[Air-L] CFP - special issue of Etikk i Praksis on mobile / ubiquitous computing

[Charles Ess]

Dear AoIR-ists,

On behalf of my co-editors May Thorseth and Johnny Søraker - I'm pleased to
pass on the following CFP for a special issue  of the journal Etikk i
Praksis (Ethics in Praxis). Please forward to potentially interested
colleagues and appropriate lists, with apologies for cross-posting.
(For more information on Etikk i Praksis / Ethics in Praxis, including
instructions for authors, please see
<http://www.tapirforlag.no/content.ap?thisId=37980>)

Etikk i Praksis - CFP: Mobile / ubiquitous computing: dreams and nightmares

Twenty-five years ago, William Gibson presented an extraordinary and
prophetic account of ³cyberspace²: this space contained a complete virtual
world so rich and complex as to be capable of replacing a real world and
embodied existence, thereby eliminating what seemed to be a hard and stable
boundary between the real and the virtual, the inner and the outer, the
offline and the online. What was once clearly science fiction now becomes
ever more the reality of our lives in the developed world, as increasingly
intertwined with the multiple interactions made possible by ever-increasing
bandwidth and the explosive diffusion of computers and computer-based
communication networks. The resulting blurrings of these once hard and
stable boundaries thereby results in a number of ethical challenges.

We invite chapters that help us explore the various ethical dimensions of
these broad terrains, through analysis and reflection that include attention
to one or more specific issues. Possible topics include: changing senses of
self/selves vis-à-vis others; changing understandings of privacy,
intellectual property, etc; changing understandings of real ³harm² and
³benefit² - e.g., in connection with online pornography and computer games
(including virtual worlds such as Second Life) - where these were once
usually restricted to what we now characterize as the offline world, etc.
Chapters should include contemporary examples of mobile/ubiquitous computing
technologies that facilitate specific ethical challenges. Analyses and
reflections involving more speculative but fruitful thought experiments
surrounding probable blurrings of real/virtual boundaries are also
encouraged.
Final date for submissions: July 1, 2010. Contributions in English as well
as Scandinavian languages welcome.

cheers,
charles ess
Institut for Informations- og Medievidenskab
Helsingforsgade 14
8200 Århus N.
Denmark
mail: <imvce at hum.au.dk>
tel: (+45) 8942 9250

Inaugural lecture (18. September 2009) online:
<http://www.media.au.dk/podcast/?p=episode&name=2009-10-13_charles_ess__tilt
rdelsesforlsning.flv>

Distinguished Research Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies
Drury University, Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA

Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23