[Air-L] Call for Papers: IAMCR Communication Policy & Technology section Mexico-city 2009

[Jo Pierson]

CALL FOR PAPERS: Communications Policy and Technology (CP&T) section

International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR)
27th Annual Research Conference, July 21-24, 2009
National Autonomous University Of Mexico (Unam), Mexico-City, Mexico
Theme: Human Rights And Communication
The Communication Policy and Technology (CP&T) Section of the IAMCR  
invites the submission of abstracts bearing on the Conference theme as  
well as on the Section sub-theme ‘Human Rights, ICT Use & Technology  
Policy: Challenges, Options and the Way Forward’.

At the heart of the development, usages and policies of information  
and communication technologies are human beings, whose rights and  
interests should be paramount in the development process. Is there an  
inalienable right to information and communication as a basic survival  
tool within the emerging knowledge economy? How can we conceive  
internal and external media pluralism in the information age? Should  
access to the Internet and broadband technologies be a privilege or a  
right of citizens the world over? Are emerging social and citizen  
media entitled to the rights of traditional media in terms of press  
freedom? To what extent are the human rights and interests of  
children, elderly, disabled, poor and other socially disadvantaged  
people accounted for in strategic approaches and policy-making in the  
pre and post WSIS eras? And, with the focus on ‘Rights’, what  
importance do we accord to ‘Responsibility’ as part of the strategic  
thinking and policy objectives in the design, implementation and use  
of ICTs in the national and global communication spheres? What are the  
best methods to identify human concerns and to involve people’s  
practices in the design and social shaping of media technologies? How  
do people within different social-cultural settings experience and  
give meaning to new media in relation to the challenges of everyday  
life? How do people deal with hybridization and convergence in the new  
media ecosystem? Is there a new regulatory paradigm emerging?

Empirical and analytical work on these and other related issues will  
form the central thrust of presentations in the CP&T Section at the  
2009 Mexico conference. Your carefully researched, analytical papers  
and well-crafted presentations could be part of the engaging series of  
sessions at the Conference.  The CP& T Section welcomes abstracts of  
between 300 and 500 words from scholars of any academic discipline  
bearing on these and related issues. Topics of particular interest in  
abstract submissions to the Section include:

·      Communication Rights in national and local contexts

·      Human Rights, Internet Access and Sovereignty

·      Internet Governance, Stakeholderism and Human Rights

·      Open Access, Human Rights and ICT Policy-making

·      Policy Challenges of the two IPs –Intellectual Property rights  
and Internet Protocol networks

·      Open Source movement and creative commons

·      Human Rights, Technology Designs and the Market

·      Human Rights and Global Connectivity in the pre- and post-WSIS  
era

·      Next Generation Networks & Net Neutrality

·      Citizen Rights, Web 2.0 and beyond

·      Convergence and Cross Media Use

·      The Rights and Wrongs of the Digital Divide

·      ICTs Role in Urban and Rural Everyday Life

·      Cultural and indigenous innovations – the challenge of rights

·      Technology and Human Rights in communicating wars, conflicts  
and crises

·      Telecommunications Networks, Interconnection and Human Rights

·      Social Innovation and User Involvement in ICT Design

·      Disability, ICTs and Human Rights

·      Human Rights and Virtual Communities

·      ICTs to Support Social Bounding and Social Bridging

·      Social Inclusion and Social Network Sites and Communities

·      Youth and Elderly, ICT technologies and the right to communicate

·      Digital Gaming and Citizen Rights

·      The Impacts of National or Regional Communications Policies on  
Minorities

·      Mobile Broadband, Telephony Usage Patterns and e-Exclusion

·      Digital television, Switch-over Policies and Digital Divide

·      Interdisciplinary Methods for Research on User Participation in  
ICT

·      Community radio regulation

Abstracts (of no more than 500 words) addressing one or more of the  
above topics should be submitted via the official conference abstracts  
and registration site: http://www.iamcr2009mexico.unam.mx/english/form.html

Also send a copy in Word-format to Bart Cammaerts  
(B.Cammaerts[AT]lse.ac.uk) and Maria Michalis  
(M.Michalis[AT]Westminster.ac.uk). All abstracts must be submitted  
before January 31, 2009.

Abstracts should state the title as well as the methods or approaches  
used and introduce the empirical and theoretical material on which the  
paper is based. Also include the relevance of the paper for the CP&T  
section.

Each abstract may be submitted to only one Section or Working Group of  
the IAMCR Conference. Offering duplicates of the same paper to  
different Sections of the Association is likely to result in  
elimination of the abstract.

Each abstract must include paper title, presenter’s name(s),  
institutional affiliation(s) and email address(es) of author(s).  
Applicants will be advised by March 15, 2009 of the outcome of their  
submissions. The full text of accepted papers (with a maximum of 8000  
words) will be required no later than April 30, 2009, in order to  
ensure that the authors' names and papers' titles are included in the  
final conference program.

For further information on the 2009 Mexico City Conference see  
Conference Website: http://www.iamcr2009mexico.unam.mx/english/index.html
For more information on CP&T visit the IAMCR section site: http://www.iamcr.org/content/blogcategory/53/144

  KEY SUBMISSION INFORMATION:

- Abstract length: Maximum 500 words

- Abstracts to be sent via: <http://www.iamcr2009mexico.unam.mx/english/form.html 
 >

  with copy sent to Bart Cammaerts (B.Cammaerts[AT]lse.ac.uk) and  
Maria Michalis (M.Michalis[AT]Westminster.ac.uk)

- Deadline for abstracts: January 31, 2009

- Notification of acceptance: March 15, 2009

- Full papers due (max. 8000 words): April 30, 2009



Section Chairs:  Jo Pierson and Hopeton S. Dunn (on leave, serving as  
acting Secretary General, IAMCR)
Deputy Chairs:  Bart Cammaerts and Maria Michalis