Dear all, we have extended the Call for Abstract for the 2nd PG conference organised by the PG interdisciplinary group Digital Stuff<https://digitalstuffcardiff.wordpress.com/> at Cardiff University. The new deadline is 15/05/2018. Can you please forward it to anyone who might be interested? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CALL FOR ABSTRACTS (deadline 15/05/2018) Digital Stuff 2018 – Digital Chaos: digital technologies and social disruption 2nd Interdisciplinary PG conference Cardiff, 14 June 2018 Over the past few years there has been a dramatic and intensifying shift in discourse around digital technologies. Public, politicians, journalists and commentators have increasingly emphasised the potential for the digital to disrupt, damage and undermine the foundational aspects of society, democracy and the political status quo. In the political sphere Facebook and Twitter are widely accused of undermining the democratic processes through the dissemination of propaganda via networks of bots. Two of the most profound democratic upsets in the recent history of the Anglosphere, Trump and Brexit, are increasingly attributed to the manipulation of voters through algorithms powered by illicitly collected data. Journalists and academics struggle to explain the rise of “fake news”, and what this concept means for the status of knowledge in online discourse. Progressive political activists are intensifying their use of social media to challenge the status quo, with notable examples such as #metoo<https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/metoo?source=feed_text> directly challenging patriarchal power across many sectors and institutions. Meanwhile, reactionary movements are using social media more than ever to spread hate speech and organise on public platforms that seem reluctant to shut down their activity. Outside of and inside social movements, new technologies may present fundamental challenges to monetary sectors and governments: the phenomenal growth of cryptocurrencies may offer new and disruptive technologies for banking and finance, while increasingly sophisticated encryption poses challenges to governments and judiciaries to regulate and intercept communications. In the midst of all this, many countries are stepping up efforts to control their citizens’ activity online, from an increasingly authoritarian Turkey attempting to force platforms to regulate content, to China’s ongoing program of fencing off their citizens’ experience of the internet. This interdisciplinary event funded by Cardiff University Doctoral Academy will bring together postgraduate and early career researchers from a variety of disciplines, to address and discuss the above issues in an intellectually diverse conference. Our conference will take place on June 14th 2018 in Cardiff and cover the above topics and other areas of disruption in contemporary digital studies. Digital Stuff is an interdisciplinary research group, and we encourage submissions from a wide variety of backgrounds: from STEM and computer science, to social science, humanities, journalism, politics, arts and literature. We welcome a wide variety of submissions, including presentations focusing on ongoing or completed research projects, methodological issues, case studies of events, ethical challenges, manifestos, and areas of personal academic interest or expertise. Applicants who are approved for presentation will take part in one of three thematic panels in a single stream conference, with opportunities for detailed discussion and networking alongside attendees, and an academic keynote speaker. Below is a summary of suggested topics, but we enthusiastically welcome and encourage submissions on other related topics: * AI, bots, and fake news * Cyberhate, racism and far-right movements * Online movements and campaigns (i.e. #metoo) * Cryptocurrencies and encryption * Government regulation and civil liberties/human rights abuse * User data, data rights and social media (i.e. Cambridge Analytica) Please use the link below to submit your abstract for ‘Digital Stuff 2018 – Digital Chaos: digital technologies and social disruption’ conference. We use EasyChair for the submissions of abstracts and papers so you will be required to create an account with EasyChair in order to submit to this conference. Link: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ds2018 Abstracts should be 300 words, indicating name, institutional affiliation and title of presentation. Presentations will be 15-20 minutes, with Q&A sessions at the end of each block. Deadline for submissions 15/05/2018. For more info: https://digitalstuffcardiff.wordpress.com<https://digitalstuffcardiff.wordpress.com/> Chiara Poletti PhD researcher Cardiff University Phone: 0044-7477450608 Twitter:@ccpollon Skype:chiara.poletti15