[Air-L] Call for chapters: new technologies of the self, mobilities and (co-)contruction of identities (1.3.2008)

[fred dervin]

Call for chapters

(Deadline for abstracts: 1.3.2008)


*****************************************************************

New technologies of the self, mobilities and (co-)construction of identity


Edited by:

Fred Dervin, Senior Lecturer,
Department of French Studies, University of Turku, Finland
(e-mail: freder at utu.fi)
&
Yasmine Abbas,
Doctor of Design, Harvard, USA
ReD Associates, Denmark
(e-mail: abbas.yasmine at gmail.com)


Overall objectives of the book

The new interpersonal spaces created by web 2.0 and 3.0 technologies
seem to correspond to the technologies of the self that Michel Foucault
(1988) has addressed in his lectures at the Collège de France at the
beginning of the 1980s. These new technologies enable the individual¹s
self to emerge publicly and to be worked upon with its "disciples": be
they companions in Second Life, readers (for example on a blog) or
listeners (Podcasts). With high speed Internet access and increasingly
generous capacities of storage (mp3, USB keys, iPhone, portable
computers...), the opportunities for staging the self have become unlimited.

The authors will explore aspects of the contributions of these new
technologies to the expression and (co-)construction of identitie(s) of
mobile individuals (physical and/or digital; short-term (expatriates,
businessmen, trainees, exchange studentsŠ) and long-term (migrants,
refugees, exilesŠ); inter-/intra- and/or transnational mobilities). Any
of the following issues can be addressed:

- The specificities of (co-)constructions of the self through new
technologies. How do they contribute to presenting the self?

- The potential differences between these technologies of the self and
more « traditional » ones.

- What is said about the self? How? How is it constructed or staged?
With whom? For whom? And why?

- Are there signs of manipulation of the self and identity collages?

- What myths related to identity seem to emerge?

- The position of the (real/fictive) interlocutor(s) and groups (cf.
peg-communities, Z. Bauman) in these constructions.

- How is the other constructed?

- What do visitors, readers, spectators or listeners seem to gain in
terms of reflections on their own identities?

- Problems in using but also researching the new technologies of the
self (ethics, psychological effects, in terms of relationships,
interculturalityŠ).


Submission procedure

Researchers and practitioners (from linguistics, sociology,
anthropology, psychology, education, ITŠ) are invited to submit a
proposal (350 words) clearly explaining the mission, concerns of their
proposed chapter as well as a short description of the corpus (if they
plan on using one), the method of analysis and a basic bibliography by
March 1, 2008  to freder at utu.fi & abbas.yasmine at gmail.com. The proposal
can be in English or French.

The followings will also be provided with the proposal: Name(s),
affiliation, a few lines about the author(s), and a list of major
publications.

Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by March 15, 2007.

Full chapters will be expected to be submitted by September 1st, 2008.


cf. http://users.utu.fi/freder/appeltechno.htm