- Air-L - lists.aoir.org

Invitation to workshop
by Lisa Reutter 02 Feb '24

02 Feb '24

Hei all! Together with Itzelle Medina Perea from Sheffield University, I'm organizing a workshop about translating critical data and algorithm studies into impact in Copenhagen. How can scholars within critical data and algorithm studies influence people and organizations to think about datafication in a different way that will (hopefully) produce better decisions and societal outcomes than would have been achieved without the presence of their work? Join us for a two-day workshop to discuss impact-related activities. Deadline for application is the 7 February 2024. No abstract needed. Find all information about the workshop here: https://cts.ku.dk/tim-talks/2024/translating-critical-data-and-algorithm-st… The aim of the workshop is three-fold. 1. Provide a platform for scholars associated with critical data and algorithm studies to discuss their role as researchers of technological change. 2. Initiate and establish a network of knowledge-exchange on impact-related activities in the field of critical data and algorithm studies. As part of this effort, we will publish public resources online after the workshop to share the knowledge produced with other researchers. 3. Provide a safe and friendly environment to discuss potential collaborations to develop impact-related activities and products (e.g dialogue events or public sector guidelines) We are looking forward to welcoming you in Copenhagen! Best, Lisa and Itzelle!

1 0

Special Issue: Social Media and Platform Work: Stories, Practices, and workers' organisation" (Convergence Journal) edited by Júlia Vilasís-Pamos, Fernanda Pires, Rafael Grohmann and Willian Fernandes Araujo
by Fernanda Pires 02 Feb '24

02 Feb '24

Dear colleagues, *Convergence* journal just published the special issue *Social media and platform work: Stories, practices, and workers’ organisation*, edited by Júlia Vilasís-Pamos, me, Rafael Grohmann and Willian Fernandes Araujo. This special issue aims to deepen the understanding of how platform workers engage with social media. During the last decade, social media have been instrumental within platform work because they are fundamental to this type of labour. Platform workers’ use of social media can be considered forms of communication, socialisation and organisation. Through WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and other channels, workers can share tips, stories, and practices. Therefore, it is crucial to develop new understandings of the different uses, discourses, practices and stories that emerge when platform work intersects with social media. In the introductory article, we highlighted the roles of social media for platform labour, especially social media affordances in platform work cultures, social media as labour, and socialisation, solidarity and narratives. */TABLE OF CONTENTS/* /Social media and platform work: Stories, practices, and workers’ organisation/ Júlia Vilasís-Pamos, Fernanda Pires, Rafael Grohmann and Willian Fernandes Araujo https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13548565241227391 /Cooperative solidarity among crowdworkers? Social learning practices on a crowdtesting social media platform/ Annika Becker, Leonard Ecker, Inga Külpmann, Karen Schwien, and Patrick Stobbe https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/13548565231183298 /Delivery workers’ visibility struggles: Weapons of the gig, (extra)ordinary social media, and strikes/ Ergin Bulut and Adem Yeşilyurt https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/13548565231188415 /The porous boundaries of public and private messages: Solidarity networks of Latin American food delivery workers in NYC/ Ambar Reyes https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/13548565231210984 /What is so funny about platform labour in Brazil? Ride-hailing drivers’ use of humour and memes on Facebook groups/ Fernanda Pires, Tugce Ataci and Willian Fernandes Araujo https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/13548565231160622 /Gig workers, critical visuality and humour in a digital context: The graphic representation of riders as a form of social criticism/ Sandra Martorell and Antoni Roig Telo https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/13548565231181981 /Exposing the mess in the online kitchen: Bon Appetit and digital continuities in legacy media’s workplace exploitations/ Emmelle Israel https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/13548565231193121 /Cooperative affordances: How instant messaging apps afford learning, resistance and solidarity among food delivery workers/ Tiziano Bonini, Emiliano Treré, Zizheng Yu, Swati Singh, Daniele Cargnelutti and Francisco Javier López-Ferrández https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/13548565231153505 /The mutual configuration of affordances and technological frames: Content creators in the Chilean influencer industry/ Arturo Arriagada and Ignacio Siles https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/13548565231157364 /Delivery riders’ cultural production in Spain: A thematic analysis of their self-representation on YouTube/ Fernanda Pires, Jose Tomasena and Martina Piña https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/13548565231161252 /Partners or workers? Mexican app deliverers on YouTube and TikTok/ Gabriela Elisa Sued and Arturo Rodriguez Rodriguez https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/13548565231179963 /Self-representation as platform work: Stories about working as social media content creators/ Fabian Hoose and Sophie Rosenbohm https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/13548565231185863 /Influencers’ Instagram imaginaries as a global phenomenon: Negotiating precarious interdependencies on followers, the platform environment, and commercial expectations/ Vanessa Richter and Zhen Ye https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/13548565231178918 /‘Traffic rewards’, ‘algorithmic visibility’, and ‘advertiser satisfaction’: How Chinese short-video platforms cultivate creators in stages/ Yang Huang and WeiMing Ye https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/13548565231211117

1 0

2024 Conference of the Italian Association of Political Communication (AssoComPol)
by Antonio Martella 02 Feb '24

02 Feb '24

***2024 Conference of the Italian Association of Political Communication (AssoComPol)*** The new European public sphere, the crises and challenges of "post-truth" 30 May - 1 June 2024, University of Catania, Italy https://www.compol.it/eventi/convegno/convegno-2024/ (under construction) One of the salient aspects in the recent dynamic transformation of public opinion is the process of integration between national and European communication spaces, which together increasingly converge on a scenario of complex global interdependencies. While this integrative trend was taking shape, itself a topic of debate and controversy, the European arena had to deal with new challenges, that mainly derived from a succession of global crises (economic, migratory, pandemic, war). These challenges, as well as generating geopolitical and economic instability, have highlighted a further and deeper impact of the transformations of the communication context, such as digitalisation, platformisation, polarization and the set of phenomena that cluster around the imprecise and debated concept of post-truth. The crisis phases have highlighted the progressive shift towards the European sphere of many issues that previously featured in national contexts of debate and policy-making. This has made this process of Europeanization an object of persistent attention in flows of political communication, and given integration itself a structure of polarized politicization. Due to the growing importance of the Union and the greater prominence of European-level issues in national political-media systems, it can be hypothesized that the phase of European elections as "second-order" elections in member countries has ended. One significant aspect is that they have become an object of interest for some foreign governments who, through the propagation of fake news and propaganda, attempt to influence the choices of citizens and governments to the point of undermining the integrity of the elections. At the level of individual states, we note the role of populist parties and their leaders, who are accused of spreading content of dubious veracity to influence electoral contests and referendums. These processes are considered a threat to the values of civil coexistence and public debate, and trust in democratic institutions. The increased salience of the issues now found in European public space poses challenges to the agency of organized civil society. The structure of national public spheres has in fact changed, giving greater space to new actors with the ability to set agendas and influence public debate. In this context, a different methodological approach has made it possible to overcome the top-down/bottom-up dichotomy of participatory processes in the process of integrating the European communication space. It thus seems appropriate to pay attention to the communicative activities of social movements that operate at a trans-national level (e.g. environmentalists), and to those of interest groups that expand their activities towards the European dimension (trade unions, businesses and consumers). Worthy of interest are the movements of protest, sometimes labeled as populist, which mobilize simultaneously in various European countries, displaying networked transnational connections. These processes are discursively articulated within a media ecosystem that is significantly influenced and distorted by phenomena of intolerance and incivility present in digital environments; communicative exchanges become radicalized and the very frames of the issues are influenced, causing the polarization of the arenas of debate. The world of journalism has followed the process of Europeanization of national spheres and their politicization, often from a critical perspective, underlining the inadequacy of the Union's institutional responses and calling for their reform. This is accompanied by a crisis of journalism, characterized by loss of legitimacy of traditional media, which faces the affirmation of a framework of extreme fragmentation in information practices. It is necessary to deepen our understanding of the transformation of the news generation process, the impact on the role of journalists and editorial staff as gatekeepers and guarantors, and what adaptation and reaction strategies are in place, in the face of the complexity of the debate on information in European space. On the basis of this framework, the call for papers solicits contributions that investigate the transformation of the national and European public sphere with particular attention to the challenges posed by crises, disinformation and manipulation phenomena. The areas investigated are those of electoral campaigns, strategies implemented by political actors and civil society and by traditional media, the impact of platformization processes on the fields of political communication, journalism and all other forms of communication. Theoretical and empirical analysis papers are welcome, with research designs that include qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods methodologies. Some possible relevant topics, though this is not intended to be an exhaustive list: - changes that have occurred and new communication scenarios in the increasingly close and complex relationship between political communication and the public sphere; - the restructuring of ideologies and propaganda practices; - the redefinition of the public agenda in European space; - the transformations and controversial nature of the international-European public debate with reference to processes of ideological and affective polarization, the use of incivility, and forms of discrimination online and offline, also with attention to gender issues; - policies regarding political communication, information and the integrity of elections, formulated by European and national institutions (transparency of platforms and privacy; regulation of electoral campaigns, etc.); - the emergence of new repertoires of extra-institutional political communication linked to protests, social movements and civil society actors, especially of a transnational nature; - transformations and crises of contemporary journalism, with particular attention to the growth of new professional models and the role of the digital platform; - trends that have emerged in the communication styles of leadership and parties in a hybrid and platformized communication ecosystem; - from a discourse analytical perspective, linguistic and/or multimodal aspects of post truth communication; - the technological infrastructure of political participation with particular regard to young generations (digital parties, networks, influencers, memes, UGC); - methodological proposals and theoretical contributions to address the transformations of the public sphere, disinformation and new forms of conflict and political competition; - (computational) propaganda techniques and mis/dis-information strategies in conflict scenarios. Paper proposals must include: name, affiliation and email address, a title and an extended abstract with bibliographic references (600/800 words excluding bibliography), 3 key words. The proposers must also explicitly indicate whether they request the paper to be taken into consideration, after the conference, for publication in the magazine "Comunicazione Politica". In the event of an equal evaluation by referees, the authors who have indicated this option will have priority in selection for the conference. *Useful information on how to write an abstract for AssoComPol conferences is available in the “Abstract Instructions” section* ( https://www.compol.it/eventi/convegno/convegno-2024/ under construction) - Deadline for sending proposals: *11 March 2024* - Acceptance notification: *25 March 2024* - Complete papers must be sent by *May 22, 2024 *to the conference paper room (accessible after login) --

1 0

Visiting International Fellowship scheme, Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield -- closes 6 March 2024
by Tim Highfield 02 Feb '24

02 Feb '24

Dear all, The Department of Sociological Studies at the University of Sheffield is inviting applications from scholars worldwide for its Visiting International Fellowship programme for the 2024-2025 academic year. This is a competitive scheme across the entire thematic scope of the Department, which includes the Digital Media and Society team. With AoIR2024 to be held in Sheffield from 30 October 2024, potential attendees might be interested in applying for this scheme, especially if coming from countries on the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee List of Overseas Development Assistance countries. There are two categories of fellowship: Senior International Fellow and Early Career International Fellow, with one award per category. Fellowships are awarded for the duration of one academic year, and involve a mix of in-person (one visit) and virtual engagement and collaboration. In-person visits are expected to last between 4 and 6 weeks, and should avoid July and August. This is not a paid fellowship, but there is funding provided to support the in-person visit. Applications close on 6 March 2024, and full details about the scheme are available here: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/socstudies/news/apply-our-visiting-internationa… It is strongly advised to discuss a potential application well ahead of time with members of the Department. There are numerous people whose research covers subjects and themes relevant to AoIR members; from a Digital Media and Society / Science, Technology and Medicine in Society perspective, this includes: Dr Hannah Ditchfield (currently on leave) Dr Ysabel Gerrard Dr Eva Giraud Dr Briony Hannell Dr Tim Highfield Professor Helen Kennedy Dr Lianrui Jia Dr Ozge Ozduzen Dr Warren Pearce Dr Preeti Raghunath Dr Harrison Smith Dr Stefania Vicari Dr Kate Weiner Dr Ros Williams You can find contact information for the above, as well as information about the academics across the Department and their research, here: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/socstudies/people/academic-staff The Department of Sociological Studies features four key research themes - Everyday Life and Critical Diversities; Social Inequalities and Social Order; Well-being Across the Lifecourse; and Science, Technology and Medicine in Society (see https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/socstudies/research/research-themes) Potential applicants might see their research as fitting within one or more of these themes, as well as having connections to other research areas, networks, and centres located within the Department. Please do get in touch with any questions. Many thanks, Tim. -- *Dr Tim Highfield | *Pronouns: he, him, his Lecturer in Digital Media & Society Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield C435, The Wave 2 Whitham Road Sheffield S10 2AH Director, Digital Society Network: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/social-sciences/research/digital-society *Latest writing* Highfield, T., & Miltner, K.M. (2023). '‘Platformed solidarity: examining the performative politics of Twitter hashflags’. *Convergence*. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/13548565231199981 Highfield, T. (2023). 'BeReal Now: Digital temporal authenticity on BeReal'. *Flow*, *29*(4): http://www.flowjournal.org/2023/02/bereal_now_temporal_authenticity/ *Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures* <http://timhighfield.net/research/instagram/> (with Tama Leaver and Crystal Abidin; Polity, 2020) *Social Media and Everyday Politics* <http://timhighfield.net/research/social-media-and-everyday-politics/> (Polity, 2016) timhighfield.net / @timhighfield <http://twitter.com/timhighfield>

1 0

CfP ASCA Workshop: Resistance, Refusal, Fugitivity
by Hannah Poon 02 Feb '24

02 Feb '24

Dear colleagues, We warmly invite you to submit an abstract to the ASCA (Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis) International Workshop: Resistance, Refusal, Fugitivity held at the University of Amsterdam on 5-7 June 2024 The deadline for submission is 15 March 2024. Please find below or this link<https://asca.uva.nl/programme/workshops/resistance-refusal-fugitivity/rrf.h…> for the details of the workshop. If you have any question, please contact us at ascaworkshop2024(a)gmail.com. Best wishes, Hannah Poon, Oscar Talbot, Safae El Khannoussi El Bouidrin PhD candidates, University of Amsterdam ------------------------------------------ Call for Papers ASCA International Workshop: Resistance, Refusal, Fugitivity (5-7 June 2024) Asymmetries of power continue to be felt, lived in, and subverted. Where there is power there is resistance, but the forms of these counteractions are myriad and various (e.g. Foucault; Fraser; Scott; Feldman; Bargu). Understanding these struggles, whether they come from the resurgent decolonial movements, the embattled struggles that have emerged as we face the Anthropocene, or the re-composition of our media-landscape through the whims of the billionaire class, is one of the most pressing tasks of our time. This workshop will bring together theorists, historians, practitioners, and media researchers to understand the multiplicities contained within contemporary resistance. At the same time, the fugitive, a figure of the subaltern is making their presence known (M'Charek; Harney and Moten; Spivak). Networks of actors whose very life is made illegal are forced to seek refuge outside of systems of control and surveillance. In response, large-scale civil society organising, from migration to abortion networks, have made significant impact on Dutch, European, and global society through strategies of resistance, refusal, and fugitivity (Emejulu; Lewis). The aesthetics of these defiant and subversive practices colour our cultural and media landscapes like never before. Authors, artists, content creators, and cultural institutions continue to reconstitute gender, sexuality, adulthood, nationality, coloniality, and capitalism in response to the constraints of the past. This workshop aims to provide an interdisciplinary platform for a pressing and multifaceted investigation of resistance, refusal and fugitivity, including but not limited to: * Historical perspectives: analysing resistance movements and fugitive acts throughout history, from enslaved individuals escaping captivity to contemporary political and civil society struggles. * Theoretical frameworks: examining the rich tapestry of academic theories that underpin the concepts of resistance, refusal and fugitivity, encompassing fields such as sociology, history, political science, anthropology, and critical race studies, as well as media analysis, ethnography, and auto-theory. * Contemporary applications: investigating the relevance of resistance and fugitivity in the contemporary context, including discussions of social movements, grassroots activism, and their impact on policy and social change. * Object analysis: specific sites of resistance have formed the nodes of these conflicts and tensions, from housing estates, 5G network towers, forests, prisons, message boards, advert display panels, to films, literature, artworks and popular culture. Possible themes or lines of enquiry might include: * Ecological breakdown – Managing, resisting, and survival in the climate collapse. We particularly welcome contributions that consider ecology and land back struggles. * Digital Activism – How do online spaces and cultures act as nodes of resistance? * (Counter/Anti) Violence – What are the scopes and possibilities of counter-conduct amid state-sanctioned violence, ever expanding abandonment, and racial necropolitics? * Undercommoning – What strategies are employed to challenge dominant systems of power and knowledge, and create alternative spaces and ways of existence? * Anarchives (Brozgal) – What are the possibilities of archives beyond sterile and fixed conceptions of historical narratives? How should we approach the lacunas in knowledge, the hidden and invisible knowledge that has been lost to colonial violence? * Hidden transcripts (Scott) – How do critiques of power take place ‘offstage’, beyond the direct control of the powerholders, particularly in repressive settings? * Aesthetics and politics – How do cultural objects and artistic practices disrupt dominant discourses? * Gentrification – How are the gentrification of places of refuge and domiciles resisted? * Affect and subjectivity – How can resistance be understood in terms of affects and as a mode of subjectivity? * Activist-scholarship – How do activism and scholarship intersect? What does it mean to be an activist-scholar? * How can we see these acts of resistance and moments of refusal as parts of decolonial struggle? Confirmed keynotes Jia TAN (The Chinese University of Hong Kong) Nicholas Thoburn (University of Manchester) General information ASCA Workshop 2024 is a three-day in-person event taking place in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Please note that we cannot accommodate virtual presentations. How to apply? We welcome individual applications in the form of academic and artistic research. Please submit a 300-word abstract and a 100-word bio. Presentations should be up to 15 minutes in length. If you are considering a different presentation format, please get in touch with us and we will do our best to accommodate your request. Events such as workshops, roundtables or seminars are also welcome. Please submit a proposal that includes a title, a short description (300 words) and a list of participants. Applications should be submitted by March 15, 2024 to ascaworkshop2024(a)gmail.com. Specify if you are a rMA student or PhD candidate and to which university/program you are affiliated. We will notify the applicants about the selection by April 14, 2024.

1 0

Call for Book Chapter
by Hakikur Rahman 01 Feb '24

01 Feb '24

Call for book chapters: Call for Book Chapters: "Blockchain for Knowledge Management: A Comprehensive Guide to Blockchain Technologies and Their Applications in Knowledge Management." Editor: Hakikur Rahman, Asian University of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Publisher: IGI Global, USA. Introduction: The book aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of blockchain technologies for knowledge management. The book will cover the following topics: - Blockchain technologies for knowledge management - Blockchain-based knowledge management systems - Blockchain-based knowledge sharing and collaboration - Blockchain-based knowledge discovery and innovation - Blockchain-based knowledge security and privacy - Blockchain-based knowledge governance and regulation Objective of the Book: The objective of the book is to provide a comprehensive understanding of blockchain technologies for knowledge management. The book will be a valuable resource for researchers, academicians, students, and professionals working in the field of knowledge management. Target Audience: The target audience of the book includes, but is not limited to, researchers, academicians, students, and professionals working in the field of knowledge management. Recommended Topics: Contributors are welcome to submit chapters on the following topics related to blockchain technologies for knowledge management: - Blockchain-based knowledge management systems - Blockchain-based knowledge sharing and collaboration - Blockchain-based knowledge discovery and innovation - Blockchain-based knowledge security and privacy - Blockchain-based knowledge governance and regulation - Blockchain-based knowledge transfer and exchange - Blockchain-based knowledge representation and reasoning - Blockchain-based knowledge preservation and curation - Blockchain-based knowledge discovery and analytics - Blockchain-based knowledge sharing economy Submission Procedure: Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before March 03, 2024, a chapter proposal of 1,000 to 2,000 words clearly explaining the mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter. Authors will be notified by April 07, 2024 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Publisher: This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global, USA (http://www.igi-global.com) Important Dates: Chapter Proposal Submission Deadline: March 03, 2024 Notification of Acceptance: April 07, 2024 Full Chapter Submission Deadline: June 16, 2024 Inquiries: Inquiries can be forwarded to the editor at mailto:email@hakik.org. If you are interested to submit a book chapter, please visit the link below and submit: https://www.igi-global.com/publish/call-for-papers/call-details/7211

1 0

NSF Civic Innovation Challenge (CIVIC)
by Joly MacFie 01 Feb '24

01 Feb '24

The Civic Innovation Challenge (CIVIC) is a research and action competition designed to build a more cohesive research-to-innovation pipeline and foster a collaborative spirit between communities and researchers. CIVIC aims to flip the community-university dynamic by empowering communities and researchers to jointly identify civic priorities ripe for innovation and to address these priorities as equal partners. Together, academic and civic partners leverage scientific and community expertise to make progress towards addressing the themes in the two tracks specified in this solicitation. https://new.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/civic-innovation-challenge-civic/… > CIVIC aims to accelerate the transition to practice of foundational > research and emerging technologies and approaches into communities through > civic-engaged research, while deepening cooperation and information sharing > across sectors and regions. Whereas many community-university partnerships > take years to provide tangible benefits to communities, CIVIC funds > projects that rapidly pilot state-of-the-art technologies and ideas over 12 > months, following a six-month planning phase, and have the potential for > lasting impact in the partnering community as well as the potential to be > scaled and implemented in other communities. -- -------------------------------------- Joly MacFie +12185659365 -------------------------------------- -

1 0

Call for Abstracts: Panel on AI Imaginaries for #AoIR2024
by Natalia Stanusch 01 Feb '24

01 Feb '24

Dear All, We are writing to inquire if any of you are currently engaged in research or projects related to AI imaginaries. If so, would you like to join forces for a panel on AI Imaginaries for #AoIR2024? Below please find the panel call. We would like to receive your 1,000-word abstract by February 16th. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at n.b.stanusch(a)uva.nl<mailto:n.b.stanusch@uva.nl> and R.A.Rogers(a)uva.nl<mailto:R.A.Rogers@uva.nl>. Best regards, Natalia Stanusch Richard Rogers Media Studies University of Amsterdam Panel proposal: AI Industry Expectations and Underperforming Imaginaries Convenors: Natalia Stanusch and Richard Rogers (University of Amsterdam) AI industry expectations from labor-savings and helpful, harmless automation but also media manipulation and existential threat currently represent dominant strands of the discourse. But what of the counter-imaginaries? The panel takes up AoIR’s theme of how industry pre-mediates the future of internet technology and its effects and inquires into alternatives. How can we utilize ideas from controversy and issue mapping as well as from the study of sociotechnical imaginaries and develop further the study of counter-imaginaries to critically survey, analyze, and reimagine artificial intelligence (AI) within and beyond the AI industry? We welcome empirical and theoretical contributions that locate, map and critically examine AI imaginaries together with counter-imaginaries that engage with and intervene in those of the AI industry. As both Bruno Latour (2005) and Sheila Jasanoff (2013) have argued, albeit with somewhat different thrusts, there are certain moments in the course of technology development when for its critical study it is especially doable to map debate and appropriate to invoke the notion of imaginaries. It is when an industry and science are in palpable motion, not quite stabilized. It is also when controversies concerning failures or accidents prompt actor positioning and when visions of desirable trajectories and impacts compete. These are instances when it is opportune to undertake mappings. This panel seeks to take this analytical opportunity to map the discursive landscape of AI technology developments, welcoming multiple approaches to do so. The mapping approach, from controversy and issue mapping (Venturini & Munk, 2021; Rogers et al., 2015), would place emphasis on how actor associations, both discursive as well as through connective action, assemble agendas and build worlds. The imaginaries point of departure focuses on how visions are articulated and performed, together with the kinds of social orders they promote and cement. Other approaches are also welcome. The panel also responds to invitations to map the AI industry (Crawford 2021), such as an extraction industry. The AI pipeline, so to speak, relies on raw materials and finished products, such as edited newspaper articles. Some of these materials become visible through traces, such as when Reddit turns up in Google autocompletion or periodical titles appear in AI platform responses. Guardrails (or injection guards) seek to wipe these remnants of training materials, so their trace mapping is challenging. The panel is also interested in the part played by so-called Big Tech. As stated in the recent report by the AI Now Institute, “there is no AI without Big Tech” (Kak & West, 2023). The related magazine article had as its headline: ‘Make no mistake—AI is owned by Big Tech’ (Kak et al., 2023). Reference here is made especially to chatty large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, which recently have become inseparable terminologically from AI. A Big Tech framework for considering how it guides AI would include the study of beta releases, which enable its assessments and harms to be identified by users ex post rather than by the company a priori (Marres 2017). Another would be the application of commercial content moderation (Roberts 2019; Gillespie 2018), where low-wage, outsourced laborers are tasked with removing undesirable content. There are also policy linkages and imaginaries shared by actors to be mapped. As Big Tech, does the relatively centralized AI industry share interests in similar regulatory policies and narratives? Where self-regulation once was a refrain of industry, now there are invitations for regulators to step in. How does industry imagine regulation? This call for abstracts is thus a response to engage in the study of AI as new media concentration (Bode & Goodlad, 2023). While reassembling how Big Tech’s imaginaries may be stabilizing, the more normative question concerns the monopoly position. How to map out the alternatives to Big Tech’s visions of AI? By employing the notion of counter-imaginaries of AI, we are interested in a variety of temporal and spatial framings. With respect to temporalities, we are interested in ‘horizons talk’ and how time chunking of the future marks discourse. A shifting of the space of debate and imagination is also fruitful. Where are AI futures distinctive from the extractive, Big Tech trajectory? We seek contributions that engage with mapping AI imaginaries and counter-imaginaries on both methodological and conceptual levels. Some of the possible topics include but are not limited to: · Past, contemporary, and emerging mappings of AI imaginaries and visions of the future · Sector specific (e.g. LLMs, facial recognition, chat bots), process specific (e.g. data labeling, training, deployment of models), or industry-wide AI imaginaries · Resistance practices to industry-driven AI imaginaries and counter-imaginaries of AI · Critical studies of AI industry’s marketing material and business talk · Folk theories around AI and people’s AI imaginaries · Digital research methods for mapping AI imaginaries · Global AI imaginaries from outside of Silicon Valley · Historical and media archeological AI imaginaries · AI-related visuality and image studies · Identity and AI imaginaries · Studies of fiction and works of art engaging with AI and AI processes Individual submissions to the panel should include an extended abstract of 1000-1200 words (excluding reference list) for each of the constituent papers in the standard AoIR paper submission template. Please let us know if you are interested in participating. The abstracts are due on February 16th and can be sent to both n.b.stanusch(a)uva.nl<mailto:n.b.stanusch@uva.nl> and R.A.Rogers(a)uva.nl<mailto:R.A.Rogers@uva.nl>. References Bode, K. and Goodlad, L. M. E. (2023). “Data Worlds: An Introduction.” In Critical AI (2023) 1(1-2). 10.1215/2834703X-10734026. Crawford, K. (2021. The Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence. Yale University Press. Gillespie, T. (2018). Custodians of the Internet: Platforms, Content Moderation, and the Hidden Decisions That Shape Social Media. Yale University Press Jasanoff, S. (2015) “Future Imperfect: Science, Technology, and the Imaginations of Modernity.” In Jasanoff, S. and Kim,S.-H. (eds), Dreamscapes of Modernity: Sociotechnical Imaginaries and the Fabrication of Power, University of Chicago Press. Jasanoff, S. and Kim, S. (2013). “Sociotechnical Imaginaries and National Energy Policies.” Science as Culture. 22, pp. 189-196. 10.1080/09505431.2013.786990. Kak, A, West, S. M., and Whittaker, M. (December 5, 2023). “Make no mistake—AI is owned by Big Tech.” MIT Technology Review. Kak, A. and West, S. M. (April 11, 2023). “AI Now 2023 Landscape: Confronting Tech Power”, AI Now Institute. Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the Social – An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. Oxford University Press. Marres N. (2017). Digital Sociology: The Reinvention of Social Research. Polity Press. Roberts, S. T. Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media. Yale University Press, 2019. Rogers, R., Sánchez-Querubín, N., and Kil, A. (2015). Issue Mapping for an Ageing Europe. Amsterdam University Press. Venturini, T. and Munk, A. K. (2022). Controversy Mapping: A Field Guide. Polity Press.

1 0

WEBCAST FEB 1 – NTIA 2024 Spectrum Policy Symposium
by Joly MacFie 01 Feb '24

01 Feb '24

This is about to begin. First since 2022 as the NTIA skipped 2023. Not an ISOC webcast, so no real time text from me, but there will be closed captions. The initial YouTube link is https://youtu.be/NaaFb6Sh61E but that may change at lunch. [image: isoc live] <http://isoc.live/?action=user_content_redirect&uuid=f321525630e94477d7c5628…> On *Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024*, *9am-4:30pm EST* (14:00-21:30 UTC) the *National Telecommunications and Information Administration <http://isoc.live/?action=user_content_redirect&uuid=b1b3babbe192b3c643402d0…>* (NTIA) will hold its sixth *Spectrum Policy Symposium <http://isoc.live/?action=user_content_redirect&uuid=9f378cf49b35894cc74441d…>* at the National Press Club in Washington DC. This year’s Symposium will focus on implementation of the *National Spectrum Strategy <http://isoc.live/?action=user_content_redirect&uuid=57145da5ae25f3d9c3171db…>*, including panel discussions aligned with each pillar of the strategy, highlighted by keynote remarks from policymakers from the White House, Congress, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Defense, and the Federal Communications Commission. (No times specified) *Welcome* *Gina Raimondo*, U.S. Secretary of Commerce *Alan Davidson*, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications & Information, U. S. Department of Commerce *Keynote Speeches* *Don Graves*, Deputy Secretary, U. S. Department of Commerce *Anne Neuberger*, Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technologies, National Security Council *Anna Gomez*, Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission *Pillar 1 Panel Discussion: A Spectrum Pipeline to Ensure U.S. Leadership in Spectrum-Based Technologies* *Robert Hampshire*, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology, Department of Transportation *Jonathan Campbell*, Legal Advisor–Wireless, International & Space, Office of the Chairwoman, Federal Communications Commission *Jennifer Warren*, VP–Regulatory Affairs & Public Policy, Lockheed Martin *Umair Javed*, Senior VP for Spectrum, CTIA *James Assey*, Executive VP, NCTA Moderator: *Charles Cooper* *Pillar 2 Panel Discussion: Collaborative Long-Term Spectrum Planning to Support the Nation’s Evolving Spectrum Needs* *Mary Brown*, Advisor to WIFI Forward *Brett Kilbourne*, representing Utilities Technology Council (UTC) *John Kuzin*, VP – Spectrum Policy & Regulatory Counsel, Qualcomm *Flynn Rico-Johnson*, Deputy Chief of Staff, Congresswoman Doris Matsui *Tomasz Wojtaszek*, Director, Radio Frequency Management Division, Office of the Chief Information Officer, NOAA Moderator: *Derek Khlopin* =LUNCH= *Pillar 3 Panel Discussion: Unprecedented Spectrum Access and Management through Technology Development* *Dr. John Chapin*, Special Advisor for Spectrum, National Science Foundation *Dr. Monisha Ghosh*, Professor, Electrical Engineering, University of Notre Dame *Dr. Charles Dietlein*, Senior Research Engineer, Institute for Telecommunication Sciences *Dr. Andrew Clegg*, Spectrum Lead, Google *Dr. Brian Kelley*, Principal Investigator & SME, FutureG Applied Research, DoD Moderator: *Paul Ransom* *ITS Overview and ISART Conference Preview* *William Kozma*, Institute for Telecommunication Sciences, Boulder, Colorado *Pillar 4 Panel Discussion: Growth of the Spectrum Workforce, Increased Understanding of Spectrum, and Raised Awareness of Spectrum’s Importance to the Country* *Dr. Nick Laneman*, Director. SpectrumX / Co-Director, Wireless Institute, University of Notre Dame *RJ Balanga*, Deputy Director, Spectrum Policy and Planning Division, NASA *Phil Karn*, President, Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) *Dr. Sheryl Genco*, VP–Advanced Technology, Ericsson Moderator: *Phil Murphy* *Looking Forward: A Roundtable Discussion on Implementation Next Steps* *Austin Bonner*, Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Policy, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) *Matthew Pearl*, Director and Special Advisor for Emerging Technologies, White House National Security Council (NSC) *Scott Blake Harris*, Senior Spectrum Advisor and Director–National Spectrum Strategy, NTIA *Wrap-up and closing remarks* *LIVESTREAM https://www.ntia.gov/other-publication/2024/2024-ntia-spectrum-policy-sympo… <http://isoc.live/?action=user_content_redirect&uuid=55b8e358994c726825fd236…> * (CC) *REGISTER: Email Name/Affiliation to spectrumsymposium(a)ntia.gov <http://isoc.live/?action=user_content_redirect&uuid=028bf4a2006b7731cd1a635…> with the subject line "Livestream Registration"* *REAL TIME TEXT* (see *ISOC.LIVE <http://isoc.live/?action=user_content_redirect&uuid=f321525630e94477d7c5628…>*) (if available) *TWITTER #spectrumsymposium <http://isoc.live/?action=user_content_redirect&uuid=5db2f498b70253b7cbbf6dd…> @NTIAgov * *MASTODON https://mastodon.social/tags/spectrumsymposium <http://isoc.live/?action=user_content_redirect&uuid=032416c31c793f1bd21eb66…> * *ARCHIVE* *https://archive.org/details/ntia-spectrum-policy-symposium <http://isoc.live/?action=user_content_redirect&uuid=505df4b5bf74660d1248110…>* *Permalink https://isoc.live/17285 <https://isoc.live/17285>* - -- -------------------------------------- Joly MacFie +12185659365 -------------------------------------- -

1 0

CfP: 'Futures Work' panel at 4S/EASST
by Jessica Ogden 01 Feb '24

01 Feb '24

Hi all I suppose more apologies are in order for posting *yet another* (!) 4S/EASST Amsterdam CfP, but we are still seeking proposals for our ‘Futures Work’ panel on STS and all things ‘futuring’, and I thought folks within this community might be interested! IMO it would be great to get some folks talking about web/internet futures :) *Abstract* Futures of one kind or another have been at the centre of STS work from its inception. Early concerns to counter over-simplified forms of determinism (MacKenzie and Wajcman, 1999), for example, encouraged explorations of a broader range of standpoints in relation to the future. Work on technology and society in-the-making (Callon, 1987), practices of innovation (Akrich, 1992) and the broadening of science studies to incorporate technology (Woolgar, 1991), each carried with them putative concerns for making sense of things emerging or yet to be. Futures have since flourished in STS conceptually and methodologically. In the last few years, we have seen a broad range of activities from events focused on nuclear futures (Lancaster, 2022) to future humans (Harvard, 2022). And we have seen groundbreaking research on futures and education (Dix, 2019), genes (Horst, 2005), soil (de la Bellacasa, 2015), promissory organizations (Pollock and Williams, 2010), and expectations (Brown and Michael, 2003), among many other areas. Methodologically, STS has found itself in the company of speculative futures, future labs and digital futures institutes and in different forms these each continue to push for the future to be a key matter of concern. Within this work, the futures of STS itself has also come under continual scrutiny: just what are the consequences of STS being conscripted to do futures work? In this panel we seek to explore this varied ‘futuring’. We would be delighted to receive abstracts on: futures thinking and methodologies; digital futures and emerging technology; histories of the future; how STS approaches, perhaps in tandem with other disciplines (including STEM), can shape alternative, even better, futures; concerns for the futures of STS itself; experiments with different forms of futures work. Abstracts are due by 12th February and details on the panel submission can be found here: https://www.easst4s2024.net/open-panels/#14094 Thanks all and hope to connect with many AoIR folks there! All the best Jessica ---- Dr Jessica Ogden Lecturer in Digital Futures Bristol Digital Futures Institute // School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies University of Bristol Twitter: @jessogden<http://twitter.com/jessogden> // Web Profile: https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/persons/jessica-ogden Latest publications: Ogden, Summers & Walker (2023). Know(ing) Infrastructure: The Wayback Machine as object and instrument of digital research<https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565231164759>. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies Ogden (2022). “Everything on the internet can be saved”: Archive Team, Tumblr and the cultural significance of web archiving<https://doi.org/10.1080/24701475.2021.1985835>. Internet Histories: Digital Technologies, Culture and Society. Shah & Ogden (2021). Immigration, Race, and Nation in the UK: The Politics of Belonging on Twitter<https://doi.org/10.1177/13607804211029968>. Sociological Research Online.

1 0