Dear AoIRists, copy to Simon Rogerson, aline shakti franzke, In light of the impending March 1 deadline for proposals to be submitted for this year's conference in Dublin, I regret that we are bringing this to your attention later than we would have liked. But we hope that many of you will find the CFP to be sufficiently exciting and interesting that you can send along your proposals as outlined below as quickly as possible so that we can coordinate these into ethics panel proposals in time to meet the deadline. Please feel free to address any questions to either me and/or Simon Rogerson as seems best. == CFP – Special theme issue, Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society: Ethics, society and the internet – AoIR 2020 Background Since its inception, the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) has fostered critical reflection on the ethical and social dimensions of the internet and internet-facilitated communication. These reflections and analyses have been at work in innumerable conference presentations and conference-related publications, as well as in the Association’s signature development of ethical guidelines for internet research ethics (IRE). Given the nature of ethics, there will be continuing debate and disagreement: over the years, nonetheless, there have emerged both defining and characteristic commitments to ethical norms and imperatives. The AoIR 2014 statements on Diversity and Inclusivity articulate defining commitments to “the most fundamental principles of academic freedom, equality of opportunity, and human dignity” (https://aoir.org/diversity-and-inclusivity/). These commitments have been manifest from the beginning of AoIR in manifold panels and presentations informed by focus on basic rights to privacy, personality (Persönlichkeitsrecht – the right to shape and define who one is as a free person, including one’s sexual identities, preferences, etc.), freedom of expression, democratic political engagement, etc., as based on fundamental norms of emancipation, equality and gender equality, justice, fairness, and so on – and all of this from global / cross-cultural perspectives. They are further evoked throughout the list of thematics for the AoIR 2020 conference call, beginning with Power, justice, and inequality in digitally mediated lives; Life, sex, and death on, through, and with social media; and Political life online (https://aoir.org/aoir2020/cfp/). Concomitantly, Simon Rogerson, Chief Editor of the Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society (JICES), describes the Journal as aiming to “…promote thoughtful dialogue regarding the wider social and ethical issues related to the planning, development, implementation and use of new media and information and communication technologies. Drawing from a wide authorship it provides necessary interdisciplinary, culturally and geographically diverse works essential to understanding the impacts of the pervasive new media and information and communication technologies.” JICES and AoIR thus share central interests in the ethical and social dimensions of the internet and internet-facilitated communication. As part of a collaboration aimed at giving AoIR conference presentations and papers broader publicity via JICES, we invite proposals for ethically-focused presentations and panels at AoIR’s 21st annual meeting, to be held in Dublin, Ireland, 28-31 October 2020. Papers generated by these presentations and panels will then be published in a theme issue of JICES in 2021. (See Ess 2020 - ref. 1) Most briefly, we hope to attract papers in a first Special Issue of JICES that blend theory and practice in ways that will have the potential to make a real difference in the field. We invite proposals that take up one or more specific ethical and/or social dimension of the internet and internet-facilitated communication. The following list of topics is meant to be suggestive only – by no means comprehensive or exclusive: • uses of these technologies to exploit, attack and/or defend both “everyday users” and those rendered more vulnerable by given social, political, and/or economic structures. Possible topics here range within and across a heuristic taxonomy: macro-level analyses and evaluations of, e.g., authoritarian surveillance and/or surveillance capitalism; repression of dissent, freedom of expression, and political organization (e.g., the Hong Kong umbrella movement); “ethics by design,” perhaps vis-à-vis ethics washing by multinational corporations, professional organizations and/or NGOs; meso-level analyses and evaluations of, e.g., emancipatory uses of internet-facilitated communication by minority populations, women, children, LGBQt+, indigenous peoples, the poor, refugees and immigrants … vs. repressive / oppressive counter-uses of these technologies, e.g., cyber stalking, location-tracking and image-based abuse – see Tanczer et al (ref. 2) micro-level analyses and evaluations of specific examples and case-studies illustrating more individual- and group-level phenomena, e.g., democratically-oriented uses of these technologies for whistle-blowing and corporate / nation-state efforts to suppress these; and so on • good lives and flourishing in a digital era, including as these are specifically evoked in the conference topics “Machines and the good life: ethical principles versus ethical practices,” and “Health, wellbeing, and the internet.” That is, “the good life” and “wellbeing” are signature concepts and aims of virtue ethics – where virtue ethics has become increasingly central in analyses of the social and ethical impacts of ICTS. • analyses of the impacts and implications of internet-facilitated communication through the lenses of additional ethical and philosophical frameworks such as deontology, utilitarianism, care ethics, global ethical traditions such as Confucian thought, Buddhism, and so on. • existential media studies perspectives and analyses, as these conjoin a number of such frameworks, beginning with virtue ethics and care ethics, with classic existential analyses, now refined and transformed for apt analyses and guidance for our lives as mortal and thus vulnerable beings (Lagerkvist - ref. 3). Existential media studies further intersect with the work of media scholars such as Paddy Scannell and John Durham Peters – and specifically with the AoIR 2020 conference theme of “Death online.” • internet research ethics, beginning with its basic elements (see franzke et al 2020 - ref.4) as well as current examples and case studies, e.g., mis/uses of corporate data – e.g., Humphreys 2019 (ref.5); how to discern and foster researchers’ ethical capacities and responsibilities, e.g. Lammers et al 2019 (ref. 6); unfolding implications of GDPR for research ethics, and so on. Procedures In the first stage, proposals should be sent to Charles Ess (c.m.ess@media.uio.no – subject: AoIR-JICES). Proposals will be jointly reviewed by Charles Ess and JICES Chief Editor Simon Rogerson: accepted proposals will be collected within one or more ethics panels to be proposed to the AoIR conference as part of the regular submission and review process. (AoIR submission deadline: March 1) Proposals should include author name(s), title, a brief abstract (5-10 lines) plus one or two essential references. Please be as clear as possible as to how your proposed presentation addresses a central ethical theme, challenge, etc. (whether included in the above list or not) and how the presentation addresses the JICES thematics of "thoughtful dialogue regarding the wider social and ethical issues related to the planning, development, implementation and use of new media and information and communication technologies. Drawing from a wide authorship it provides necessary interdisciplinary, culturally and geographically diverse works essential to understanding the impacts of the pervasive new media and information and communication technologies." Please keep in mind the important restriction on submissions: In the interest of diversity and collegiality, each conference participant is limited to presenting one individual paper and one paper in a panel, and to participating in one roundtable. You can be a co-author on additional papers, but you must not be the scheduled presenter of these papers. Please do not submit as a presenter for any more papers than this, to allow everyone an opportunity to participate in the conference. Again, our regrets for the comparatively short notice of this CFP - but we hope to hear quickly from many of you! All best, charles ess References 1. For an initial overview, see: Charles M. Ess, Viewpoint: at the intersections of information, computing and internet research, Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JICES-01-2020-0001/full/... 2. Tanczer, L M, Dragiewicz, M, O’Neale, R, Harris, B and Kennedy, J (2019), “Technology-facilitated abuse: How tech is transforming coercion, control, and violence”, panel presented at the Association of Internet Researchers conference, 2-5 October, Brisbane, Australia. Abstract available at https://www.conftool.org/aoir2019/index.php?page=browseSessions&presentation... 3. Lagerkvist, A. (2019) Digital Existence: An Introduction. In: Lagerkvist, A. [Ed.] Digital Existence: Ontology, Ethics and Transcendence in Digital Culture. London: Routledge. 4. franzke, a s, Bechmann, A, Zimmer, M, Ess, C and the Association of Internet Researchers (2020). Internet Research: Ethical Guidelines 3.0. https://aoir.org/reports/ethics3.pdf 5. Humphreys, S (2019), “The Challenges of Ethical Data Use for Commercial Enterprises”, paper presented at the Association of Internet Researchers conference, 2-5 October, Brisbane, Australia. Abstract available at https://www.conftool.org/aoir2019/index.php?page=browseSessions&presentation... 6. Lammers, J C, Curwood, J C, Tekobbe, C, Magnifico, A M, Stornaiuolo, A (2019), “Respectful Ethical Decision Making: Positioning the Online Researcher as a Bearer of Moral Consequence”, panel presented at the Association of Internet Researchers conference, 2-5 October, Brisbane, Australia. Abstract available at https://www.conftool.org/aoir2019/index.php?page=browseSessions&presentation... -- Professor in Media Studies Department of Media and Communication University of Oslo <http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/people/aca/charlees/index.html> Co-chair & Editor, Internet Research Ethics 3.0 <https://aoir.org/reports/ethics3.pdf> 3rd edition of Digital Media Ethics out soon! <http://politybooks.com/bookdetail/?isbn=9781509533428> Postboks 1093 Blindern 0317 Oslo, Norway c.m.ess@media.uio.no