[Air-L] CFP (1 Sep 2013): Conceptualizing Cyber-Urban Connections in Asia and the Middle East (23-24 Jan 2014, Singapore)

[Asha Rathina Pandi]

[Your help in circulating the attached Call for Papers is greatly
appreciated.]

CALL FOR PAPERS (DEADLINE: 1 SEPTEMBER 2013)

Conceptualizing Cyber-Urban Connections in Asia and the Middle East

Date: 23-24 January 2014

Venue : Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

Website :
http://www.ari.nus.edu.sg/events_categorydetails.asp?categoryid=6&eventid=1456

In the 2010s, we witness a surge of protests and mass movements across the
globe. All of these insurgencies have two elements in common. One is that
they are intricately connected and facilitated by the Internet. The other
is that occupying politically potent spaces in the city is crucial in
gaining political leverage for pursuing reform. Connecting these two
elements remains inadequately studied, however. The many conferences aimed
at understanding the role of new and social media as tools of protest tend
to remain in networks of cyberspace, and urban studies have also lagged in
linking urban space with cyberspace.

As individuals continue to live in a networked society, with one foot in
the virtual and the other in the material world, the more coherent
understanding of the changes and transformations in society should include
an interrogation of the interdependencies between online and offline
domains. How does cyber-activism translate into the production of urban
spaces, and, conversely, how does access or lack of access to urban spaces
reflect back to online mobilizations?

This multidisciplinary conference aims to bring together young scholars and
leading experts and theorists to better understand and re-theorize the
‘cyber-urban’ connections in urban Asia and the Middle East that affect
people, networks, and social and built environments. We invite submission
of papers that address the reflexivity of cyber and urban spaces, both
empirically and theoretically, in different national contexts, pertaining
to social change in Asia and the Middle East. Central questions include,
but are not limited to:


 *   How do cyber-urban connections materialize in the city?
 *   How can we better understand the interplay between online
mobilizations and the production or occupation of urban spaces?
 *   How do emerging alternative or subaltern cyber-urban spaces inform
urban theory?
 *   How do spaces (online and offline) contribute to insurgent activities?
 *   To what extent does insurgency need both cyberspace and physical space
to be successful?
 *   How do socially marginalized people engage in online-offline forms of
mobilization to gain political leverage or pursue their own projects?
 *   How do comparative contexts in Asia and the Middle East differ in any
substantial ways in their cyber-urban insurgency experiences?


PROPOSAL SUBMISSION

Paper proposals should include title, an abstract (max 300 words) and a
brief biographical sketch (max 150 words). Please submit your proposal by 1
September 2013 to Dr Asha Rathina Pandi at ariarp at nus.edu.sg<mailto:
ariarp at nus.edu.sg>. Click here for proposal submission form<
http://www.ari.nus.edu.sg/showfile.asp?eventfileid=770>. Successful
applicants will be notified by 1 October 2013 and will be required to send
in a draft paper of 5,000 - 8,000 words based on unpublished material by 15
December 2013.

Participants are encouraged to seek funding for travel from their home
institutions. Based on the quality of proposals and the availability of
funds, partial or full funding is available for successful applicants. Full
funding would cover air travel to Singapore by the most economical means
plus accommodation for the duration of the conference.


CONTACT DETAILS

Conference Convenors

Dr Asha RATHINA PANDI (ariarp at nus.edu.sg<mailto:ariarp at nus.edu.sg>)
Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

Dr Peter MAROLT (marolt at nus.edu.sg<mailto:marolt at nus.edu.sg>)
Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

Dr Merlyna LIM (Merlyna.lim at asu.edu<mailto:Merlyna.lim at asu.edu>)
Arizona State University & Princeton University, USA


Asha Rathina Pandi, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

469A Tower Block, Bukit Timah Road, #08-13B, Singapore 259770

+65-6516 6294 (DID) :: +65-6779 1428 (Fax)

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