[Air-L] Workshop: "Common good and self-interest in the digital society” at SSA conference in Zurich

[stahel at soziologie.uzh.ch]

 Dear Colleague(s),
    I would like to draw your attention to the call for papers for the “Common good and self-interest in the digital society” workshop of the upcoming Swiss Sociological Association (SSA) conference 2017 in Zurich, Switzerland, 21.-23. June 2017. Please share this call with your colleagues.
    Call for papers:
    Digital media are increasingly permeating the economy, politics, social relationships and our daily lives - they are part of a transformation towards a so-called digital society. The growing importance of the Internet and social media is not only an opportunity for social advancement; it also comes along with societal risks. The basic question for numerous challenges is whether and how the digitisation transforms our self-interest and common good. As part of this transformation process, this workshop aims to give special attention to social norms and relationships.
    The enforcement of social norms is increasingly taking place through digital media and their technologically structured public spheres. This can be observed in cases of so-called online shaming or hate-filled comments on social media as they occur in the current refugee debate. Such phenomena may reinforce political polarisation and thus diminish social cohesion and endanger the common good. The increasing merging of the analogue and digital sphere reinforces this process further. Will social norms in the two spheres align with each other? Should they be reconciled, and if so, how? Should the digital sphere even be granted its own social norms?
    Besides these unsettling developments, digital media also change and strengthen social relationships like never before. How will this intensified networking affect our self-interest and common good? Will digital media lead to an increasingly individualistic or collectivist society? Will there be many different but isolated communities, reflecting echo chambers and filter bubbles? How can we comprehend and analyse such cultural change?
In this workshop we invite researchers to present their findings on the exploration of digital society and to discuss them. We particularly welcome empirical contributions, especially with a focus on Big Data. We however consider other work of a conceptual nature as well.
    If you are interested in contributing to this workshop, please send your abstract (maximum 1000 words, English or German) to Lea Stahel (stahel at soziologie.uzh.ch) until 24 Feb 2017. For more information about the workshop do not hesitate to contact Lea Stahel. For more information about the conference please visit: 
  http://www.sgs-kongress2017.uzh.ch/en/workshops.html
  _________
Lea Stahel

Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Soziologischen Institut der Universität Zürich
Schwerpunkte Wirtschaftssoziologie und Politische Soziologie

Andreasstrasse 15
CH-8050 Zürich
Mail: stahel at soziologie.uzh.ch