Dear AoIR list members: New special issue of Digital Culture & Society has now been published (fully open access) with independent publisher Transcript:🔥 *Towards Popular Techno-Futures. A Global Culture Perspective* 🔥by the Transcript journal Digitial Culture & Society.EditorsAnya Heise-von der Lippe,Felix Spremberg,Jascha BareisAuthors from all around the globe discuss: How do communities around the world rethink techno-futures through friction, re-appropriation, spirituality and, possibly, wholesome change - beyond Western visions of Tech?From families in Kharkiv in Ukraine, to platfrom governance frameworks of markets in India; from techno-orientalism in China, to Afrofuturist dreamscapes; from the weaponization of social Media in Mali to internet commons of the Northern Michigan Tribe; from Latin America's sci-fi of resistance, low-tech alternative education interventions in class rooms, to Japans dreams of a Society 3.0.... 🧚♂️ Where is this globe 🌎 heading to? 🧚♂️ You can access the full issue OA here: https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://digicults.org/issues/112-2025-towards-po... Print and copies can be ordered from the publisher's website: https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-7321-0/digital-culture-society-d... <https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-7321-0/digital-culture-society-dcs/> * * *Table of Contents:* Outdated Enchantments of Progress? <https://digicults.org/files/2026/05/DCS_11_2_Intro.pdf> Towards Global Techno Futures /Jascha Bareis, Anya Heise-von der Lippe and Felix Spremberg/ // I Techno-futures in National Strategies and Counter-Discourses Techno-futures with Chinese Characteristics? <https://digicults.org/files/2026/05/DCS_11_2_1_Song.pdf> Negotiating Techno-Orientalism in Chinese Digitalized Lifestyle and Aesthetics /Chenyang Song/ Constructing an “AI-driven Society” <https://digicults.org/files/2026/05/DCA_11_2_2_Spremberg_Nishiyama_Bareis.pdf> Idealization and Anxiety in Japan’s National AI Strategy /Felix Spremberg, Takahiro Nishiyama and Jascha Bareis/ Platform Futures Framework <https://digicults.org/files/2026/05/DCS_11_2_3_Bhatia.pdf> A Methodological Framework to Assess Digital Platform Viability and Sustainability for Marginalized Users in the Global South /Aditi Bhatia-Kalluri/ II Techno-futuristic Communication, Empowerment and Community-Building Strategies Mind the Mind <https://digicults.org/files/2026/05/DCS_11_2_4_Kalashnikova.pdf> Analysis of Media Habits of the Future /Alina Kalashnikova/ Internet Futuring <https://digicults.org/files/2026/05/DCS_11_2_5_Butt_Marwell_Feamster.pdf> How Communities are Connecting Themselves /Henna Zamurd Butt, Nicole P. Marwell, Nick Feamster/ voxUp <https://digicults.org/files/2026/05/DCS_11_2_6_Ward_Burgess.pdf> Co-Developing a Music Technology for Beatbox Looping in a Special Education Needs Setting /Asha Ward and Jon Burgess/ III Techno-futuristic Media: Conflicts and Counter-Narratives Digital Dimensions of Conflict <https://digicults.org/files/2026/05/DCS_11_2_7_Prokic_Bruls_DeBruijn.pdf> Analyzing Malian conflict and violence through Social Media and Mixed-Methods Approach /Jelena Prokic, Luca Bruls, Mirjam de Bruijn/ Visualizing the Invisible <https://digicults.org/files/2026/05/DCS_11_2_8_Burkhardt.pdf> Representations and Narrative Motifs of AI in Latin American Film /Anne Burkhardt/ Afrofuturist Techno-Futures Reimagined <https://digicults.org/files/2026/05/DCS_11_2_9_Nana_Heise-vdL.pdf> Magic, Dreams and Boundary-Crossings /Louis Nana and Anya Heise-von der Lippe/ Contributors <https://digicults.org/files/2026/05/DCS_11_2_Contributors.pdf> Best, the special issue editors Jascha Bareis, Anya Heise-von der Lippe and Felix Spremberg //