[Air-L] Call for Papers: State Crime and Digital Resistance (Deadline 30 November)

[Anne Alexander]

Special Issue, State Crime Journal (May 2018)

STATE CRIME AND DIGITAL RESISTANCE

Sign up for 6th January 2017 workshop here: 
http://statecrime.org/state-crime-research/call-for-papersworkshop-special-issue-of-state-crime-journal/

This special issue of State Crime seeks to investigate how changing 
patterns of state crime are being shaped by the massive growth of a 
digital communications infrastructure which permeates everyday life for 
billions of people through the explosive spread of networked mobile 
devices, social media platforms and cloud computing systems. It will 
also highlight how and to what extent these same technologies and 
infrastructures can be repurposed to expose and resist state crime. The 
long-standing entanglement between monopolistic digital media 
corporations, the government and military has facilitated the creation 
of privatized systems of mass surveillance, alongside the expansion of 
mass surveillance systems controlled by states. Is this leading to the 
development of a ‘networked authoritarianism’, which in turn is altering 
state-society relations and creating a fertile environment for 
unaccountability, corruption and human rights violations?

While amateur, user-generated digital content can be used to challenge 
the information monopoly of professional media conglomerates, a more 
nuanced understanding of verification methodologies is needed to enrich 
the critical discourse on citizen participation in human rights 
reporting. More importantly, emergent forms of digital activism can 
highlight how civil society can serve as a counterweight to the 
political and economic hegemony of states and corporations. Here, case 
studies of digital resistance from below can further demonstrate the 
extent of civic engagement in (1) naming, defining, exposing and 
challenging state crime (Green and Ward, 2004); and (2) developing a 
more open, democratic and participatory digital architecture which 
facilitates ‘unmasking the crimes of the powerful’ (Tombs and Whyte, 
2003).

We welcome submissions for this special issue on ‘State Crime and 
Digital Resistance’ with a focus on the following three sub-themes:

     - The state / corporate / crime nexus from the perspective of 
digital infrastructure and the political economy of digital media and 
services

     - Issues in digital verification and evidence

     - Digital activism and resistance

We will be convening a workshop at QMUL for potential contributors to 
the special issue on 6 January 2017. This will provide a valuable 
opportunity to present and discuss research which will form the basis of 
accepted articles. The workshop will also serve as a forum for the 
exchange of ideas with other contributors to shape the intellectual 
agenda of the special issue.

Please indicate if you would like your paper to be considered for 
inclusion in the workshop.

All submissions will be subject to a full peer review process. The 
timetable for submission and publication is as follows:

Submission of abstracts (up to 500 words): 30th November 2016

Response to abstract submissions: 7th December 2016

Workshop Date: 6th January 2017 (Sign up here: 
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/state-crime-and-digital-resistance-workshop-tickets-29274521883)

Submission of full article: 31st April 2017

Decisions/Reviewers’ Responses to Author(s): 31st June 2017

Submission of Final Versions: 31st January 2018

Publication: May 2018
-- 
Dr Anne Alexander,
Co-ordinator, Digital Humanities Network,
Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities,
University of Cambridge, 7 West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DT

Webpage: http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/page/444/dr-anne-alexander.htm
Email: raa43 at cam.ac.uk