[Air-L] CFP: Concepts and Methods Workshop: Structural Approaches to Online Communities and Networks

[Mathieu.O'Neil]

*apologies for multiple posts*

Concepts and Methods Workshop: Structural Approaches to Online Communities and Networks
News & Media Research Centre, University of Canberra
Wednesday 27 August 2014

In this research practice-oriented workshop graduate students and early-career researchers will have the opportunity to present their work (including work-in-progress) and obtain feedback from a panel of specialists. A particular focus of the workshop will be to assess to what extent the methodological and conceptual tools used to analyse online communities can be applied to the personal networking behaviour of social media users.

Specialist panel:
Professor Caroline Haythornthwaite, School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, The iSchool at The University of British Columbia
Associate Professor Robert Ackland, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University 
Associate Professor Mathieu O'Neil, Faculty of Arts and Design, University of Canberra 

Panel members will discuss some of the latest conceptual and methodological developments in web social science, social network analysis, and online field theory. In addition, the workshop will represent an opportunity to explore connections and confrontations with: 
-content analysis
-critical and feminist approaches
-diffusion and information cascades
-frame analysis
-issue ballistics
-mixed methods
-organizational behaviour
-sentiment analysis
-social influence

Applicants are encouraged to focus on key characteristics of online communities and networks, including but not limited to: 
-activist, diasporic and health communities
-codes of conduct, rules and norms
-emergence and disappearance
-influentials and followers
-mobilization and engagement
-participant capabilities and skills
-personal and collective identity
-topologies of online communities

Submission process:
Proposals should be emailed to Mathieu O'Neil <mathieu[dot]oneil[at]canberra[dot]edu[dot]au> by 31 May 2014. As the research may not be complete, we do not expect abstracts to include all findings and conclusions. However abstracts should outline what kind of findings and conclusions the authors expect to present. 
Specifically the abstract should include:
-the name, institutional affiliation, email address and contact telephone number of the presenter(s)
-a title
-a description of the paper's core topic, case, and/or argument
-the methodological approach and theoretical background
-the paper's relevance to related academic literature
-expected findings or conclusions
Proposal length should not exceed 400 words.

More information can be found at the Workshop webpage:
http://www.canberra.edu.au/faculties/arts-design/research/research-centres/news-and-media-research-centre/events/concepts-and-methods-workshop