[Air-L] CfP: Civic life in digital age. Mapping the impact of big data and social media

[Mirko Tobias Schaefer]

*Call for Papers*

*Civic life in digital age. Mapping the impact of big data and social media*

*(edited by Mirko Tobias Schäfer)*

The Journal of Computer Supported and Cooperative Work will publish a 
special issue on how datafication, big data and social media affect 
civic life, participation and labour.

Information technology affords that almost all aspects of our lives can 
be translated into data, data that are used for forecasting, assessment, 
real-time tracking, targeted advertising and polling. The practice of 
digitization and the role of electronic information media technology 
affects in various degrees almost all aspects of everyday life. This 
'datafication' affects our public sphere as much as our consumption 
behaviour. A datafied public sphere changes the game of opinion polling, 
political debate and civic action. As a result our understanding of 
citizenship, democracy, public sphere and public space is fundamentally 
transforming.

This special issue investigates to what extent datafication transforms 
governance, labour and civic participation. We solicit contributions 
that address the emerging algorithmic governance through public 
administrations and corporations:the availability of digital records 
from birth certificate to curricula vitae, the assessment of work 
performance, financial transactions, communication records, travel data, 
health data have contributed to shaping novel forms of managing the 
population of citizens.

Datafication and algorithmic governance affects many areas of everyday 
life. We, therefore invite a broad spectrum of contributions to provide 
a broad overview of appropriate case examples and an apt presentation of 
relevant issues and ongoing discussion.

*Topics could include:*

Big data and its relation to governance and civic participation

Big data and surveillance

Social media monitoring

Social media and public opinion

Campaigning through social media

Public opinion and polling in age of social media

Impact of data analysis & visualization on decision making

Labour & leisure transformed through big data

Digital labour

User/citizen participation

Open data and civic participation

Security issues in big data

Civic rights, surveillance and security

Algorithmic curation and content moderation

Social physics

User management and user monitoring

Politics of nudging

*Deadline for submitting proposals:*20.November 2014

*Proposals*

Please submit a 400-600 word proposal outlining theoretical framework, 
empirical data and argument of the proposed paper.

Please submit your proposal / paper to mts at mtschaefer.net

*Note of acceptance:*20 December 2014 with request for submitting full 
paper by 30 February 2015.

Publication date is planned for fall 2015

*About the journal:*Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) is a 25 
year old journal that disseminates innovative research results and 
provides an interdisciplinary forum for the debate and exchange of ideas 
concerning theoretical, practical, technical, and social issues in CSCW. 
The journal encompasses the diverse nature of research within the field 
and its related areas. Coverage ranges from ethnographic studies of 
cooperative work to reports on the development of CSCW systems and their 
technological foundations. The journal is published by Springer Computer 
Science: http://www.springer.com/computer/journal/10606

*About the editor:**Mirko Tobias Schäfer* is Assistant Professor for New 
Media & Digital Culture <http://www.newmediastudies.nl>at the University 
of Utrecht and director of the Utrecht Data School 
<http://www.dataschool.nl>. Mirko's research interest revolves around 
the socio- political impact of media technology. His publications cover 
user participation in cultural production, hacking communities, politics 
of software design and communication in social media. He is co-editor 
and co-author of the volume 
<http://mtschaefer.net/entry/digital-material/>/Digital Material. 
Tracing New Media in Everyday Life and Technology/ (Amsterdam University 
Press, 2009) and author of /Bastard Culture! How User participation 
Transforms Cultural Production/ (Amsterdam University Press 2011). 
www.mtschaefer.net