[Air-L] CFP Reminder: In the Game: AoIR pre-conference workshop

[T.L. Taylor]

In The Game: AoIR pre-conference workshop
Proposal deadline: 9 May
http://www.virtualknowledgestudio.nl/projects/in-the-game.php

This event will be a pre-conference workshop at Internet Research 
9.0: Rethinking Communities, Rethinking Place, to be held on 15 
October 2008 in Copenhagen, Denmark. For information about the 
conference, please see the AoIR website 
(http://conferences.aoir.org/). It is co-organized by Anne Beaulieu 
(Virtual Knowledge Studio), Marinka Copier (Utrecht University), and 
T.L. Taylor (IT University of Copenhagen).

Thematic background

A core issue for ethnography is the ethnographer's relationship to 
her object of knowledge. Although the web as a context of research, 
and net-mediated sites in general, have been heralded as an 
opportunity for the ethnographer to become the invisible 'fly on the 
wall', our experience leads us to emphasise the contrary. The 
participant pole of the participant -observer continuum remains 
crucial, even in mediated settings. Indeed in some online contexts 
there is no research stance outside of that of engaged participant. 
The existence of relationships between the ethnographer and other 
participants is essential to ethnographies that want to maintain a 
focus on meaning and culture. The opportunities and challenges posed 
by pursuing ethnographies in mediated settings may be other than 
claims to having achieved objectivity, and may consist in a 
re-examination and re-valuation of particular attachments to the 
ethnographic tradition. This event seeks to explore the particular 
textures and implications of ethnographic relationships in mediated 
settings. The ethnographic relationship is understood inclusive here, 
as a complex and evolving relationship that changes over the course 
of fieldwork and through the various aspects of knowledge production 
and dissemination. To structure the discussion of such a complex 
issue, four themes have been identified and will frame the various 
sessions. These themes are detailed below.

:: Contiguity ::
What happens when the field and our scholarly activities are very 
close in time, space and media? What are the ways of leaving the 
field, if any? Is this still a useful, important, necessary move? 
What does such a loop of mutual observation and feedback between 
researcher and object imply? How does it differ from other forms of 
interaction or multiple roles of more traditional ethnographies?

:: Accountability ::
Does mediation increase the accountability of the researcher? How do 
the settings, with their porous/networked boundaries, differ or 
resemble other settings? How does accountability change over time, or 
in relation to different relationships? And when the researcher is a 
contributing member to the group, how is the notion of accountability 
enlarged beyond a research ethics definition to a participatory one. 
Because of the traces left by the researcher, is the accountability 
not actually greater than in face to face settings? What are the 
(necessary) boundaries of the researcher's responsibilities? When do 
we go too far? And how does time (often such a fast moving artifact 
online) intervene in the issues we have? How do ethnographic 
relationships change over time, time of the object studied vs. 
research and publication time.

:: Affectivity and embodiment ::
Despite the rhetoric that sometimes surrounds mediated environments, 
how as researchers are we still always engaged with affective 
embodied practice, both that of ourselves but those in the 
communities we study? How can these be important resources for our 
work, and what special challenges might they pose. In the context of 
games and virtual environments for example, the avatar issue is 
always at work, but there remains the way as researchers we still 
find our corporeal bodies enrolled in our work - our anxiety at a 
raid, the neck problems from all the computer use, the way our 
understanding of our sites is itself mediated through our embodied 
experience. Closely tied to this are the ways affectivity works 
within the domain of ethnography - the unguardedness of play, the 
frustration, the pleasure or frustration within the fieldsite.

:: Scholarly practices ::
How do relationships to the object shape what counts as research? For 
example, what is the role of the cultural status of the 'object' in 
making something legitimate scholarly enquiry? What is at stake when 
doing ethnographies of activities that are sometimes considered to be 
antithetical to 'research' - for example, gaming or playing, 
researching intimate activities, youth culture (where the accusation 
that one is just "hanging out" rather doing serious work may always 
loom). How do we articulate the relation between expertise and 
practice?  Is ethnography being brought too close to home? Which new 
skills are needed? How is our practice of research interwoven, often 
in complex and unanticipated ways, with the socio-technical objects 
and agents in the field.

Participants and structure

The workshop is aimed at researchers who have already pursued 
fieldwork in mediated environments. They are invited to submit a 
paper proposal (1500 words) before 9 May 2008 to Marinka Copier 
(marinka.copier at let.uu.nl). The proposal should present elements of 
prior ethnographic material and a reflection on that work from the 
perspective of one of the proposed workshop themes: continuity, 
accountability, affectivity & embodiment, and scholarly practices.

The goal of this process is to bring together practicing 
ethnographers for an in-depth discussion of some key issues within 
the domain, simultaneously grounded in concrete projects. The 
workshop will have a maximum of 15 participants to enable in-depth 
discussion, and respondents will be assigned for each paper. 
Submissions will be selected on the basis of peer-review, which will 
be coordinated by the organisers of the workshop. Final papers 
(5000-6000 words) will be due at the beginning of September and will 
be distributed in advance to all workshop participants.

Important dates

Deadline for submissions:   9 May (mail to marinka.copier at let.uu.nl)
Announcement of paper acceptance:  30 May
Deadline for full papers (5000-6000 words):  1 September
Pre-conference workshop:  15 October