April 2026 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

Webinar: Colonialism in the digital age - The fight for a livable future
by Bahar Celik Muller 18 May '26

18 May '26

***Apologies for cross-posting*** Join us for a timely discussion on how artificial intelligence and digital systems are reshaping global inequalities and ecological futures. Date & Time: May 12, 2026 03:00 PM in London Online Register free<https://bristol-ac-uk.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_P8Kha5w9TnqIGWFhByuC7Q#/r…> In an era of rapid technological expansion, climate crisis and deepening injustice, how can we understand and resist new forms of digital colonialism? What alternatives might support a more just and livable future? Chair: * Martin Parker, Professor of Organisation Studies at the University of Bristol and member of the Centre for Sociodigital Futures. Speakers: * Dan McQuillan, author of Resisting AI<https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/resisting-ai?utm_source=Bristol+Univer…>, will explore how contemporary AI reflects dynamics of colonialism, from resource extraction to renewed interest in eugenics, and will introduce the idea of “decolonial decomputing” as a way to resist technocolonialism. * Masoumeh Iran Mansouri, co-author of How to be ‘anti-AI’ in the 21st century<https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journals/gpe/4/2/article-p18…>, will examine how AI can intensify exploitation, exclusion and environmental harm, and will discuss pathways for resisting these developments. * Patrick Brodie, co-author of From the Bog to the Cloud<https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/from-the-bog-to-the-cloud?utm_source=B…>, will discuss how dominant tech companies shape digital and decarbonisation agendas, reinforcing global economic dependencies. All registered attendees will receive a recording of the webinar and a 50% discount on all Bristol University Press books. https://bristol-ac-uk.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_P8Kha5w9TnqIGWFhByuC7Q#/r… Bahar Muller Senior Marketing Executive Browse free and open resources in Decolonization Browse free and open access resources in Decolonization<https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/subject/Decolonization-Collection…> <https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/subject/Decolonization-Collection…> and Sociology<https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/collection/SOC-Collection?submitt…> <https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/collection/SOC-Collection?submitt…> from BUP. If you would like to access all resources in our Sociology Collection<https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/subject/SOC-Collection?utm_source…>, please request access to it via your institution’s library. We offer EBA options and tiered pricing on our collections tailored to smaller organisations and their libraries. For more details, institutions can contact our team at bup-digital(a)bristol.ac.uk. You may also be interested in our Sociology journals<https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/page/journals?utm_source=listserv…>, including the open access Global Social Challenges Journal<https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/gsc/view/journals/gscj/gscj-overv…>. Keep up with all our news and get a 25% discount on ALL Bristol University Press and Policy Press books by signing up to our newsletter<https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/signup-bup-pp?utm_source=signature&utm…>. Follow us on all social channels: Bluesky<https://ow.ly/8Eo050UfPKH> | Bluesky (Journals)<https://ow.ly/gNXc50UfPKG> | Instagram <https://ow.ly/GFZB50UfPKB> | LinkedIn<https://ow.ly/CXSX50UfPKF> | Threads <https://ow.ly/hONt50UfPKE> | Facebook<https://ow.ly/GFZB50UfPKB> Our charity for 2026 is One25. Find out more and donate here.<https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/charity?utm_source=signature&utm_mediu…>

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Workshop on the politics of GenAI governance
by João C. Magalhães 14 May '26

14 May '26

Dear all, Klara Matusewicz (University of Manchester), Robert Gorwa (WZB Berlin), and I are putting together a two-day workshop on 'The Politics of GenAI Governance' at Mancept 2026 in Manchester, September 2–4. See the CfA below and, if you’re interested, please send a *500-word abstract by May 21* to joao.magalhaes(a)manchester.ac.uk. Full details of Mancept 2026 here: https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/activities/mancept-workshops-2026/ — The politics of GenAI governance The governance of GenAI is often framed as a computational task (how can code and data ensure that AI systems reliably do what designers want them to do?), an abstract normative question (which norms should AI systems behave in accordance with?), or a narrowly legal challenge (how can different regulatory bodies define, codify, and enforce these norms, in computational and institutional terms?). Yet it is also, obviously and perhaps centrally, a political problem: which actors, representing whose interests, have less or more power and legitimacy to influence the mechanisms whereby GenAI is governed into being? Who’s set to benefit and lose from these processes? The need for perspectives rooted in political theory is made increasingly urgent by two trends in how GenAI governance is defined. First, the discourse about what governance means and what constitutes success is rapidly consolidating around a narrow set of actors and understandings. As it is often spurred by private companies which operate with limited public oversight, this kind of discourse and its related proposals call for an inquiry into the rights, responsibilities, and ideologies that underpin them, particularly as the datasets and training used for governing GenAI have previously resulted in bias, exclusion and the reinforcement of existing systems of oppression. Second, governance proposals aspire to a global scope, implicitly advancing claims about universal values. Such disregard for pluralism raises questions about legitimacy, and concerns about the associated asymmetries in geopolitical power. Importantly, these trends unfold amid a historical crisis of liberal democracy. As GenAI becomes increasingly embedded in everyday life, its governance is no longer just about preventing reward hacking during training or the hypothetical, potentially catastrophic consequences of mis-specified goals. It is about institutionalising quotidian norms and inequities, thus encoding particular visions of social order into what is quickly becoming a pervasive, all-purpose sort of infrastructure. To truly understand and intervene in the governance of GenAI, we need first treat it as a collective and contested political practice. This workshop addresses this urgent task by inviting contributions that grapple with the visible and covert disagreement, authorities, and rationalities that shape the emergence of GenAI under conditions of extreme uncertainty. In particular, we welcome scholars working on topics related, but not limited, to the following guiding questions: 1. How should we conceptualise GenAI governance as a form of power, and in which ways does it differ (or not) from previous control systems? 2. How does GenAI governance intersect with theories and the current realities of democracy and authoritarianism? 3. Can traditional approaches explain the political economy of GenAI? 4. In what ways do existing GenAI governance proposals implicitly rely on contested political assumptions (e.g. moral realism, liberal individualism, etc)? 5. To what extent and how should GenAI governance be democratised? -- João C. Magalhães Senior Lecturer in AI Trust and Security | School of Art, Languages, and Cultures<https://www.alc.manchester.ac.uk> Head of the AI Trust and Security Cluster | Centre for Digital Trust and Society<https://www.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/research/centres-institutes/cluster…> University of Manchester https://jcmagalhaes.com/ Selected publications: The emergence of platform illiberalism, 2026 <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14614448261424889?_gl=1*97g6hw*_up…> (New Media & Society, w/ Clara Iglesias Keller and Rob Gorwa) | Socially blind engineering in Facebook's foundational technologies, 2025<https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13347-025-00971-9> (Philosophy & Technology, w/ Nick Couldry) | Open-ended technological inevitability in journalistic discourses about AI, 2025<http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21670811.2025.2522281#d1e238> (Digital Journalism, w/ Rik Smit) | A history of objectionability in Twitter’s moderation practices, 2023<https://academic.oup.com/joc/advance-article/doi/10.1093/joc/jqad015/720476…> (Journal of Communication, w/ Emillie de Keulenaar, Bharath Ganesh) | Social media, social unfreedom, 2022 <https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/commun-2022-0040/html> (Communications, w/ Jun Yu) | Big Tech, data colonialism and the reconfiguration of social good, 2021<https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/15995> (International Journal of Communication, w/ Nick Couldry) | Considering algorithmic ethical subjectivation, 2018<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2056305118768301> (Social Media + Society)

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Re: [Air-L] ARPANET resurrection update and possible significances?
by Charles Melvin Ess 06 May '26

06 May '26

Hi Ulf, And many thanks in turn for the pointer to the CHM. I can only imagine how valuable and enjoyable those live demos must have been for you and your students - lucky you! Even better - especially for those of us not within reasonable travel distance to Mountain View, CA - as Jacob Johanssen helpfully pointed out, it has been possible for some time to interact with a version of ELIZA at <https://sites.google.com/view/elizaarchaeology/home>. In retrospect, moreover, I see that I may not have been as clear as to why I called attention to the possibility of running a version of ELIZA on the reconstructed ARPANET. I meant to highlight ELIZA as a test scenario for getting acquainted with the reconstructed ARPANET project was that interacting with the program gives a new user some experience with the, um, leisurely pace of the communication across the network, along with the (quickly irritating) sounds of the teletype at work, etc. I haven't spent enough time there to see how far / easy it might be to strike up a conversation with someone else online to go still further: so I thought this might be as good a place as any to start with. Clearly: this is the golden opportunity to start up the Association of ARPANET Researchers... ;-) In the meantime: I'm further grateful for these pointers as they prompted me to check further into a particular curiosity I've had for quite some time regarding the ELIZA / DOCTOR programs themselves. As a start, I'm not sure which version of the program is on offer at the elizaarcheology site. Not that it matters much to most of us - but as the terrific paper by Lane et al (including our colleague David M. Berry) explains, Weizenbaum's original 1963 version was written in MAD-LISP - whereas the version that became "the lingua franca of AI" was a clone written in 1966 by Bernie Cosell in LISP (Lane et al, 2025: <10.1109/MAHC.2025.3564095>) The latter version has also been available for some time for those of us lucky enough to have a PiDP-10 sitting on our desk - a Raspberry-Pi driven emulator / replica of the DEC PDP-10 that was used at MIT, among other places, in those days. This also appears to be the version available to the rest of us now via the ARPANET reconstruction project I mentioned: <https://obsolescence.dev/arpanet_home#> when following their first 2026 scenario: SCENARIO 1: MIT-AI DOCTOR === HOST #134 Engaging the latter opens up the same ITS operating system at work in the PiDP-10 instantiation of ELIZA; both invoke LISP alone, etc. So I wonder if the version on elizaarcheology is the Cosell version rather than the more recently discovered (2025) and only very recently reconstructed (2026) Weizenbaum version in MAD-LISP? Perhaps Jacob Johanssen and/or David Berry will know off the tops of their very capacious heads? In any case, kudos to David Berry and his colleagues who further made the Weizenbaum MAD-LISP version available to anyone working in a UNIX-like environment: <https://github.com/rupertl/eliza-ctss?tab=readme-ov-file#readme> (Lane et al, 2025, p. 76) David was also interviewed on the reconstruction of this earliest version here: <https://www.livescience.com/technology/eliza-the-worlds-1st-chatbot-was-jus…> Again, many thanks all around - and happy hacking! - c. On 26/04/2026 15:33, Ulf-Dietrich Reips wrote: > Hello Charles, all: > thank you for the pointer to the wonderful ARPANET recreation project. > > The computer history musuem (https://computerhistory.org) used to have a > live demo of the original ELIZA, which for us in psychology and > psychotherapy research became very important in both showing how > simulation could inform us about effective ingredients of psychotherapy > and how computers could contribute to mental health. I visited the > museum first in Boston at its original location and some years ago also > in Mountain View. > > The museum provides both very insightful explanations AND the hands-on > experience needed to at least partly make young people understand what > it was like to experience software on pre-Internet computers and the > beginning Internet. The exhibition was very nicely done, I highly > recommend a visit. > > Best wishes from Europe, > ulf > > At 11:12 Uhr +0200 26.04.2026, Charles Melvin Ess via Air-L wrote: >> Hi AoIRists, >> >> As I mentioned in an earlier note to Morten Bay, there is an active >> project to recreate the ARPANET from ca. 1972. You can see the update >> here: >> >> <https://obsolescence.dev/arpanet_home> >> >> Including the chance to log in yourself to one of the now 35 working >> nodes. >> >> One of the documents referenced here is titled >> >> SCENARIOS for using the ARPANET at the INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON >> COMPUTER COMMUNICATION, Washington, D.C., October 24-26, 1972 >> >> and is in fact reproduced in the pages giving further instructions on >> logging in - along with 2026 scenarios that might also be fun to play >> with. >> >> One of the available programs from the MIT.AI node is: >> == >> DOCTOR is a LISP program written by Joseph Weizenbaum and described in >> "ELIZA - A Computer Program For the Study of Natural Language >> Communication Between Man And Machine" in the Communications of the >> ACM, January 1966. >> DOCTOR simulates a psychiatric interview with a Rogerian psychotherapist. >> == >> (I'll come back to this below.) >> >> I know that ARPANET is central to the work of e.g.,Janet Abbate's >> early history, _Inventing the Internet_ (1999). >> But what I'm asking here, especially of historians who know these >> domains far better than I: >> 1) how far did these early exchanges, so far as they could be followed >> and/or documented - and/or, as at least some study of primary aims, >> practices, affordances, etc. might have been possible - enter into >> early research on CMC? >> 2) Might this reconstruction project, insofar as it grants access to >> "the rest of us," be of possible use / interest for historical / >> current research on CMC and its descendants? >> E.g., I know a great deal has been written about ELIZA - but, to my >> knowledge at least, not with direct access to the working program >> itself. I suspect the working program would give researchers a chance >> to not only become much more familiar with how the program works and >> "behaves," but also to try out hypotheses as to how different sorts of >> engagements, expectations, etc. might be dis/confirmed through >> actually using it? >> >> In any case, to quote the welcome message from the first terminal I >> tried: Happy Hacking! >> >> - charles >> _______________________________________________ >> 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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Comic Book Other Tech Worlds Are Possible, Vol. 2, with Argentine Federation of Tech Co-ops
by Rafael Do Nascimento Grohmann 30 Apr '26

30 Apr '26

Hi there, In the context of May Day, DigiLabour/University of Toronto and Argentine Federation of Tech Worker Co-ops (FACTTIC) launch Other Tech Worlds Are Possible, Volume 2, the second issue in a comic series that highlights experiences of worker collectivities across Latin America who are expanding the meanings of technologies. Read it here: - English: https://digilabour.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Other-Tech-Worlds-Are-… - Spanish: https://digilabour.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Other-Tech-Worlds-Are-… - Portuguese: https://digilabour.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Other-Tech-Worlds-Are-… About the comic Imagine a constellation of Argentine tech cooperatives: each one shining on its own, but far more powerful when they connect and work together. That is FACTTIC. In this second volume of Other Tech Worlds Are Possible, readers are introduced, through a fantastical narrative rich in visual metaphor, to how cooperativism and tech development grounded in the solidarity economy are transforming Argentina. Sit in on assemblies where values such as diversity, democracy, innovation, queer technologies, communication, and equality are held in common. Discover projects born from cooperation between cooperatives, including concrete initiatives like IA4Coops, an artificial intelligence proposal made by cooperatives, for cooperatives. This is a story about the power of cooperating to build fairer technologies. About the project Other Tech Worlds Are Possible uses the comic format to share artistic narratives of worker collectivities across Latin America who are expanding the meanings of technology while struggling for social justice. These stories celebrate the power of political, social, technological, and artistic imagination to tell different stories about technology, beyond the ideology of Silicon Valley. The first volume, produced in collaboration with the Tech Sector of the Homeless Workers' Movement in Brazil<https://digilabour.com.br/comic-book-other-tech-worlds-are-possible-with-ho…> (MTST), showed how technologies are also built from the territories, critically, creatively, and as part of the struggle for housing and social justice The project is supported by the University of Toronto, through the UTSC Departmental Research Fund awarded to the Department of Arts, Culture and Media, and by the SSHRC Insight Development Grant for the Worker-Owned Intersectional Platforms (WOIP) project. Credits * Script and research: Natália Sierpinski * Illustration, lettering, and layout: Germana Viana * Coordination and editing: Rafael Grohmann * Co-production and review: FACTTIC * Collaborators: Cecilia Muñoz Cancela (Código Libre), Laura Arcuri (Animus), Elena Ficher (ALT) https://digilabour.com.br/comic-book-other-tech-worlds-are-possible-vol-2-w… best, Rafael -- dr. Rafael Grohmann Assistant Professor of Media Studies Department of Arts, Culture and Media<https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/acm/rafael-grohmann> Faculty of Information<https://ischool.utoronto.ca/profile/rafael-grohmann/> University of Toronto Leader, DigiLabour<https://digilabour.com.br/> Research Associate, University of Oxford<https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/profiles/rafael-grohmann/> Founding Editor, Platforms & Society<https://journals.sagepub.com/home/PNS> Principal Investigator, Worker-Owned Intersectional Platforms (WOIP)<https://digilabour.com.br/worker-owned-intersectional-platforms-woip/> Co-Lead, Creative Labour and Critical Futures (CLCF)<https://criticaldigitalmethods.ca/creative-labour-critical-futures/> Researcher, AI Policy Observatory for the World of Work<https://www.essex.ac.uk/research-projects/ai-policy-observatory-for-the-wor…> Senior Fellow, Massey College<https://www.masseycollege.ca/> Faculty Affiliate, Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society<https://srinstitute.utoronto.ca/> <https://srinstitute.utoronto.ca/>

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Workshops on social media, AI and politics
by Ira Solomatina 30 Apr '26

30 Apr '26

Dear colleagues, We at LMU’s Small Platforms research group are organising a series of workshops on the state of social media platforms and AI that may be of interest to your BA and MA students. The workshops will take place in Berlin, London and Nairobi during May and June 2026. We would appreciate it if you could share information about the workshops with your students. A full description is below. Feel free to write me if you have any questions at all. Many thanks! *Relevant dates:* 13–15 May, London @ Goldsmiths 19–21 May, Berlin @ silent green 10–12 June, Nairobi @ British Council All the best, Ira Solomatina, postdoctoral researcher i.solomatina(a)lmu.de Social Media, AI and Politics – An immersive Workshop How do we understand social media and AI as communicators? What have they done to our social and political life? How do we untether ourselves and reflect on what binds us to social media and AI—each day and every instance—of this hypermediated attention economy? Join us for this immersive 3-day workshop where we will deep dive into one of the most important conversations of our time. The workshop features masterclasses, learning seminars, interactive games, and collaborative exercises—to together think through AI and social media. You will create and analyze fakes, play games, participate in lectures, do podcasts and get busy with “data”. Participation is free. No travel bursaries will be offered to participants. Lunch, snacks and drinks will be served on all three days of the workshop. With the participants’ consent, selected discussions and interactive sessions conducted during the workshop can contribute to the facilitators’ ethnographic research on media, technology and society. The consent form will be handed out on the first day of the workshop. Participation is voluntary. All information will be treated confidentially. The workshop is hosted by Center for Digital Dignity, LMU Munich, Germany, and organized as part of the European Research Council Project, SMALLPLATFORMS, Facilitators: Sahana Udupa (Principal Investigator), Ira Solomatina, Job Mwaura, Craig Ryder and Neelabh Gupta (Postdoctoral Researchers), and Bastian Buitkamp (Research Associate). SMALLPLATFORMS (“Beyond the Big Tech: Contentious Speech on Small Platforms”) is a 5-year project (2025-2029) funded by the European Research Council Consolidator Grant. It explores small social media platforms in a cross-cultural context, through fieldwork in Germany, India, Kenya and the UK. Using a critical cultural model, the project explores whether and in what way forms of contentious speech are associated with practices on small platforms and how they differ from dynamics on big platforms. For more information, see https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101122348. Register for Berlin: https://www.small-platforms.gwi.uni-muenchen.de/workshop/social-media-ai-an… Register for London: https://www.small-platforms.gwi.uni-muenchen.de/workshop/social-media-ai-an… Register for Nairobi: https://www.small-platforms.gwi.uni-muenchen.de/workshop/social-media-ai-an…

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4S 2026 Toronto CfA: "Does Generative AI Flip the Script? A Look at Power and Use in Everyday Sociotechnical Practice"
by Gabriel ALCARAS 29 Apr '26

29 Apr '26

Dear colleagues, I would like to share with you a call for abstracts to panel 26 “Does Generative AI Flip the Script? A Look at Power and Use in Everyday Sociotechnical Practice”. We welcome empirical contributions focusing on professional, domestic, or everyday uses of generative AI systems, as well as on situations involving workarounds, limited adoption, or refusal. The panel engages with the notion of the script in STS and the challenges GenAI poses to it, asking how processes of scripting and de-scription are being reconfigured. The panel description is below. Please reach out with any questions at gabriel.alcaras(a)sciencespo.fr. All the best, Gabriel --- *Does Generative AI Flip the Script? A Look at Power and Use in Everyday Sociotechnical Practice* *Gabriel Alcaras, Sciences Po; Donato Ricci, Sciences Po* Open Panel #26 This panel asks whether generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) calls for a rethinking of a foundational STS concept: the script (Akrich, 1992). Drawing on a cinematographic analogy, classic analyses of scripts showed how designers inscribe values and frameworks of action into technical artifacts, which users then perform and reinterpret in practice, much as actors work from a scenario. GenAI calls this tradition into question. Academics from different fields have suggested that it differs in kind from scripted artifacts: computer scientists call them General Purpose Technology (Eloundou et al., 2024), STS scholars emphasize their “task-agnostic” character and the absence of a clearly delimited program of action (Schulz-Schaeffer, 2025), while Labour Process Theorists describe them as a “universal machine,” capable of scriptless absorption of human capacities (Steinhoff, 2024). The study of actual uses and practices is decisive for understanding what becomes of scripts in the era of GenAI. Do scripts still meaningfully structure action? Are they operating through new forms of encoding and prescription? Does GenAI shift the burden of scripting onto users, who must repeatedly specify tasks? Or does its apparent unscripted nature open space for creative or subversive uses? More generally, what does de-scription mean for GenAI? This panel contributes to current STS debates and the 4S Technopower theme by asking whether generative AI reconfigures how power is enacted in everyday sociotechnical practice. We invite empirical contributions that document how these questions unfold across professional, domestic, and everyday uses of GenAI. Papers may focus on concrete enactments of these systems, as well as on situations of limited use, circumvention, or refusal. We particularly welcome studies centered on minority groups or practices. Contributions may also engage with methodological challenges, proposing inventive or participatory approaches that privilege the perspectives of users and workers over dominant accounts aligned with tech firms and corporate hype. The deadline for submitting proposals is April 30, 2026. Submissions can be made via the 4S website at https://www.4sonline.org/accepted_open_panels_toronto.php <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.4sonline.org_accep…> --- --- Gabriel Alcaras Postdoc Researcher - Ecologies of LLMs Practices (EL2MP) https://ecologiesofllm.medialab.sciencespo.fr/ médialab - Sciences Po

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REMINDER - Invitation: Webinar on LGBTQ+ Digital Resistance in Hungary (5th May 2026)
by Anna Zsubori 29 Apr '26

29 Apr '26

Dear Colleagues, Apologies for cross-posting. --- You are warmly invited to join us for an upcoming webinar featuring Mariann Filó (activist, psychologist & Budapest Pride organiser), Ádám András Kanicsár (activist, journalist & social media expert), and Joci Márton (Roma LGBTQ+ activist) on Hungarian LGBTQ+ citizens' use of social media. This event is chaired by Dr Anna Zsubori and draws on research conducted during her British Academy-funded postdoctoral fellowship at Loughborough University. --- Sites of Hostility and Resistance: Navigating the Digital LGBTQ+ Public Sphere in Hungary 📅 Date: 5th May 2026 🕠 Time: 5pm-7.30pm (UK time) 📍 Registration: This event is FREE to attend, but registration is essential. To book your place, please email: a.zsubori(a)lboro.ac.uk<mailto:a.zsubori@lboro.ac.uk> 🎤 About the event: Various digital media platforms in illiberal contexts function as a complex double-edged sword. In Hungary, they often act as additional channels for illiberal attitudes, amplifying state-sponsored negative sentiments. Yet, these same spaces remain vital for the expression of liberal views and resistance. This session explores this tension, focusing on how social media spaces have become sites of both systemic hostility and profound resistance for LGBTQ+ communities in Hungary. We will be joined by Hungarian guest speakers who will discuss the lived reality of navigating this digital environment. The discussion will cover the online and offline consequences of the regime’s anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, as well as the state-encouraged harassment. Beyond victimisation, our speakers will highlight the diverse strategies of resistance, exploring how marginalised groups utilise digital media to build counter-narratives, maintain community safety, and challenge the illiberal status quo. The session features a panel of individuals at the forefront of this struggle, including activists, journalists, and individuals with direct lived experience of digital victimisation. By bringing together those who document these harms and those who experience them, this webinar aims to provide a nuanced understanding of how political communication in an illiberal regime translates into real-world harm, and how resistance persists in the face of structural exclusion. This webinar will be of interest to academics across communication, digital media, gender and LGBTQ+ studies, human rights, and political science, as well as non-academic audiences interested in the lived realities of LGBTQ+ minorities and their digital experiences. 💸 The event is supported by the British Academy and Loughborough University. Looking forward to seeing you there! Also, feel free to circulate this invitation! All the best, Anna Dr Anna Zsubori, FHEA<https://www.lboro.ac.uk/subjects/communication-media/staff/anna-zsubori/?fb…> (she/her) British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow<https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/postdoctoral-fellowships/past-a…> Participant of the inaugural British Academy Elevate Programme, 2025/26 Cohort<https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/early-career-researcher-network/british…> School of Social Sciences and Humanities Loughborough University Loughborough, LE11 3TU, UK E: a.zsubori(a)lboro.ac.uk<mailto:yl304@le.ac.uk>

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query on publishers agreements for AI-related licensing
by Philippa Smith 28 Apr '26

28 Apr '26

Dear AOIR members, I'm curious to know whether any of you have experience with publishers offering you to sign an opt-in agreement for an AI-related licensing concerning your publications with them. This is a new experience for me and while it promises the opportunity for some compensation (royalty payment of 20% of net receipts attributable to my work) as a result of companies wishing to licence publishers' content in the development and provision of generative AI technologies, I've heard differing views about the pros and cons of signing. I'd be interested in any feedback you might offer to help me make my decision. But I am sure that this is also of interest to the wider AOIR community and the future use of their published outputs. Thanking you in advance. Philippa Smith, PhD https://www.linkedin.com/in/philippa-smith-nz/

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Call for Papers: "Platformed Mormonism"
by Greenhalgh, Spencer P. 28 Apr '26

28 Apr '26

AoIR colleagues, The Journal of the Mormon Social Science Association (JMSSA) is accepting submissions for a special issue exploring the intersection of Mormon traditions and digital platforms. Papers accepted for the special issue will receive an honorarium of up to USD 1,000. We welcome interdisciplinary perspectives that explore how the technological, architectural, and political structures of digital platforms are not only governing how Mormonism is perceived, represented, and encountered by the broader public but also mediating and reshaping belief, practice, and community across various Mormon traditions. We welcome both scholarly/empirical studies and shorter reflective submissions. The special editors will work around a series of rolling deadlines beginning on June 1, 2026 and extending through March 1, 2027, with papers published as they are reviewed, accepted, and prepared for publication. Authors whose work is accepted for peer review will be asked to peer-review other submissions. More details about scope, submission, and honoraria can be found on the JMSSA website at: https://jmssa.org/cfp-platformed-mormonism/ I am also happy to answer questions off list. This is a niche area of research, but we at JMSSA would love to see submissions with all of the expertise of AoIR brought to Mormon phenomena and contexts! Feel free to share with those outside of the mailing list who may have an interest in this topic. Best, Spencer ------ Spencer Greenhalgh, PhD (he/him/his) Program Coordinator, Information Communication Technology Associate Professor of Information Communication Technology School of Information Science College of Communication and Information University of Kentucky Production Editor, Journal of the Mormon Social Science Association website: spencergreenhalgh[dot]com[slash]work zoom: uky[dot]zoom[dot]us[slash]greenhalgh

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Invitation to Book Launch: Critical Political Economy and Southern Approaches to AI: A Dialogue
by Preeti Raghunath 28 Apr '26

28 Apr '26

Hi everyone, I hope you are well. Our group of fabulous authors and I as editor of the new collection Critical <https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-032-14090-6> Political Economy and Southern Approaches to AI: A Dialogue <https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-032-14090-6> (Palgrave Macmillan, 2026) would like to invite you to our online book launch. I would love for you to come by and hear our authors speak about their respective chapters and the research underpinning them. Online joining details as well as information about the book are below: Online book launch of ‘Critical Political Economy and Southern Approaches to AI: A Dialogue’, edited by Preeti Raghunath Date: May 12, 2026/Tuesday Meeting time and time zones: Yogyakarta: 8 - 9.30 pm New Delhi: 6.30 - 8 pm São Paulo: 10 - 11.30 am Toronto/Ontario: 9 - 10:30 am Texas: 8 - 9:30 am Sheffield: 2:00 – 3:30pm Google Meet joining info: https://meet.google.com/xhy-vyha-jcd About the book: This book presents a dialogue between two seemingly incompatible bodies of social theories - Critical Political Economy and Southern approaches - to the study of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. In doing so, the book presents scholarly engagement with the ways in which AI is being experienced in sites in the Global South, with authors exploring questions of sociality, further entrenching of inequities along labour and caste lines, socio-legal ramifications of digital IDs, and undesired outcomes such as deepfakes and their integration in the political ecosystem, among others. These perspectives interrogate and provide scholarly vocabulary to understand the various applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in our professional, legal and media spaces. Table of contents 1. Conversing Across Incommensurables?: Critical Political Economy and Southern Approaches to Artificial Intelligence Preeti Raghunath 2. Data, Anthropology and the Surplus Value of Sociality Deepak Prince 3. The Plight of Female Gig Workers in Indonesia Suci Lestari Yuana 4. A Critical Political Economy of Campaign Deepfakes in Indian Elections Sananda Sahoo 5. The Brazilian State and Human Rights: Citizen Identification and Informational Separation of Powers Gabrielle Bezerra Sales Sarlet, Lucas Reckziegel Weschenfelder 6. Caste Bias in Indian Prison Datasets: A Data Feminism Study on Kaggle.com Nishanshi Shukla 7. Epilogue: From Frontier Technologies to Frontier Lives Preeti Raghunath This book is published as part of the Palgrave Global Media Policy and Business Series <https://link.springer.com/series/14699>, which has published over 22 books since its launch in 2012. Concentrating on the social, cultural, political, political-economic, institutional, and technological changes arising from the globalization and digitization of media and communications industries, the series considers the impact of these changes on business practice, regulation and policy, and social outcomes. If you’re interested in pitching to the book series, you can reach the editors and editorial board here <https://link.springer.com/series/14699/editors>. Looking forward to seeing you there! Best, Preeti Dr Preeti Raghunath, SFHEA Lecturer in Digital Media and Society School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations University of Sheffield, UK 🌐preetiraghunath.com

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