[Air-l] Reminder -- CFP: TIS issue on Internet Research

[Nancy Baym]

For those who missed this CFP or whose memories need jogging. The 
deadline is February 27. Please share this CFP with others who might 
be interested. Thanks.

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Information Society (TIS) special issue on

ICT RESEARCH AND DISCIPLINARY BOUNDARIES: IS "INTERNET RESEARCH" A 
VIRTUAL FIELD, A PROTO-DISCIPLINE, OR SOMETHING ELSE?

Edited by Nancy Baym, University of Kansas

Issues raised by information and communications technologies (ICTs) 
transcend disciplinary boundaries.  Ever since the beginning of ICT 
research, scholars have sought to carve out spaces within the 
discipline-bound institutional structures where streams of thoughts 
of different hues co-mingle more freely.  The early efforts in the 
1960s and 1970s focused on the creation of interdisciplinary research 
centers and programs and journals such as Telecommunications Policy 
and The Information Society.  In the 1980s and 1990s, we saw the rise 
of schools of information, information studies, and informatics on 
campuses where the conditions were ripe for entrepreneurial activity. 
The variation in the names and curricula of these schools suggests 
that we are still trying to get a sense of the new intellectual 
landscape.  Within this unsettled context, the growing number of 
researchers attracted towards the Association of Internet Researchers 
[AoIR] conference gives reason for pause.  One now often hears people 
talking about the "field" of "Internet Research" while its 
practitioners continue to be housed in departments and schools of 
library science, business, information science, communications, and 
others. Something clearly seems to be afoot.  But what is it? Is 
Internet Research a virtual field wherein we have resigned to the 
permanence of disciplinary boundaries and created an overlay or 
virtual network across them? Or, are we seeing the emergence of a 
proto-discipline whose growth will knock down disciplinary boundaries 
and create a new institutional space? Or, is Internet Research a 
forerunner of some other configuration we barely understand?  This 
special issue seeks to explore and chart out this evolving 
intellectual landscape.

Contributions in the form of full-length articles (6000 words), forum 
pieces (3000 words), and short position papers (1000 words) are 
invited.  The special issue intends to present a variety of 
perspectives and hence is open in terms of topics covered.  Among 
other things, contributors could address questions such as the 
following: 

To what extent is Internet Research an academic "field" or "discipline"?

What does it mean to label this field? Is "Internet Research" the 
right name? What are the other possibilities and what are their 
implications?

To the extent that it is a field, what is its emergent structure?

In what ways does the growth of this research area parallel or differ 
from other disciplines? What lessons for the present and the future 
might be learned from those histories?

Where do we stand now relative to where Film Studies, Women's 
Studies, and other new fields were a few years ago?

Manuscripts prepared according to the TIS guidelines 
(http://www.indiana.edu/~tisj/contributors/authors.html) should be 
submitted by February 27, 2004.  Please send the manuscripts to Nancy 
Baym (nbaym at ku.edu).  Authors are encouraged to discuss their ideas 
with the guest editor.

-- 
Nancy Baym	http://www.ku.edu/home/nbaym
Communication Studies, University of Kansas
102 Bailey Hall, 1440 Jayhawk Blvd., Lawrence, KS 66045, USA
Association of Internet Researchers: http://aoir.org