Lois, Someone should write a paper about PMTH and our first conference for this guy. At first, I thought of doing this myself but then realized that you should do it. I don't know the history of PMTH and all that well enough to do it. PMTH is special and unique. PMTH is the kind of community the early utopian hackers of the 1980s HOPED would emerge on the net. T. Michael "Gustavo S. Mesch" <gustavo@soc.haifa.ac.il> wrote: CALL FOR PAPERS e-Relationships: The Blurring and Reconfiguration of Offline and Online Social Boundaries Information, Communication & Society (iCS) invites papers for a Special Issue exploring how the rapid expansion in the use of the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICTs) is influencing offline and online social networks and relationships at different levels (friendship, family, workplace and community). Social science researchers have shown growing interest in understanding the changes in social relationships tied to this widespread diffusion of ICTs. Early empirical explorations of the effects of ICTs on social and personal interactions directed attention to the technologies effects on existing face-to-face relationships, such as a shift to more isolated activities focused on computer interactions. More recent studies have shown how ICTs are becoming part of everyday life, with increasingly blurred boundaries between offline and online social relationships as they interact in ways that reconfigure an individuals or households social circle. For example, the Internet is often used to maintain and support geographically-dispersed relationships with friends and family. Online relationships also often translate into face-to-face meetings over time. iCS invites contributions from authors who are investigating the integration of online and offline social relationships. These studies can adopt any theoretical and methodological perspective and should address any of the following issues: To what extent are online social relationships being integrated into offline activities and social networks? In what ways do social ties created online differ from offline relationships? To what degree do individuals make online connections with socially similar or socially distinct others? What are the differences in the quality of social relationships created offline and online (e.g. in terms of the weakness or strength of ties and the levels of emotional and material support, friendship and sense of belonging)? What circumstances affect the migration of Internet-initiated relationships to other settings? The deadline for receipt of the abstracts is October 31 2005. Abstracts, not exceeding 300 words, must be sent electronically to Gustavo Mesch, the Special Issues Guest Editor (gustavo@soc.haifa.ac.il). The Deadline for receipt of full papers (not exceeding 7,000 words and with an abstract of up to 300 words) is March 31 2006. See www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/1369118x.asp for author guidelines and journal information. iCS is a peer-reviewed international journal devoted to high quality empirical research and theoretical works that include analysis of the emerging properties of the Information Age in a multidisciplinary and transcultural perspective. It is published by Taylor & Francis. -- Gustavo S. Mesch, Academic Visitor Oxford Internet Institute, U. of Oxford Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology and Anthropology Senior Research Associate Minerva Center for Youth Studies The University of Haifa, Israel email:gustavo@soc.haifa.ac.il http://soc.haifa.ac.il/~gustavo http://soc.haifa.ac.il/community ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This message was sent using IMP, the Webmail Program of Haifa University _______________________________________________ The Air-l-aoir.org@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/ "A prison becomes a home once you have the key." - George Sterling __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com