International Journal of Cultural Studies Call for papers: Caring Media Futures Whether it is a moral-ethical imperative, an instinct of survival, or a social responsibility, care and caring are fundamental to human existence, and cultures. This special issue recognises the importance of media cultures and technologies in enabling affective care-at-a-distance and mobile intimacies in the provision of formal and informal, paid and unpaid care. Globally, the rapid increase of ageing populations has required the support of technological services in the form of artificial intelligence, robotics and automation. This form of caring media is increasingly normalised and practiced through wearable safety devices, mobile phones, apps, robots, virtual reality, and animals. All of these operate as care-giving agencies, supporting, replacing and enhancing human-to-human labours of care. These media technologies raise important questions about design capacities and implementations that may enhance or prohibit the agency, privacy, sociality, imagination, and quality of life of those in or receiving care. Taking care seriously requires recalibrating the ways in which it has been feminised and under- valued socially and economically, despite its pivotal role in all societies. Examples include increasing chains of migrant labour to serve more economically developed countries facing burgeoning ageing populations without adequate infrastructures, and; the growing body of digital technologies promoting informal care for self and others without necessarily involving significant professional knowledge or support. How can cultural studies researchers deploy care across their methods, theories and implementation? How might cultural studies bring a critical lens to care practices imagined in tech industries, social services, media discourses and practices? And lastly, how might this critical lens bring into focus temporalities and embodiments of care through media forms and practices? For example, what does it mean to look after someone in this media landscape? And how might predictive automation reconfigure temporal and spatial metaphors in the language/service of care? Caring Media Futures seeks to bring together a variety of interdisciplinary papers exploring how care cultures are shaping, and being shaped by, media practices and theories. Drawing on cultural studies’ strong history in challenging the gendering and undervaluing of certain labour and informal practices, this special issue calls for the need to take care seriously in the imaginaries of future work and life. As such, we are particularly interested in contributions that address the following themes: - Feminist analysis of digital health and care - Informal care cultures around ageing, disability, illness, dying and death - The rise of cyberphysical systems around caring practices - The ‘place’ of non-human companions in labours of care - Cross-cultural and interdisciplinary studies on the relationship between care, labour, and media - Methods of engagement, research, and practice with and for care - Redefinitions of care in future ageing localities - Challenges for urban and regional contexts Guest editors - Margaret Gibson, Senior Lecturer School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science, Griffith University, Australia margaret.gibson@griffith.edu.au<mailto:margaret.gibson@griffith.edu.au> - Larissa Hjorth, Director, Design and Creative Practice Platform, RMIT University, Australia larissa.hjorth@rmit.edu.au<mailto:larissa.hjorth@rmit.edu.au> - Jaz Hee-jeong Choi, Vice-chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow, College of Design and Social Context, RMIT University, Australia jaz.hee-jeong.choi@rmit.edu.au<mailto:jaz.hee-jeong.choi@rmit.edu.au> Timeline Abstract submission deadline: 30 June 2019 Notification of selection/invitation: 31 July 2019 Full paper deadline: 1 January 2020. Submission Proposals must include three components: 1) an extended abstract (max. 500 words) including a short description of how the submission relates to the special issue theme 2) three keywords, and 3) a short bio (max. 250 words) including name, title, affiliation, and contact details. Please submit your proposal to all three editors: margaret.gibson@griffith.edu.au,<mailto:margaret.gibson@griffith.edu.au,> larissa.hjorth@rmit.edu.au, <mailto:larissa.hjorth@rmit.edu.au> and jaz.hee-jeong.choi@rmit.edu.au<mailto:jaz.hee-jeong.choi@rmit.edu.au> Please note that invited full submissions will undergo peer-review per the journal’s review process. ---- Dr. Jaz Hee-jeong Choi | Vice-chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow Researching, Engaging & Designing with and for care [at] Digital Ethnography Research Centre, RMIT Australia www.nicemustard.com<http://www.nicemustard.com> | +61 433 167 151 | twitter: jaz_off<http://twitter.com/jaz_off>