[Air-L] CFP: Digital Cultures Special Issue of ITP

[Ben Light]

See call for papers below.

Best wishes,

Ben.
Ben Light
Professor of Digital Media
School of Media, Music and Performance
The University of Salford
Adelphi House
Salford
M3 6EN

www.smmp.salford.ac.uk
www.benlight.org

Special Issue of Information Technology & People on ³Digital Culture: New
Forms of Living and Organising²
 
Steve Sawyer, Syracuse University - ssawyer at syr.edu
Ben Light, University of Salford B.Light at salford.ac.uk
Sian Lincoln, Liverpool John Moores University - S.Lincoln at ljmu.ac.uk
Marie Griffiths, University of Salford - M.Griffiths at salford.ac.uk
 
Focus:
The focus of this special issue is to showcase work which increases our
knowledge regarding the potential reshaping of the boundaries and structures
of existing social organization, and the altering of the ways in which
people learn to experience life.
 
We pursue this special issue to provide a forum for scholarship that
explicitly engages the increasingly permeable boundary of work and non-work
spheres of our lives.  We know that even as access to digital technologies
continues to vary based on age, gender, nationality, residence, ethnicity,
work, and other key aspects of society, it is clear their presence and uses
are increasingly important features of contemporary life. Where historically
one might argue that digital technologies have had more influence in work
organizations it appears that in we are witnessing a shift in this order of
things. The uptake of digital technology into our domestic lives is,
increasingly, shaping our experiences at work. Moreover, digital
technologies are becoming more pervasive and varied across both work and
non-work aspects of our lives. These digital technologies are merging into
physical infrastructures ­ at home, in transport, at work and school, and
even walking Œalone¹ while texting. Therefore, beyond the massive levels of
interest in reshaping what it means to be social ­ as manifested in the
number of people using these digital technologies ­ lie questions of their
roles in supporting new forms of organizing and their effects upon our
everyday experiences.
 
The blurring of boundaries between work and non-work further engenders
discussion on the blurring boundaries between what is the Œpublic¹ and what
is Œprivate.¹ Indeed, in the wake of reality television shows, national
identity card schemes, increased social media usage and the like, publicity
appears to be the order of the day. What does this mean for those living and
working in environments where there is seemingly little room for privacy
(privacy, of course, not necessarily always being a good thing)?
 
Contributions:
We welcome the submission of papers of empirical and conceptual nature, from
a variety of research paradigms, that employ diverse methods, and that use a
wide range of forms of evidence.   We are particularly interested in those
papers which focus on settings, phenomena and conceptual issues which help
to illuminate the blurring boundaries of work and not-work, and of the
blurring boundaries between public and private spaces/times.  Submitted
papers that highlight how digital technologies are moving into work from
non-work settings, and research that illuminates new forms of
digitally-enhanced forms of organizing are welcomed.  As a means to help
spur interest and to provide examples, we imagine some possible topics for
papers might be:
 

Internet (and digitally-) enabled organisational forms
Media, sport and work interactions
Publicity and privacy considerations in a social network saturated world
The social consequences of wireless technology across boundaries
The ethics of digital-technology uses in everyday work/life
Social media uses at, for and about work
New forms of working and new types of digitally-supported work
Social media use and changing family lifestyles/arrangements
Privacy, digital media and health systems
Conflict and compromise in social networks
Physical vs. virtual interaction at Work
The commodification of community
 
Authors of papers originally presented at either the 2008 and 2009 Digital
Cultures workshops (held at the University of Salford) are encouraged to
participate in this special issue. However, we seek with this special issue
to reach out to other authors who are pursuing research and writing in this
intellectual space.
 
Instructions for authors:
 
·Initial manuscripts should be around 7000 words in length, inclusive.
·Submitted manuscripts must include a title page that includes the title of
the paper, full name and complete addresses of all authors that included
affiliation(s), telephone number(s), and e-mail address(es).  Where
appropriate, please nominate an author for correspondence. Acknowledgements
and indications of previous presentation or publication of parts of the
submitted manuscript should be clearly denoted.
·The first page of the manuscript should include the title and a 300-word
abstract that follows the structured abstract format of the journal (please
see authors guidance at
http://info.emeraldinsight.com/products/journals/author_guidelines.htm?id=it
p   
·Manuscripts should contain original material and not be previously
published, or currently submitted for consideration, elsewhere.
·Manuscripts should be submitted to the journal¹s review system where you
should be sure to select special issue from submission-type list (at
www.itandpeople.org <http://www.itandpeople.org> ).
·While not required, we encourage prospective authors to contact one of the
special issue¹s guest editors with their ideas in draft form for comment.
 
All submissions will be screened by the special issue editors prior to
review.  Those seen as fitting the scope and aim of the special issue will
then be subject to double blind review as is normal for the journal.
 
Timeline:
 
Deadline for papers - February 2010
Reviews returned - May 2010
Revised papers submitted - August  2010
Final papers due - October 2010
Special issue published - January 2011