CALL FOR PAPERS, Special Thematic Issue on Digital Sustainability, *Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance Emerald* Scholars are invited to submit abstracts for a special issue on the theme Digital Sustainability, guest edited by Dr. Massimo Ragnedda (Northumbria University, UK) and Prof. Dr. Glenn Muschert (Khalifa University of Science & Technology, UAE). Submissions will be peer reviewed and considered for publication in a special issue on the theme commissioned by Emerald Publishing’s peer-reviewed journal *Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance*. SPECIAL ISSUE THEME: The special issue theme is “Digital Sustainability.” The decade of the 2020s is simultaneously the age of digital transformation and the time in which humanity has established a coherent set of sustainability goals to be achieved by 2030, namely the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). What is less commonly discussed is the role that digital technologies, digital skills, and digital social life will play in the pursuit and maintenance of a sustainable future. This special issue offers a forum for that conversation to develop, as a venue in which social scientists, STS scholars, and other digital scholars can explore the concept of digital sustainability with an eye toward establishing a conceptual framework for defining and theorizing digital sustainability, for studying and assessing digital sustainability, and for plotting out applied methodologies for implementing principles of digital sustainability in real, augmented, and virtual spheres. Thus, this special issue on digital sustainability will open up new scholarly and applied conversations regarding precisely the intersection between digital aspects of human life and wider sustainability concerns for humanity and the planet. The aims of the project are to connect contemporary scholarship in digital sociology with scholarship concerning sustainability, and thereby to carve out a new sub-field for digital sustainability. These goals will be met via the academic investigations assembled in the special issue, as follows: - Establish a concept of digital sustainability, and to define the theoretical and conceptual parameters of the idea. - Map out methodological approaches for the study and assessment of digital sustainability. - Conceptualize how digital sustainability can be enhanced in applied settings. COVERAGE: The special issue on “Digital Sustainability” will include six or seven articles of 5.000 to 7.000 words examining conceptual issues related to digital sustainability. The primary criterion for acceptance is established as scholarly quality and relevance of topic to the special issue theme. Each chapter must engage digital sustainability on a conceptual level, while at the same time advancing issues related to methodologies for study/assessment of digital sustainability and/or practical strategies to enhance digital sustainability. Each article should include some empirical evidence, but must also be linked theoretically to wider debates current in digital sociology, sustainability studies, communications, or related fields. Contributors are encouraged to offer forward-looking perspectives in the form of suggestions for digital sustainability, including how the concepts, associated methodologies, applications, and principles of digital sustainability can be useful in pursuit to sustainability goals. Topics include, but are not limited to: - Theorizing digital sustainability - Measuring digital sustainability - Methodologies for assessment of digital sustainability - Mapping plans to achieve digital sustainability - Exploration of the role of advanced computing in digital sustainability, such as AI, big data, quantum computing, blockchain, cryptocurrency - Exploration of various forms of social reality as aspects of digital sustainability, such as RL, VR, AR, and XR - Exploration of digital sustainability and the human-computer interface(s) - The relevance of digital skills in digital sustainability - The role of digital infrastructure in digital sustainability - E-waste, energy usage, and other ecological concerns - The role(s) of infrastructure, hardware, or software in digital sustainability - The role of formal social institutions (public, private, or NGO) in digital sustainability IMPORTANT DATES: - Abstracts Due *1. August 2020* - Decisions Issued 15. August 2020 - Articles Due 31. October 2020 - Reviews Returned 1. January 2021 - Revisions Due 31. March 2021 - Submit to Publisher 7. May 2021 - Online Publication 30. July 2021 ABSTRACT SUBMISSION GUIDELINES The special issue editors invite colleagues worldwide to prepare extended abstracts for a proposed article contribution. Please submit a one-page proposal to the editorial team via email by 1 August 2020, and kindly contact the editors with questions or for additional information. First drafts of invited articles will be due will be due 1 November 2020, and final manuscripts will be due 1 May 2021. Manuscripts will be limited to 20 manuscript pages (c. 5.000 words), including abstract, references, two-dimensional tables, and figures. SPECIAL EDITORS Dr. Massimo Ragnedda (Senior Lecturer in Mass Communications, Northumbria University, UK). Email: massimo.ragnedda@northumbria.ac.uk Prof. Dr. Glenn W. Muschert (Professor of Sociology, Khalifa University, UAE). Email: glenn.muschert@ku.ac.ae ______________ *Massimo Ragnedda* <http://northumbria.academia.edu/MassimoRagnedda> Senior Lecturer in Mass Communication Squires Building 306f, Northumbria University, NE8 1ST Newcastle (UK) Tel: 01912437444 Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University <http://www.journ.msu.ru/eng/news/27610/> *Most recent books*: Massimo Ragnedda (2020). Enhancing Digital Equity. Connecting the Digital Underclass <https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030490782#aboutBook>, Palgrave (in press). Massimo Ragnedda and Maria Laura Ruiu (2020). Digital Capital. A Bourdieusian Perspective on the Digital Divide <https://books.emeraldinsight.com/page/detail/Digital-Capital/?k=9781839095535>, Emerald. Massimo Ragnedda (2017) *The Third Digital Divide: A Weberian approach to digital inequalities* <http://bit.ly/2f8FObg>, Routledge. *Most recent edited books*: Massimo Ragnedda and Anna Gladkova eds (2020). Digital Inequalities in the Global South <https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030327057>. Palgrave. Bruce Mutsvairo and Massimo Ragnedda eds (2019) Mapping the Digital Divide in Africa. A Mediated Analysis. <https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789462986855/mapping-the-digital-divide-in-africa> Amsterdam University Press Massimo Ragnedda and Glenn Muschert, eds (2018) *Theorizing Digital Divide* <http://bit.ly/2y9WSLm>, Routledge Latest articles: A. Gladkova, E. Vartanova, M. Ragnedda (2020). Digital Divide and Digital Capital in Multiethnic Russian Society <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17447143.2020.1745212>, Journal of Multicultural Discourses Massimo Ragnedda, Maria Laura Ruiu and Felice Addeo (2019), Measuring Digital Capital: an empirical investigation <http://buff.ly/2zpPiew>, New Media and Society Massimo Ragnedda (2018) Conceptualizing Digital Capital <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0736585318309316?via%3Dihub>, Telematics and Informatics Vice chair of Digital Divide Working Group, IAMCR <https://iamcr.org/s-wg/working-group/DID> Co-convenor of NINSO (Northumbria Internet and Society Research Group <https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/academic-departments/northumbria-law-school/law-research/ninso-the-northumbria-internet-and-society-research-interest-group/> )