[Air-L] Seeking members for proposed ECREA temporary working group "Information Technologies and Social Networks"

[Jacob Groshek]

Dear AoIR members,

ECREA is now in the process of accepting proposals for temporary
working groups that could become divisions of the organization in the
future.  My colleague, Dr. Payal Arora, and I have drafted such a
proposal entitled "Information Technologies and Social Networks."  We
are currently seeking potential members that might be interested in
joining this group.

A working version of the mission statement for this proposed working
group is pasted below.  The Chair position has yet to be finalized but
we have contacted a leading scholar in this area, and are very hopeful
for a positive response.  If you have interest in joining this
potential group, please respond to this email before March 15.

Inquiries can be sent to me or Payal.

Thank you,

Jacob Groshek and Payal Arora

-- 
Dr. Jacob Groshek
Research Chair, CTEC division / AEJMC
Assistant Professor
Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication
Erasmus University Rotterdam
Rotterdam, the Netherlands
(+31)-010-408-8627 office
(+31)-062-304-2346 mobile
groshek at eshcc.eur.nl
http://www.jgroshek.com


MISSION STATEMENT
ECREA Information Technologies and Social Networks Temporary Working Group

CHAIR
TBD

VICE-CHAIR
Payal Arora, Ph.D
Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Website: http://payalarora.com/

VICE-CHAIR
Jacob Groshek, Ph.D
Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Website: http://www.jgroshek.com/

MISSION
Contemporarily, social networks have become synonymous with online
media spaces such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the like. There
is considerable emphasis on the technical novelty of these spaces,
placing secondary the human nature of such virtual domains. Thereby,
the Information Technologies and Social Networks temporary working
group of the ECREA defines its objective as being a forum to share and
shape research on technologies and networks through an
interdisciplinary, historical and comparative perspective. This
section brings together the relatively nascent fields of social
informatics, new media studies, and human geographies with the classic
disciplines of anthropology, sociology, economics, psychology and
political science. The emphasis is on empirical to theoretical work on
social collectivity, connectivity, and creativity through and with
technologically-mediated spaces. This group will primarily promote the
European perspective and research on these issues in response to the
current dominance of North American scholarship in this vital area.

The intersection of information technology and social networks has
gained considerable attention from the recent political uprisings in
North Africa and the Middle East, highlighting the role of Twitter and
Facebook in these struggles. Historically, patterns of innovations and
application have emerged time and again, approached often through a
utopian or dystopian lens. Now, euphoric visions of these online
social networks have been argued as key tools in precipitating
positive social effects of democratization and egalitarianism in
society. Naysayers propagate an opposite perspective of these tools as
having decimated age-old relationships and ties that are fundamental
to stronger social ties. This section aims to move beyond these
dichotomies and focuses on research within Europe that delves deeply
into its complex socio-cultural and political dimensions and its
rootedness historically and spatially. Special attention will be paid
to the offline and online ties and the fluidities and constructions of
relationships as they influence one another. Timely topics in Europe
such as migration, citizenship, online activism, populism,
virtualization of museums, distance education and more will be
encouraged as they relate to social networks through a range of
information technology tools and spaces.

Specifically, we aim to do the following through this section:

1. To provide a forum for researchers to share and partner on research
concerning information technologies and social networks
2. To develop a rich corpus of literature that is particularly European centric
3. To build an online and offline collaboration amongst practitioners
and researchers through encouraging theory studies that can be
significant for policy and practice
4. To eventually develop as an ECREA section of excellence and
expertise within Europe on this subject
5. To liaise with other sections within the ECREA wherever possible.
7. To capitalize on online networks to gain visibility and
participation across academic institutions as well as create a
listserve to sustain these activities
8. To partner in constructing workshops that address specific
strategies in understanding and using such networks to further
practice in academic, governmental and corporate settings.
9. To develop and promote a high quality peer-reviewed journal to more
formally contribute to the body of knowledge presented and discussed
within the working group

Overall, this section will serve as a critical starting ground for
connecting with scholars within Europe on this topic of interest for
joint conferences and publications of high quality.