[Air-L] CFP: M/C Journal 'mining' Issue

Axel Bruns a.bruns at qut.edu.au
Sun Feb 10 20:56:36 PST 2013


Dear AoIR friends, some of you may be interested in the following journal CFP on the topic of 'mining' (including both literal and figurative meanings of the term - e.g. data mining). Given the renewed attention on public access to scholarship, I should also note that M/C Journal has always been an online, open-access publication; all articles are published under a Creative Commons licence.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 14 Jan. 2013

                          M/C - Media and Culture
                     http://www.media-culture.org.au/
          is calling for contributors to the 'mining' issue of

                                M/C Journal
                   http://journal.media-culture.org.au/

M/C Journal is inviting new contributors. Founded in 1998, M/C is a crossover journal between the popular and the academic, and a blind- and peer-reviewed journal. Our Website at http://journal.media-culture.org.au/provides open access to all past issues. 

To find out how and in what format to contribute your work, visit http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/about/submissions. 

                        Call for Papers: 'mining'
                 Edited by Dean Laplonge and Axel Bruns

It's hard to escape the practices of mining. In some ways, we have become obsessed with mining. Mining occupies discussions about the economy, the environment, the labour market, politics and land rights. Our airports are packed full with high-vis people flying to and from mine sites. We seem to view mining as a limitless pit of gold which we can explore/exploit for personal financial gain and to secure research funding.

And it's as if there are no limits to what we are willing to mine. The literal interpretation of 'mining' is the extraction of something from the ground. But in addition to such mining of physical resources, the exploitation of information at large scale - known as data mining - is also turning into a burgeoning industry, generating new intellectual and economic opportunities while raising complex ethical concerns. In all its forms, 'mining' therefore is easily associated with engineering, geology, mathematics, economics, sociology, and other scientific practices. But where are the cultural analyses of 'mining'?

Where are the articles that engage critically and cleverly with the business and stories of mining? If we consider 'mining' through the lens of gender or ethnicity, through queer studies, poststructuralism or feminism, through the media or critical accounts of academic intervention, what do we come up with? Are there ways of viewing mining that are not tied to the 'hard' sciences? What different views of mining emerge when we view it through a more comprehensive, multidisciplinary lens?

The business of mining is not just a matter of extracting minerals from the ground which we can then use for their intended purpose. Data mining is also not just an extraction of 'big data' that uncovers some hidden, absolute truths waiting to be found. The ways we choose to analyse mining result in the way we view this business.

This issue of M/C Journal will focus on the differing interpretations and application of 'mining'. Specifically, we hope to re-envision mining as a cultural practice which can be read in multiple ways. We therefore invite authors to offer some innovative interpretations of how mining works, and to explore and expand on the cultures of mining. We encourage authors to speak outside the dominant narrative of mining as a process of extraction of the real and to explore how mining can be viewed otherwise.

Areas for consideration include:

 * the workplace cultures of mine site workplaces and the behaviours of miners
 * reinterpretations of the history of mining
 * reinterpretations of the practice of mining as a site of economic development or environmental damage
 * critiques of emerging practices in data mining
 * explorations of the data mining industry as it establishes itself
 * analyses of the relationship between mining and community, environment and people
 * feminist approaches to mining
 * gender, sex and sexuality-and their relationship to mining
 * mining and ownership, privacy, security

Prospective contributors should email an abstract of 100-250 words and a brief biography to the issue editors. Abstracts should include the article title and should describe your research question, approach, and argument. Biographies should be about three sentences (maximum 75 words) and should include your institutional affiliation and research interests. Articles should be 3000 words (plus bibliography). All articles will be refereed and must adhere to MLA style (6th edition). 

Article deadline:     1 Mar. 2012
Issue release date:   1 May  2012

M/C Journal was founded (as "M/C - A Journal of Media and Culture") in 1998 as a place of public intellectualism analysing and critiquing the meeting of media and culture. Contributors are directed to past issues of M/C Journal for examples of style and content, and to the submissions page for comprehensive article submission guidelines. M/C Journal articles are blind peer-reviewed.

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Further M/C Journal issues scheduled for 2012 and 2013:

'catastrophe': article deadline 18 Jan. 2013,   release date 20 Mar. 2013
'mining':      article deadline  1 Mar. 2013,   release date  1 May  2013
'cookbook':    article deadline 26 Apr. 2013,   release date 26 June 2013
'remix':       article deadline 21 June 2013,   release date 21 Aug. 2013
'resilient':   article deadline 16 Aug. 2013,   release date 16 Oct. 2013
'augment':     article deadline 11 Oct. 2013,   release date 11 Dec. 2013

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M/C - Media and Culture is located at <http://www.media-culture.org.au/>.
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M/C Journal is online at <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/>.
All past issues of M/C Journal on various topics are available there.
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end


                                                     Dr Axel Bruns

--
 General Editor                              editor at media-culture.org.au
 M/C - Media and Culture                http://www.media-culture.org.au/



--
Dr Axel Bruns              http://snurb.info/ - http://produsage.org/
ARC Centre for Creative Industries and Innovation  http://cci.edu.au/
Associate Professor, Media & Communication         a.bruns at qut.edu.au
Creative Industries Faculty, Z1-515, CIP     Twitter: @snurb_dot_info
Queensland University of Technology                    +61 7 31385548
Musk Ave, Kelvin Grove, Qld. 4059, Australia       CRICOS No.: 00213J





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