[Air-L] Fwd: CFP Conceptualizing Cyber-Urban Connections in Asia and the Middle East

[William Dutton]

I certainly want to underscore the relative decline of research on 'cyber-urban connections'. The role of communication infrastructures in shaping urban forms and activities was a strong aspect of research, from the telephone through to the height of community informatics work, but it seems to have dropped off the research agenda, relative to other topics. Linking these issues with area with protests and mass movements adds a great deal of complexity, but best of luck with this event,

Bill

On 10 Jul 2013, at 13:13, Merlyna Lim wrote:

> Conceptualizing Cyber-Urban Connections in Asia and the Middle East
> 
> Date:23 Jan 2014 - 24 Jan 2014
> Venue:Asia Research Institute Seminar Room
> 469A Tower Block, Level 10, Bukit Timah Road
> National University of Singapore @ BTC
> 
> Organisers:Dr RATHINA-PANDI Asha
> Dr MAROLT Peter
> Dr LIM, Merlyna
> 
> CALL FOR PAPERS (DEADLINE: 1 SEPTEMBER 2013)
> 
> 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. Click here for proposal submission form. 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)
> Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
> 
> Dr Peter MAROLT (marolt at nus.edu.sg)
> Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
> 
> Dr Merlyna LIM (Merlyna.lim at asu.edu)
> Arizona State University & Princeton University, USA
> 
> 
> Secretariat
> 
> Ms Valerie YEO
> Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
> #10-01 Tower Block, 469A Bukit Timah Road, Singapore 259770
> Email: valerie.yeo at nus.edu.sg
> Tel: (65) 6516 5279
> Fax: (65) 6779 1428
> 
> 
> Contact Person: Mdm YEO Ee Lin Valerie
> Email: ariyeov at nus.edu.sg, marolt at nus.edu.sg, ariarp at nus.edu.sg
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William H. Dutton
Professor of Internet Studies
Oxford Internet Institute
University of Oxford 
1 St Giles', Oxford OX1 3JS  
UNITED KINGDOM

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