to engage in how the stuff of birds—their beaks, bones, and feathers—is datafied, mechanized, and digitized. We are also interested in constellations in flight that reflect on avian boundaries and breakdowns as they intersect gendered, queer, crip, raced, classed, and anticolonial questions, highlighting what may otherwise go unremarked when birds become a passive thing to ‘think with.’ Submissions might include engagement with avian technoscience as it relates to: - Birds becoming technology (e.g. data, models, maps, sensors, sentinels, as well as Indigenous and non-Western approaches to technology) and how, for example, these may reinforce or challenge dominant modes of knowledge production - Technology becoming avian (e.g. biomimicry, or the use of bird bodies and behaviors as technological reference points) as, for instance, instrumentalized for military tech development - Technologies of ornithological study (e.g. bird banding/ringing, radar, passive acoustic monitoring, 3D scanning, machine learning) and, for example, their relationship to the colonial logics of capture - Technologies of managing avian life and death (e.g. technologies for conservation, de-extinction, bird breeding, reproduction, and response to avian zoonoses) and how, for instance, they instantiate control of sex, gender, and sexuality - Contact zones between birds and technological infrastructures (e.g. interactions between birds and cell towers, energy infrastructures, etc.) as related to environmental and multispecies justice concerns, for example - The link between birds and technologies of surveillance (e.g. drones, birdfeeder cams, and nest cams) and, for instance, what they surface about racialized hypervisibility and invisibility - Bird taxonomy and classification technologies, and, for example, how they reinforce hegemonic categorization - Community science platforms and other collective modes of bird tracking, including, for instance, their exclusions of marginalized peoples and the consequences of those exclusions for birds - And creative approaches to imaging, sounding, or sensemaking of birds through media and computation technologies relating to any of the above We welcome diverse submission formats including writing (scholarly, creative, interviews, reviews, and more); creative research/research-creation; visual, moving image, and sonic artworks; media rich essays; and other innovative approaches. Interdisciplinary research is particularly encouraged. To be considered for inclusion in this themed section, please send an abstract or proposal (300-500 words) and a short bio (max 250 words) to Maya Livio (livio(a)american.edu) Pamela Perrimon (perrimon(a)usc.edu) and Hamsini Sridharan (hamsinis(a)usc.edu) with “Murmurations” in the subject line by March 31, 2025. Full papers and projects should adhere to the Catalyst author guidelines <https://catalystjournal.org/index.php/catalyst/style-guidelines>. Selected papers and projects will be invited to submit fully developed submissions. -- Marika Cifor, PhD Assistant Professor Information School, University of Washington Box 352840 - Mary Gates Hall, Ste. 370 Seattle, WA 98195-2840 mcifor(a)uw.edu https://marikacifor.com/ pronouns: she/her/hers

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Kind reminder: Call for Papers - ECREA Communication & Democracy Section Off-Year Conference, 22-23 May 2025, Rotterdam
by Victoria Balan 12 Dec '24

12 Dec '24

CfP Reminder: Automating Democracy: AI Use Between Social Justice and Social Control ECREA Communication & Democracy Section Off-Year Conference Erasmus University Rotterdam, 22-23 May 2025 Deadline for abstracts: January 15, 2025 https://automatingdemocracy.wordpress.com/ A kind reminder that the deadline for abstract submissions for the ECREA Communication & Democracy Section's off-year conference, Automating Democracy: AI Use Between Social Justice and Social Control is coming up on January 15, 2025. The conference will explore the transformative effects of artificial intelligence (AI) on democratic processes, focusing on two inter-related themes: · AI & governance · AI & citizen participation We are also excited to announce our keynote speakers for the conference: - Prof. Dr. Madalina Busuioc, Full Professor of Public Governance in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam - Dr. Simone Natale, Associate Professor in Media Theory and History at the University of Turin The two-day event will also include a practitioner-scholar roundtable facilitating a dialogue on current practices and challenges of AI-use for progressive social change between civil society representatives and conference participants. For additional information on submissions, fees and proposed timeline, please visit our conference website https://automatingdemocracy.wordpress.com/ Conference organizing committee Dr. Delia Dumitrica, Erasmus University Rotterdam Dr. Ofra Klein, Erasmus University Rotterdam Victoria Balan, Erasmus University Rotterdam Dr. Giuliana Sorce, Tubingen University Dr. Jun Liu, University of Copenhagen Dr. Arianna Bussoletti, Sapienza Universita di Roma Victoria Balan, MSc. Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication E balan(a)eshcc.eur.nl<mailto:balan@eshcc.eur.nl> I www.eshcc.eur.nl<http://www.eshcc.eur.nl/> Visiting address Erasmus University Rotterdam Van der Goot Building, M8.45 Burgemeester Oudlaan 50 Rotterdam, The Netherlands New publication: Technologies of last resort: The discursive construction of digital activism in Wired and Time magazine, 2010–2021<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14614448221135886>

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CfP - 12th Int. Conference on Communities & Technologies (C&T)
by Aal, Konstantin 11 Dec '24

11 Dec '24

*** apologies for cross-posting *** The 12th International Conference on Communities & Technologies (C&T 2025), to be held at the University of Siegen, Germany from July 21-23, 2025, cordially invites you to submit research papers, case studies, workshop proposals, posters, demos, panels/symposia, community events and doctoral research plans for potential presentation or facilitation at the conference! The biennial International Conference on Communities & Technologies (C&T) is the premier international forum for stimulating debate and disseminating research on the complex connections between communities – in their multiple forms – and information and communication technologies. C&T is brought to you by EUSSET, the European Society for Socially Embedded Systems, who also brings you ECSCW. We welcome researchers, designers, educators, industry, practitioners, and students from the many disciplines and perspectives bearing on the interaction between community and technology. The theme of C&T 2025 is “Approaching the Future, Embracing the Past” Papers and proposals are accepted from a variety of relevant perspectives including technology, philosophy, social sciences, policy, design, business, activism, health-care, industry, art, the humanities, and so on. Examples of relevant topics include, but are not limited to, the following: * Diverse communities and their relationships to technology; urban and rural, migrants, refugees, indigenous peoples, LGBTQ, activists and social movements, low-income communities, alt-right and hate groups; the developing world and non-Western societies; professional communities, communities of practice, research communities; * Bottom-up movements, grassroots developments, civic activism, community engagement, participatory publics, communities and innovation; ethics, power and social justice issues; perspectives on the spread of technology and its impact on different societies; Learning from historical grassroots movements to democratize access to technology and knowledge. * Classical Design Principles in Modern Technology: Applying traditional design methodologies to enhance user experience and accessibility in digital products. Resilient Systems and Adaptive Strategies: Learning from historical technological failures to build resilient and adaptable future systems. * Crowdfunding, collective and civic intelligence, community learning, early warning systems, collective awareness, collaborative awareness platforms; social cognition; community emotion; happiness; historical memory; * Community owned and operated technology, peer production and the commons, DIY and maker communities (makerspaces, fablabs, crafters); community agriculture; How indigenous and local knowledge can contribute to contemporary technological innovations. * Civic problem-solving, communities in relation to urgent and complex challenges to the health of the planet and the people that inhabit it; collaborative systems; partnering with education; government, civil society, and movements; resilience and rebuilding in the face of technological or societal disruption; * Support of community processes: sensemaking, online deliberation; issue, argumentation and discussion mapping; community ideation and idea management systems; collective decision-making; group memory; participatory sensory networks; * The future of communities and technology; simulations, utopian or dystopian design; durable relationships and long-range goals; and * Development and support of the Communities & Technologies community; social and technological critique; effectiveness and other measures. Deadlines * Papers * March 14, 2025 (23:59 AoE), paper submissions due * Workshops * March 29, 2025 (23:59 AoE), workshop proposals due * Case studies * March 29, 2025 (23:59 AoE), case studies due * Doctoral colloquium * April 25, 2025 (23:59 AoE), Doctoral Colloquium applications due * Posters/demos * May 5, 2025 (23:59 AoE), posters/demos due * Community Events * May 5, 2025 (23:59 AoE), posters/demos due * EUSSET Grant for student and community organizations to attend C&T 2025 * May 30, 2025 (23:59 AoE), applications due * Student Volunteers * April 25, 2025, applications due * Early-Bird Registration * June 15, 2025, early-bird registration ends For further details, see https://2025.comtech.community/ General Chairs Konstantin Aal, University of Siegen David Unbehaun, Clausthal University of Technology -- Dr. Konstantin Aal PostDoc and Team Leader “Community and Activism” pronouns: he/him/his I support flexible work arrangements and do not expect you to reply outside your agreed working hours. Information Systems and New Media SFB 1187 "Medien der Kooperation" University of Siegen Kohlbettstr. 15, 57072 Siegen Raum. US-E-102 Tel. +49 (0)271 / 740 3383 Mob. +49 (0)176 / 30 780 007 http://www.uni-siegen.de/fb5/wirtschaftsinformatik/index.html.en?lang=en https://scholar.kosta.phd -- Dr. Konstantin Aal PostDoc and Team Leader “Community and Activism” pronouns: he/him/his I support flexible work arrangements and do not expect you to reply outside your agreed working hours. Information Systems and New Media SFB 1187 "Medien der Kooperation" University of Siegen Kohlbettstr. 15, 57072 Siegen Raum. US-E-102 Tel. +49 (0)271 / 740 3383 Mob. +49 (0)176 / 30 780 007 http://www.uni-siegen.de/fb5/wirtschaftsinformatik/index.html.en?lang=en https://scholar.kosta.phd

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Deadline Approaching: CFP - ICA Preconference "Non-Aligned Disruptions: Global Media Histories in the Wake of Decolonization"
by Zimanyi, Eszter 11 Dec '24

11 Dec '24

Dear colleagues, Please see the CFP for our ICA 2025 Preconference, "Non-Aligned Disruptions: Global Media Histories in the Wake of Decolonization," below and share with your networks! The deadline for submissions is Sunday, December 15th. Best wishes, Eszter Non-Aligned Disruptions: Global Media Histories in the Wake of Decolonization International Communication Association Preconference: June 12, 2025. Denver, CO Co-sponsored by: Global Communication and Social Change, Communication History Divisions With the emergence of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in the 1960s, newly independent nations from across the Global South sought to generate channels and protocols for international collaboration that would bypass centuries-old colonial extractive dynamics. What began as a political project of high level diplomacy soon expanded into an ethos that inspired and guided numerous initiatives in the fields of scientific research, cultural production, architecture, and so on. In short, the Non-Aligned Movement was a major disruptor of the political, economic, and cultural status quo of the mid-20th century, and media and communication practices were key to this disruption. Projects like New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO), Broadcasting Organization on Non-Aligned Countries (BONAC), and Non-Aligned News Agency Pool (NANAP) aimed to reconfigure the international arena of communication, from reimagining networks and technology exchange to forging new collaborative practices to respond to unique and shifting on-the-ground situations of decolonizing countries in the Global South. These projects troubled and challenged established logics of the existing institutional apparatuses and research paradigms they relied on. However, the histories of these disruptions have mostly remained unwritten or been forgotten by contemporary scholarship. This preconference aims to examine the conceptual implications and epistemic challenges that NAM disruptions (as well as other forms of disruptions that emerged in media and communication systems of the Global South and are aligned to the spirit and objectives of NAM) continue to pose for media and communication research. How do we account for the varied projects that were simultaneously initiated in and carried out from locations such as India, Iraq, Algiers and Cuba? How does such a fundamentally transnational character of collaborative initiatives expand our grasp of global media histories? What do we make of institutional collaborations that unsettle our understandings of top-down and bottom-up activities? How should we frame the persistence of racial logics that NAM actors faced in the realm of international media governance? And how do NAM’s failures, alongside the simultaneous persistence of its legacies, trouble existing conceptions of media temporalities? We will bring together scholars who are tackling these and other questions to provide a greater depth and geographical scope to media and communication studies’ understanding of the long history of global connectivity. By centering historical projects of media decolonization, we also aim to advance the field’s contemporary efforts to decolonize and de-canonize knowledge production. This ICA preconference continues from two previous preconferences held in Canada and Australia respectively: “Media and Communication Studies in Global Contexts: A Critical History” and “Repressed Histories of Communication and Media Studies.” The preconference will be organized as a set of four roundtables and we invite submissions that address one of the following roundtable topics: * Develop critical histories of the disruptions and consolidations of media industries in postcolonial and non-aligned contexts, with a particular emphasis on institutional and political economic analysis. * (Re)Assess the role of popular icons in the Non-Aligned Movement (e.g. from Nasser and Nehru to Mariam Makeba and Bruce Lee) across various media forms including but not limited to films and newsreels, radio, television, posters and pamphlets, music. * Consider Non-Aligned media practices as forms of anti-colonial worldmaking and knowledge production, especially in their relation to transnational feminist, queer, disability, and other justice movements. * Explore contemporary re-activations of nonaligned visions in response to renewed pressures to align with or against regimes of power in the context of contemporary geopolitics. Information about submissions Authors should submit an extended abstract of 350-400 words (excluding references) to cargc(a)asc.upenn.edu. In a single PDF, please include: your name, institutional affiliation, email address, title of your proposed presentation, and abstract. The deadline for submissions is December 15th, 2024, 23:59 GMT. Authors will be notified by January 30, 2025 if their abstract has been accepted. Attendance to the preconference has a general USD 50.00 fee. Please note that we will be able to defray registration costs and provide some travel funding for panelists. Organizers: Eszter Zimanyi, University of Pennsylvania Sima Kokotovic, University of Pennsylvania Aswin Punathambekar, University of Pennsylvania Simone Natale, University of Turin Usha Raman, University of Hyderabad Emily Keightley, Loughborough University Jing Wang, University of Wisconsin-Madison Ignatius Suglo, University of Richmond ------------------------------------------------------------ Eszter Zimanyi, Ph.D. Senior Research Manager Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania Pronouns: she/her http://www.eszterzimanyi.com Recent Publications Interrogating the Limits of Humanitarian Art: The Uncomfortable Invitations of Ai Weiwei<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/25785273.2022.2094613?journalCo…> Virtually Wandering the Migration Trail<http://10.1353/cj.2022.0032> Humanitarian Immersions<https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/47754> Discarded Visions - virtual exhibit<https://www.spectatorjournal.org/>

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