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Open positions at the University of Oulu
by Rosanna Guadagno 02 Mar '23

02 Mar '23

HI all, I am writing to share links to open positions at the University of Oulu. I've been here 8 months and love the university and this country. My family does too. It has been a bit of an adjustment from the US but mostly in good ways! Please share: SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW IN ETHICS IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE <https://oulunyliopisto.varbi.com/en/what:job/jobID:595263/type:job/where:4/…> TENURE TRACK ASSISTANT OR ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OR FULL PROFESSOR IN TENURE IN AUGMENTED, MIXED, AND/OR VIRTUAL REALITY TECHNOLOGIES <https://oulunyliopisto.varbi.com/en/what:job/jobID:595110/type:job/where:4/…> TENURE TRACK ASSISTANT OR ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR IN LEARNING PROCESS DATA ANALYTICS <https://oulunyliopisto.varbi.com/en/what:job/jobID:595133/type:job/where:4/…> TENURE TRACK ASSISTANT OR ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR IN EMOTION AND COGNITION AI BASED ON COMPUTER VISION AND MACHINE LEARNING <https://oulunyliopisto.varbi.com/en/what:job/jobID:594947/type:job/where:4/…> Best, Rosanna --- Rosanna E. Guadagno, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Persuasive Information Systems University of Oulu Google Scholar Profile <https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-_0SgvoAAAAJ&hl=en> cell/text: +358-41-492-6976 Twitter: @Rosannaeg <https://twitter.com/RosannaEG> Lab: OSIL <https://osilab.eu> Specialty Chief Editor in Media Psychology, Frontiers in Psychology <https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/sections/media-psychology> Associate Editor, Frontiers in Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology <https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/sections/personality-and-so…>

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15 March @ Concordia University, Evan Light, Obscured Terrain: Researching and Regulating State Surveillance in Canada
by Evan Light 01 Mar '23

01 Mar '23

Hi everybody - please come join us either in-person or virtually. 15 March 2023 @ the Milieux Institute, Concordia University, Montreal 12 noon - 13h30 (lunch time seminar) The scoop: In recent years, calls for “surveillance reform” have been voiced by activist and academics alike. What, however, are the surveillance capabilities of the Canadian state? How can we speak of reform and regulation if we do not know what it is we want to change? In this talk, Professor Evan Light (Glendon College, York University) discusses his efforts to document the surveillance capabilities of the Canadian state from municipal to national. Through filing hundreds of access-to-information requests and extensive legal research, the Deobfuscating State Surveillance in Canada project aims to build the foundation for changing the ways we are policed, building up activist, academic and journalistic research tools along the way. https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/lunch-time-seminar-with-evan-light-tickets-5272… -- -- Evan Light, PhD Associate Professor - Professeur agrégé Communications program - Programme de communications Glendon College, York University - Collège universitaire Glendon, Université York 2275 Bayview Ave. Toronto ON, Canada M4N 3M6 elight(a)glendon.yorku.ca +1 416.736.2100 ext: 88596

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Social Media + Society Special Issue CFP: Platform Economies in Digital Asia
by Yuan, Jingyan Elaine 01 Mar '23

01 Mar '23

Social Media + Society Special Issue Call For Paper Platform Economies in Digital Asia https://journals.sagepub.com/page/sms/collections/cfp Editors Elaine Jingyan Yuan, University of Illinois at Chicago Lin Zhang, University of New Hampshire Call The “platform turn” across many disciplines around 2010s thrusted to the forefront a new framework for understanding a distinct set of technological, economic, discursive practices of post-industrial digital economy. Early works in a fast-growing area of platform studies focused on the role of digital technology in organizing production and constructing (thereby distorting) the market in a growing range of social economic sectors. Silicon Valley platforms such as Facebook, Google, and Amazon often serve as the poster boys for how the platform exerts its power of algorithmic control, datafication, and financialization in shaping new organizational forms. The understanding of platforms as the new frontiers of the globalized digital economy has only gained further depth and nuances when situated outside the epicenter of Silicon Valley in other parts of the world, especially Asia, the world’s fastest growing region. Researchers, for example, traced the origins of the concept to the Japanese car industry and delineated an East Asian genealogy of platformization embedded in the historical trajectory towards post-Fordist flexible accumulation (Steinberg, 2019). The broad political economic approach to platform economy as a new form of social contract between the state, capital, and labor is being mapped out in, for instance, India and China, two economic powerhouses in the region. Indeed, empirical evidence from these countries informs us that, instead of being paradigmatically new, digital platforms often graft themselves onto existing regimes of production and exchange (e.g. Zhang, 2021) and reinvent local and traditional forms of the marketplace (e.g. Athique, 2019). Additionally, the thesis of infrastructuralization of platforms takes on concrete forms as governments in the region work with private platforms to provide infrastructures necessary for realizing their social projects, be it efficient governance, poverty reduction, or economic restructuring. Here capitalist tendencies of monopoly through network externalities and the impetus toward commodification of informal service markets and gray economies are likely subject to regulatory regimes serving different social imaginaries. The distinction between an infrastructure for public interests and a platform for private profits often manifests in the concrete interactions of state policy, corporate initiatives, and citizen participation in diverse local contexts (e.g. Mukherjee, 2019; Plantin & Punathambekar, 2019). Meanwhile, the informal labor regimes of the platforms prove to rely as much on the technical process of datafication and algorithmic control as on specific local dynamics, such as an energized urban middle-class consumers and impoverished rural economies after decades of economic liberalization in the region (e.g. Chen & Qiu, 2019; Yasih, 2022). The variegated local experiences, dynamism and heterogeneity of platform economies in Asia both complement and challenge Silicon Valley-centered narratives. They interrogate assumptions underpinning the mainstream platform studies while firmly situating “platform capitalism” in the extension and convergence of long-term tendencies in the history of global capitalism and in diverse local social and cultural contexts. At the same time, the engagement with the interdisciplinary conversation of platform studies carries the promise of re-energizing Asian studies to better grapple with some of its major challenges in Anglophone academia. Post-Cold-War Asian Studies has been driven by various agenda to shake off its orientalist and Cold War origins and their tenacious influences on how we produce knowledge about Asia (Schneider and Goto-Jones, 2015; Ludden, 1997). While much of the new Asian studies was folded into new discourses of globalization and post-colonial hybridity, others found ethical urgency in deploying “Asia as method,” calling for critical engagement with the “heterogenous Asian situation,” recognition of continued external and internal forces of colonialism and imperialism, and multiplication of “frames of references in our subjectivity and understanding” (Chen, 223; Anderson, 448). Commenting on what he calls the “new area studies,” South Asianist David Ludden observed that it constitutes some of “the most creative venues for studies of imperialism and imperial aspects of globalization,” as well as “a necessary counterweight to the decontextualizing force of universal globalism” (2003, p. 136) This “politics of imagining Asia” (Wang, 2011) has only become more contested recently with a surge in Anti-Asian sentiments during the Covid-19 pandemic and the intensification of a “new Cold War” centered around the US and China. Digital platforms and technologies are at the center of these new confrontations: from supply chain disruption and restructuring, inter-regional flows of capital, goods, technologies, and labor, new restrictions of foreign capital and businesses, to discursive battles over racism and xenophobia, and debates about different models of political governance and economic development. Indeed, Asia at the current conjuncture is fraught with tensions as the Post-Cold-War US-led global order is destabilized amid the contested rise of China and the growing interdependence of regional economies regardless of on-going US-China decoupling. Situated at the confluence of platform studies and Asian studies, this special issue intends to bring scholars working at the intersection of these two lines of scholarship together for productive dialogue. What could we gain by rethinking platform studies in and with Asia? How could our engagement with platforms help advance Asian studies at the new conjuncture? We invite contributors to ruminate on the following questions: Questions to think with * How do we reconcile the tension between exploring transnational and regional linkages and delineating local (regional, national, etc) path dependency? * How could we find a balance between close analysis of platform technological affordances/properties and thick description of locale/cultural/industry specificities and complexities? * How do we historicize and contextualize externally generated theories and problematizations rather than mechanically applying them in the study of “Asian cases,” thereby reinforcing a biased distinction between theory and its empirical application. * How could we de-provincialize platformization in Asia and/or provincialize existing theories of digital platforms produced based on Euro-American experiences to rethink platform studies in and with Asia without perpetuating existing binaries such as West vs. Asia? * How could we go beyond American-centrism and Sinocentrism or Sinophobia to re-imagine a more equitable and collaborative regional/global order? * In what ways does an engagement with digital platforms and digital tools contribute to methodological innovations in Asian studies? What are the epistemological implications of these new methods for our understanding of Asia? Potential Topics We welcome contributions in the form of either a full-length paper (8,000 words) or a short reflection essay (3-4,000 words), to address one or more of the following topics in relation to platforms/infrastructures * Histories and geopolitics * Transborder flows of technologies, ideas, people, capital, and goods * Local and indigenous knowledge as well as internal complexities, contradictions, heterogeneity and variegations * Racial, ethnic, gender, class/caste, and rural-urban inequalities, and national and regional imbalances * Decolonization and de-imperialization, legacies of colonialism, imperialism or neo-imperialism, both external and internal * The contested role of the state in governing platform economies, technoscientific nationalism * Tensions between development, equity, nationalism, and globalization * The impact of China’s contested rise and US-China decoupling on the region. * Exchanges and encounters between Asia and other Global South nations/regions (Africa, Latin America etc.) * Subject making and institutional formation * Comparative perspectives on digital technologies: continuities and ruptures from economic and social traditions Publication Timeline * June 1, 2023 Abstract due: * 800 to 1000-word for the full paper. The abstract should specify the issues or research questions to be discussed, the methodological or critical framework used, the expected findings and key concept(s) the paper engages with, and five key references. * 300 words for the commentary essay. It should outline a conceptual or methodological intervention that challenges existing scholarship on the topics * All abstracts should be sent to elainejyuan(a)gmail.com with the subject line “Social Media + Society special issue” * July 19, 2023 Notification of accepted abstracts * February 1, 2024. Full manuscript Due * Dec 31, 2024 Final revisions due (after two rounds of reviews) Elaine Jingyan Yuan Associate Professor & Director of Graduate Studies Department of Communication University of Illinois at Chicago The Web of Meaning: the Internet in a changing Chinese society (Toronto UP). 2022 NCA APAC Outstanding Book Award

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WEBCAST MAR 1 – IPNSIG Academy Talk 11: Space Policy, Perspective on IPN Governance – Scott Pace
by Joly MacFie 01 Mar '23

01 Mar '23

Whether the future of Interplanetary Networking governance will be multilateral or multistakeholder is yet to be determined. If anyone knows which way the (solar) wind is blowing it's Dr Pace. REAL TIME TEXT https://bit.ly/41Euc7O [image: isoc live] <https://isoc.live/16378>On *Wednesday March 1 2023* at *5pm-6pm EST* (22:00-23:00 UTC) the *Interplanetary Networking Special Interest Group <https://ipnsig.org/>* (IPNSIG) presents the 11th *IPNSIG Academy <https://ipnsig.org/ipnsig-academy-events/>* presentation. '*Space Policy, Perspective on IPN Governance <https://ipnsig.org/2023/02/24/speaker-moderator-bios-for-march-ipnsig-acade…>* '. When humans last visited the lunar surface, the internet did not exist and all communications and navigation functions were under the control of a single country (the United States). This presentation briefly covers primary governance issues, from numbering conventions and spectrum allocations, to time standards and domain definitions. The issues are broader than those covered by the Internet Engineering Task Force, and builders of the interplanetary internet will have to navigate among multiple organizations, including the United Nations, and Artemis Accord signatories. There are no fundamental barriers, but it is important to think about governance issues early so as to prioritize technical and political resources while avoiding delays and unnecessary frictions. *SPEAKER* *Dr. Scott Pace*, Director, *Space Policy Institute <https://ipnsig.org/ipnsig-academy-events/>* / Institute for International Science and Technology Policy / MA International Science and Technology Policy, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University *MODERATOR* *Dr. Vint Cerf,* Vice President / Chief Internet Evangelist, Google *LIVESTREAM http://livestream.com/internetsociety/ipnsigacademy11 <http://livestream.com/internetsociety/ipnsigacademy11>* *PARTICIPATE VIA ZOOM https://bit.ly/3y7HbRP <https://bit.ly/3y7HbRP>* *REAL TIME TEXT* (see isoc.live <https://isoc.live/16378>) *TWITTER #IPNSIGacademy <https://bit.ly/3wkSJBq> #DTN #netgov @IPNSIG Scott Pace @Space_Policy @ElliottSchoolGW @vgcerf #space * *MASTODON #IPNSIGacademy <https://mastodon.social/tags/IPNSIGacademy> * *SIMULCASTS* *https://www.twitter.com/ISOC_Live/ <https://www.twitter.com/ISOC_Live/>* *https://www.twitch.tv/isoclive <https://www.twitch.tv/isoclive>* *https://www.facebook.com/liveisoc/ <https://www.facebook.com/liveisoc/> (*AI Captions) *ARCHIVE* *https://archive.org/details/ipnsigacademy11 <https://archive.org/details/ipnsigacademy11>* *Permalink https://isoc.live/16378 <https://isoc.live/16378>* -

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SAGE Webinar: Teaching Computational Social Science
by Janet Salmons 01 Mar '23

01 Mar '23

Join us for a lively SAGE Methodspace webinar, Teaching Computational Social Science. Thursday March 23rd, 2 pm EST / 6 pm GMT Registration information is here: https://bit.ly/3XZ6obP This webinar will offer practical tips to improve your instructional practice or guidance with student researchers. Panelists are: * Dr. Matti Nelimarkka, author of the new book Computational Thinking and Social Science: Combining Programming, Methodologies and Fundamental Concepts, and university lecturer at the University of Helsinki, and Aalto University, Finland. (See https://bit.ly/3y0eMNw) * Dr. Friedolin Merhout, assistant professor at the Sociologisk Institut at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He is the Director of Graduate Studies for the interdisciplinary MSc in Social Data Science. Nelimarkka and Merhout will discuss strategies for engaging with students and building the skills needed to design, plan, and conduct studies using computational social science methods. They will offer examples from their own experience in course design and teaching - including how to work past problems students sometimes have when trying to learn these complex concepts. See a related post by Nelimarkka on Methodspace: "Research design with computing: Something old, something new" https://bit.ly/3RnRudG Janet Salmons, PhD (She/her/hers) Research Community Manager, SAGE MethodSpace Boulder, Colorado USA Janet.salmons(a)Sagepub.com

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Open Faculty Position: Professor of Technology, Ethics, and Poverty
by Nicole McAlee 01 Mar '23

01 Mar '23

Hello all, Please find below information about a job posting at the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, IN, USA: *Open Faculty Position: Professor of Technology, Ethics, and Poverty* The University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs, in conjunction with the Notre Dame Technology Ethics Center (ND TEC), invites applicants for a tenure-track (open-rank) professorship focused in the area of technology, ethics, and poverty. For an accomplished senior candidate, an endowed chair would be considered. Learn More About the Position <https://techethics.nd.edu/news-and-events/news/open-faculty-position-profes…> Questions can be directed to Patrizio Piraino at ppiraino(a)nd.edu. Many thanks, Nicole -- *Nicole McAlee* Program Manager Notre Dame-IBM Technology Ethics Lab 204 O'Shaughnessy Hall Notre Dame, IN 46556

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10th European Conference On Service-Oriented And Cloud Computing (ESOCC 2023): Third Call for Submissions
by Announce Announcements 01 Mar '23

01 Mar '23

*** Third Call for Submissions *** 10th European Conference On Service-Oriented And Cloud Computing (ESOCC 2023) October 24-26, 2023, Golden Bay Beach Hotel, Larnaca, Cyprus https://cyprusconferences.org/esocc2023/ (Proceedings to be published in Springer LNCS; Journal Special Issue with Springer Computing) AIM AND SCOPE Nowadays, Service-Oriented and Cloud Computing are the primary approaches to build large-scale distributed systems and deliver software services to end users. Cloud-native software is pervading the delivery of enterprise applications, as they are composed of (micro)services that can be independently developed and deployed by exploiting multiple heterogeneous technologies. Resulting applications are polyglot service compositions that can then be shipped in serverful or serverless platforms (e.g., using virtualization technologies). These characteristics make Service-Oriented and Cloud Computing the natural answers for fulfilling the industry’s need for flexibly scalable and maintainable enterprise applications, to be delivered through state-of-the-art methodologies, like DevOps. To further support this, researchers and practitioners need to create methods, tools and techniques to support cost-effective and secure development as well as use of dependable devices, platforms, services and service-oriented applications in the Cloud, now also considering the Cloud-IoT computing continuum to exploit widespread adoption of smart connected things and the increasing growth of their computing capabilities. The European Conference on Service-Oriented and Cloud Computing (ESOCC) is the premier conference on advances in the state-of-the-art and practice of Service-Oriented Computing and Cloud Computing in Europe. ESOCC aims to facilitate the exchange between researchers and practitioners in the areas of Service-Oriented Computing and Cloud Computing, as well as to explore the new trends in those areas and foster future collaborations in Europe and beyond. TOPICS OF INTEREST ESOCC 2023 seeks original, high-quality contributions related to all aspects of Service-Oriented and Cloud computing. Specific topics of interest include, but are not limited to: • Applications for Service-Oriented and Cloud Computing, e.g., big data, commerce, energy, finance, health, scientific computing, smart cities • Blockchains for Service-Oriented and Cloud Computing • Business aspects of Service-Oriented and Cloud Computing, e.g., business models, brokerage, marketplaces, costs, pricing • Business processes, e.g., service-based workflow deployment and management • Cloud interoperability, service and Cloud standards, • Cloud-IoT computing continuum, e.g., edge computing, fog computing, mobility computing, next generation services/IoT • Cloud-native architectures and paradigms, e.g., microservices and DevOps • Cloud service models, e.g., IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, DBaaS, FaaS, etc. • Deployment, composition, and management of applications in Service-Oriented and Cloud Computing • Foundations and formal methods for Service-Oriented and Cloud Computing • Enablers for Service-Oriented and Cloud Computing, e.g., service discovery, orchestration, matchmaking, monitoring, and analytics • Model-Driven Engineering for Service-Oriented and Cloud Computing • Multi-Cloud, cross-Cloud, and federated Cloud solutions • Requirements engineering, design, development, and testing of applications in Service-Oriented and Cloud Computing • Semantic services and service mining • Service and Cloud middlewares and platforms • Software/service adaptation and evolution in Service-Oriented and Cloud Computing • Storage, computation and network Clouds • Sustainability and energy issues in Service-Oriented and Cloud Computing • Quality aspects (e.g., governance, privacy, security, and trust) of Service-Oriented and Cloud Computing • Quality of Service (QoS) and Service-Level Agreement (SLA) for Service-Oriented and Cloud Computing • Social aspects of Service-Oriented and Cloud Computing, e.g., crowdsourcing services, social and crowd-based Clouds • Virtualization for Service-Oriented and Cloud Computing, e.g., serverless, container-based virtualization, VMs IMPORTANT DATES • Submission of abstracts: June 4th, 2023 (AoE) • Submission of full papers: June 11th, 2023 (AoE) • Notification to authors: July 14th, 2023 (AoE) • Camera-ready versions due: July 31st, 2023 (AoE) TYPES OF SUBMISSIONS ESOCC 2023 invites submissions of the following kinds: • Regular Research Papers (15 pages including references, for the technical and special tracks) • PhD Symposium (12 pages including references) • Projects and Industry Reports (Projects and Industry Reports (1 to 6 pages including references, describing an ongoing EU or national project, or providing industrial perspectives on innovative applications, technologies, or methods in ESOCC’s scope) We only accept original papers, not submitted for publication elsewhere. The papers must be formatted according to the proceedings guidelines of Springer’s Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series (http://www.springer.com/lncs) They must be submitted to the EasyChair site at:  https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=esocc2023 by selecting the right track. Accepted papers from all tracks will be published in the main conference proceedings by Springer in the LNCS series. For publication to happen, at least one author of each accepted paper is expected to register and present the work at the conference. The best papers accepted will be invited to submit extended versions for a Journal Special Issue to be published by Springer Computing. ORGANISATION General Chair • George A. Papadopoulos, University of Cyprus, CY (george at ucy.ac.cy) Program Chairs • Florian Rademacher, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Dortmund, DE (florian.rademacher at fh-dortmund.de) • Jacopo Soldani, University of Pisa, IT (jacopo.soldani at unipi.it) Steering and Program Committee https://cyprusconferences.org/esocc2023/committees/

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Job announcement: Assistant/associate/full professor (tenure track) of communication sciences at LUT, Finland
by Anna Rantasila 01 Mar '23

01 Mar '23

Dear AoiR folx, The Lappeenranta University of Technology in Finland is looking for 1 to 3 assistant/associate/ full professors to Communication Sciences. Please see the full job advertisement here: https://lut.rekrytointi.com/paikat/index.php?jid=853&o=A_RJ The closing date for applications is 28 March 2023 at midnight, Finnish local time (UTC + 3 h). Please submit your application by filling out the online form found at the link above. The professorship is located at the Department of Social Sciences of the School of Engineering Sciences at LUT University. The position is at the assistant, associate or full professor level of the tenure track and will be filled through an open call for a fixed term of four years (assistant/associate professor) or permanently (full professor). In 2022, LUT University received the right to establish a department of Social Sciences and provide education leading to the degrees of B.Sc., M.Sc. and D.Sc. in social sciences and communication sciences. Communication Sciences at LUT University explores communication and interaction, media and communication technology and the role of communication in organizations and sustainable development of the society. We are looking for dedicated professionals in the fields of organisational and/or strategic communication with a special emphasis on the role of communication in sustainability (e.g., sustainability/CSR communication, environmental communication, responsible organisational communication practices). Our research currently focuses on the following topics: * impact of social media in the working life * digital media technologies and emotions * science and crisis communication, and * sustainability communication. The general duties related to the field of research include the following: * high-impact international research * planning and implementation of undergraduate and postgraduate education * supervision of final theses and postgraduate studies * acquisition of research funding * cost-conscious leadership and project management * preparation of national and international research and education projects * increasing awareness in a way that serves industries * close collaboration and interaction with businesses in the field * taking part in the preparation of projects in other LUT units as an expert * general administrative work related to the university's operation. The candidates must present strong research achievements in the focus areas above and proof of successful project work and research collaboration with research institutions and industry. The candidates must have research and teaching merits. Spoken and written fluency in English is also required. The appointment process description<https://www.lut.fi/sites/default/files/media/documents/Description%20of%20a…> explains the qualification requirements and tenure track appointment criteria. Please specify the tenure track level applied to. The professorship is located at LUT University's Lappeenranta campus. The position starts with a six-month trial period. The salary is determined according to the salary system for university teaching and research personnel. The pay will include an individual pay component based on performance and competence. The annual gross salary for an assistant/associate professor amounts to 46 700 - 62 800 euros and full professor to 65 300 - 96 800 euros depending on the qualifications and experience of the candidate. For further information, please contact Matti Kojo, associate professor and head of the Department of Social Sciences, matti.kojo(a)lut.fi<mailto:matti.kojo@lut.fi>. With Kind Regards, Dr. Anna Rantasila anna.rantasila(a)lut.fi<mailto:anna.rantasila@lut.fi> +358 50 3223039 Univeristy Lecturer, Communication Sciences School of Engineering Sciences LUT University

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#AoIR2023 Submission deadline is in 24 hours - 1 March 23:59 UTC
by Michelle, Association of Internet Researchers 28 Feb '23

28 Feb '23

*This is a reminder that the deadline to make submissions for #AoIR2023 is 24 hours awa**y **1 March 2023, 23:59 UTC*. If you are unsure what time this is where you are, please check here. https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=AoIR+2023+Submiss… In the meantime, submissions for AoIR 2023 are already being uploaded daily. We would greatly appreciate your help with the review process, even if you are unable to submit a proposal this year. As ever, our goal is to create a broad, engaging, and diverse selection of conference presentations that reflect the breadth of our research community, and we can only do that with engaged and thoughtful reviewers. If you are submitting to the conference this year, please consider volunteering to review. *More details on submitting and reviewing below, but the deadline of Wednesday, 1 March 2023 is the same for both!* - - - Submitting The 2023 conference welcomes contributions that address the theme of Revolutions (https://aoir.org/aoir2023/aoir2023cfp/) To re-familiarize yourself with the types of submissions solicited, please see here: https://aoir.org/aoir2023/subtypes/. Submissions deadline is 1 March 2023 for papers, panels, roundtables, fishbowls, experimental sessions, and pre-conference workshops. When submitting, please take the time to read the submission categories and topics carefully; this helps us match your submission to suitable reviewers. To learn more about how submissions are reviewed, please see here: https://aoir.org/sub_review_info_aoir/. If accepted as a presenting author, you must register for the conference by the Early Bird deadline of 1 August 2023. Accepted paper and panel submissions will be included in our open access conference paper archive, Selected Papers of Internet Research (SPIR). SPIR helps us further publicize the work of our members and introduce our research to a wider audience. All paper and panel submissions must therefore follow our SPIR formatting requirements, which includes a consistent header and style format for the papers that will enable people to easily locate author and title information, and identify the papers as part of the AoIR conference. This format is only intended to bring consistency to basic elements (such as typeface and spacing), not to impose any disciplinary constraints. Please download the Word template here: https://aoir.org/aoir2023/submission-template/. AoIR 2023 relies on our community for reviewing, and every person who is submitting this year appreciates your assistance as a reviewer. When submitting, please take a moment to also update your reviewing preferences. - - - Reviewing Please double check that you have indicated that you have volunteered to review (or change that to a no if you cannot review this year). Based on feedback from previous conferences we have revised our list of reviewer expertise topics. Please update your topics to help us match proposal submissions to reviewer interests, instructions on how to do this are here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cKWNycyYnzdyTl9-mWqvOR_j0HLOmh0T/edit?u… To learn more about how submissions are reviewed, please see here: https://aoir.org/sub_review_info_aoir/. On behalf of AoIR, I thank you for your time, attention, and contribution to the AoIR conference. If you do not have the time to be a reviewer this year, no problem. You can reply to AoIRConfChair(a)aoir.org and I will remove your reviewer status from your profile. I look forward to working with you toward a fantastic conference! Please login and update these topics by Wednesday 1 March 2023 at the very latest. If you have any questions or any difficulties updating your information, please let me know. Sincerely, Adrienne Shaw AoIR2023 Programme Chair ---- Important Deadline Reminders: 1 March 2023: Submissions due for papers, panels, roundtables, fishbowls, experimental sessions, and pre-conference workshops 1 March 2023: Updates to reviewer status, reviewer topics, and reviewer methods due 1 May 2023: Submission deadline for Doctoral Colloquium 1 August 2023: Early Registration Deadline 18-21 October 2023: AoIR2023 Conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, hosted by Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania 17 November 2023: Final version of the extended abstract must be uploaded

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Call for papers Online platforms for institutional deliberation: new practices, new approaches?
by Stephanie Wojcik 28 Feb '23

28 Feb '23

Call for papers Online platforms for institutional deliberation: new practices, new approaches? Recherches en Communication Coordinators: Stéphanie Wojcik (Université Paris Est Créteil-CEDITEC) and Rocío Annunziata (University of Buenos Aires-CONICET) https://ojs.uclouvain.be/index.php/rec/announcement/view/1003 Overview For several years, digital methods of communication have been the subject of numerous studies following an ideal model of deliberation, most often associated with the established approach of Jürgen Habermas (Greffet and Wojcik, 2008; Graham, 2010; Coleman and Moss, 2012; Hartz-Karp and Sullivan, 2020). Other more recent approaches tend to consider how ever-changing technologies have brought about the diversification of modes of expression (Monnoyer-Smith and Wojcik, 2014); particularly how they enable the emergence of civic engagement based not on rationality but on affect (Papacharissi, 2015). Others have critically engaged with concepts developed in the West, claiming they do not go far enough to consider participation phenomena in societies in other geographical areas (Frenkiel and Wang, 2017). Building on these few ideas, or against them, can we develop other conceptualizations to attempt to capture the richness and plurality of digital deliberative exchanges? By forcing the digitization of many deliberative processes that had previously taken place only face-to-face, and by fostering the emergence of new experiences, has the COVID-19 pandemic led to a revival of empirical, methodological, and theoretical approaches to online deliberation? Although many in the past have dismissed online deliberation methods citing their numerous shortcomings that are particularly evident in digital social networks (extreme polarization of opinions, inability to produce consensus, etc.), should the advantages of online deliberation be re-evaluated in this new era? Some authors who have championed face-to-face deliberation now argue that an online deliberative system could improve democratic legitimacy (Gastil, 2021). It seems now is an opportune time to revisit this topic. Indeed, the pandemic has accelerated two distinct phenomena in the field of deliberative processes. The first phenomenon is the increased digitization of tools that were previously developed offline, due to the impossibility of meeting in the traditional public space. To be sure, this digital turn was already a visible trend in the participatory tools offered by various governments. In recent years, many of the world's largest metropolises (like Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, New York, and Helsinki) have adopted new and emerging digital platforms for citizen participation, while at the same time, the "open government" paradigm has spread, most notably led by the U.S. government. But the pandemic has intensified this trend, forcing public administrations to quickly adjust or reassess their deliberative processes. Thus, in some European countries, important mini-public processes such as the citizens' assemblies on climate change that were planned for 2021 had to be held online; in Latin American countries, participatory budgets at the local level had to choose between going online or disappearing. The second phenomenon is the drastic change in the focus of studies on online deliberation. Until now, such studies have tended to focus on forum experiences or platforms designed to present, comment, or vote on bills and legislation[1] (Barandiaran, et al., 2017; Annunziata, 2020; Shin and Rask, 2021) in an asynchronous way, as this modality is considered more conducive to the expression of deliberative potential (Strandberg and Grönlund, 2018; De Brasi and Gutierrez, 2020). However, the massive and daily use of Zoom, Meet, Webex and other tools to hold synchronous meetings during the last two years has opened up new opportunities of exploration (Elstub et al., 2021). This special issue aims to revisit the topic of online political deliberation, when initiated by a governmental authority at the national or local level, and around the four thematic axes described below. In recent years, with the pandemic as an accelerating factor, new issues have emerged in the field of online deliberation: Devices and designs have diversified and shaped novel deliberative possibilities; logics of inclusion and exclusion of participants have changed; new tools such as artificial intelligence have transformed the moderation of exchanges and the processing of results; and finally, emotions, conflict, polarization, and testimonies have gained space in the public sphere. This issue seeks to identify, describe and conceptualize these new practices, as well as to assess the extent to which theoretical approaches accompany these changes. We invite proposals for articles based on field analyses and experiences that are not limited to the Anglophone world, but concern a variety of countries from the African, Asian, European, and Latin American regions. Special attention will be paid to methodological issues. Comparative papers on different geographical contexts or on online/offline dynamics are especially welcome. 1. Platforms and designs The question of the design of procedures and platforms from which discussions materialize has become central to the more general work on online participation (Manosevitch, 2014), and has expanded to include forms of "civic technologies" (Zhang, Davies and Przybylska, 2021). The quality and content of deliberation can thus vary widely according to the structure of the platforms and the practices of the participants. Mini-publics, participatory budgets and other participatory and deliberative forums are usually organized face-to-face—so how can we understand their digitalization? What designs can be used to engage in discussions while acknowledging the stages of the usually highly codified forms of participation? Can we adopt the same theoretical and methodological approaches to capture synchronous and asynchronous modalities of online discussions? Several studies have indeed investigated the influence of disparate characteristics of online deliberation devices on their operationalization, whether it be a matter of enabling the expression of disagreement (Rossini and Maia, 2021) and plurality of perspectives (Annunziata, 2016; van der Does and Bos, 2021) including minority or unpopular opinions (Stromer-Galley et al., 2015), or even their orientation toward the common good (Monnoyer-Smith and Wojcik, 2012). At the same time, the generalization of online/offline device hybridization necessitates revisiting issues that have previously been addressed by way of observation of experimental designs (Min, 2007; Stromer-Galley, Bryant, and Bimber, 2015). For example, at the individual level, we must ask: To what extent does such a combination increase participants' knowledge, sense of political efficacy, or willingness to engage in politics? Thus, participants' engagement is systematically affected by the design of deliberative procedures. But what about the action of the authorities who implement them? Do the different and necessary hybridizations—online/offline, synchronous/asynchronous—lead to increased integration of deliberation in the decision-making process? 2. Sociology of participants From the largely anonymous nature of online discussion spaces, whether institutional or experimentally constructed, it can be argued that the public sphere has been expanded to incorporate new participants, including those often marginalized by traditional deliberative mechanisms. However, the question of the "digital divide"—referring as much to material inequalities of access as to disparities in skills and usages (van Dijk, 2020) necessary for information retrieval and political expression online—was quickly raised by empirical studies. Research findings via observations in the field of political participation on long-term perpetuation of inequalities are varied. For some, digital deliberative devices such as informal online discussions prove powerless in mitigating access and public voice inequalities (Hartz-Karp and Sullivan, 2020; Abendschön and García-Albacete, 2021): The young and urban middle-class audience is overrepresented online, while older participants and those from more disadvantaged backgrounds remain underrepresented (Baek, Wojcieszak, & Delli Carpini, 2012; Touchton, Wampler, & Spada, 2019). Others, however, claim that this pattern becomes increasingly complicated when considering the institutional form of digital participation. For example, Kennedy et al.'s (2021) recent study shows that gender inequalities typically observed in face-to-face debates do not recur in online sessions. More specifically, according to the authors, although women tend to intervene less often, their written comments are more developed than those of men. The dynamics of online deliberation could therefore reduce the phenomena of "internal exclusion," that is, situations in which all participants are formally included in the discussion but some shy away from speaking (Young, 2002; Annunziata, 2016). Has the generalization of digital devices led to a revival of the sociology of their participants? Are there some strategies to increase inclusion in deliberation of people who are usually absent from this type of forum? 3. Algorithms, moderation, and AI Face-to-face deliberative devices have generated diverse works on the actors who organize and structure them, and contribute to their unfolding within a defined temporal frame, paving the way for a sociology of the participation market (Mazeaud and Nonjon, 2018). Studies on the instigators and moderators of online discussions have emphasized their crucial role in managing information flows and interactions between participants in a way that produces ideas that can influence the process of public policy making (Epstein and Leshed, 2016). Other studies of informal policy discussions taking place in online comment spaces (Stroud et al. 2015) also note the dependence of certain deliberative norms—for example, interaction among participants, justification of views, or, conversely, incivility of speech—on both the choice of topic and the presence of human or non-human moderation. How does the action of moderators contribute to shaping online deliberations, whether synchronous or asynchronous? More specifically, does it lead to an improvement in the quality of exchanges, to the inclusion of more participants, or to the expression of marginal points of view? More recently, online political expression is being moderated algorithmically through various artificial intelligence-based processes, particularly in the case of debates organized by political authorities at the national level. Their technological efficiency as well as their ability to uphold their democratic responsibilities must be questioned (Alnemr, 2020) since algorithms can be used both to moderate contents and to synthesize contributions en masse. How do platform design algorithms affect deliberation? What is the influence of artificial intelligence on deliberation results and how do authorities take them into account? 4. Types of discourse and the role of emotions Habermas’ paradigm of deliberation has previously been challenged by the more rhetorical trends of deliberation (Young, 2002; Urfalino, 2013), which highlight the role of affect and emotions through narrative forms such as storytelling and testimonies as a proposition for an alternative and more inclusive model of deliberation. Other works have emphasized the importance of conflict and the recognition of antagonisms in contrast to the search for consensus promoted by Habermas' original model. This possible diversification of the forms and purposes of deliberation has received little attention when it comes to examining online discussions. On the contrary, their deliberative potential has been dismissed due to the often-heated nature of exchanges, and the controversies and polemics that are particularly observable in digital environments characterized by participant anonymity or pseudonymity. If it is true that "hate speech" has spread online (Monnier et al. 2021), it is also possible to consider that the proliferation of deliberative experiences born from the diversity of digital spaces and devices constitutes an opportunity to put rhetorical theories to the test. What is the place of narratives, testimonies, and storytelling mechanisms in online deliberation practices? What place does emotions hold? Does rationality take forms other than argumentative text online? What are the forms of conflict and antagonism in online deliberation? On the other hand, while the polarization of opinions (Waisbord, 2020; Strandberg, Himmelroos and Grönlund, 2019; Yarchi, Baden and Kligler-Vilenchik, 2021; Serrano-Contreras, García-Marín and Luengo, 2020) and the anti-deliberative effects of misinformation (McKay and Tenove, 2021) have been studied in-depth in the context of social networks, they have done little to address online deliberation platforms put in place by public authorities. How can misinformation or fake news affect the opinions of participants and the results of debates in this latter context? Terms of submission Kindly send your paper via email to stephanie.wojcik(a)u-pec.fr<mailto:stephanie.wojcik@u-pec.fr> and to rocio.annunziata(a)gmail.com<mailto:rocio.annunziata@gmail.com>, and submit it on the journal's website by May 30, 2023. The articles will be verified by the author to ensure anonymity (see "Identification of Authors in the Manuscript" in the instructions for the authors<https://ojs.uclouvain.be/index.php/rec/about/submissions> section of the journal) and submitted for evaluation in a "double-blind" process by the reading committee of the journal. The response will be given no later than September 1, 2023. The articles submitted and accepted for publication in this issue will be published one by one on the site as they are finalized, without waiting for the entirety of the issue to be ready for publication. The file will be opened on the journal's website no later than November 30, 2023. Instructions for writing the final version of the article: 40,000 characters maximum per article (including spaces and references, not including the abstract and keywords). The complete formatting guide is available on the website<https://ojs.uclouvain.be/index.php/rec/about/submissions>. Schedule outline: - May 30, 2023: Deadline to submit articles (40000 characters max.) - September 1, 2023: Notification of the review committee's response - November 30, 2023: Publication of the articles on the journal's website For further information, please contact: stephanie.wojcik(a)u-pec.fr<mailto:stephanie.wojcik@u-pec.fr>; rocio.annunziata(a)gmail.com<mailto:rocio.annunziata@gmail.com> ________________________________ [1] Such as Consul, Decidim, Democracy OS, etc.

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