[Air-L] Deadline extended: Data Power Conference 2017 call for abstracts

Tracey Lauriault datapower2017 at gmail.com
Fri Jan 27 09:23:55 PST 2017


 *DATA POWER 2017*

A two-day, international conference organized by Carleton and Sheffield
universities.
*Dates*: 22nd & 23rd June 2017
*Venue*: School of Journalism & Communication, Carleton University, Ottawa,
Ontario, Canada
*New submission deadline*: ***Friday 3rd February 2017***

*Call for abstracts/panel proposals*

Increasingly pervasive in our daily lives, data are constituted through
converging technologies and practices such as the internet of things, smart
cities, drones and precision agriculture; global finance, credit scoring
and data brokerage firms; surveillance, predictive policing and customer
relation management systems, to name a few. Data are also generated by and
flow through applications, software, platforms, and infrastructures that
reshape how we play, work, eat, socialise, see ourselves, and know the
world. In an era of data power, data have become agentic, especially when
input into black-boxed algorithms and systems whose outputs are used to
profile and sort us, influence the political economy, and for purposes for
which no consent was given. Is this a 'fait accompli'?

To answer this question, the Data Power 2017 conference asks: How can we
reclaim some form of data-based power and autonomy, and advance data-based
technological citizenship, while living in regimes of data power? Is it
possible to regain agency and mobilize data for the common good? To do so,
which theories help to interrogate and make sense of the operations of data
power? What kind of design frameworks are needed to build and deploy
data-based technologies with values and ethics that are equitable and fair?
How can big data be mobilized to improve how we live, beyond notions of
efficiency and innovation?

This conference follows the successful Data Power 2015 Conference held in
the UK and creates a space to reflect on these and other critical issues
relating to data’s ever more ubiquitous power. To date, the following
keynote speakers and commentators on data power have been confirmed:


   - *Helen Nissenbaum*, New York University, co-author of *Obfuscation: A
   User’s Guide to Privacy and Protest* with Finn Brunton (2015), and PI of
   the Values in Design project;
   - *Paul N.Edwards*, University of Michigan, author of *A Vast Machine:
   Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming *
   (2010);
   - *Stefania Milan*, University of Amsterdam, author of *Social Movements
   and Their Technologies: Wiring Social Change* (2016), and PI of the
   DATACTIVE project;
   - *Frank Pasquale*, University of Maryland, author of *The Black Box
   Society: The Secret Algorithms that Control Money and Information*
   (2015).

Papers and session/panel proposals are invited on the following - and other
relevant - topics:

   - The political economy of data
   - Data and journalism
   - Theorizing data
   - The politics of data visualization
   - Data labour
   - The social life of data and data-driven methods
   - The politics of open and linked data
   - Data-driven governance, surveillance and control
   - Data, discrimination and inequality
   - Social, ethical and legal issues
   - Data citizens
   - Data activism, citizen engagement and advocacy
   - Data, genealogy and power
   - Data power and violence
   - Critical cultural and feminist approaches to data
   - Resistance, agency and appropriation.

*Information/details*

   - Whilst we welcome papers and sessions of all kinds, please note that
   this conference focuses on critical questions about data’s power and also
   papers that are critical and/or reflective with regards to the social and
   cultural consequences of the rise of data's power.
   - Please submit *250-300 word *paper or panel proposals using the
   following online submission system:
*https://ocs.library.carleton.ca/index.php/datapower/datapower2017
   <https://ocs.library.carleton.ca/index.php/datapower/datapower2017>*.
   - The deadline for paper proposals is ****Friday 3rd February 2017*****.*
   - The conference fee is $225 (CAD) for all, and $90 (CAD) for students.
   - The organizing committee will select papers for a special issue on
   Data Power in the following peer reviewed journals: *The Canadian
   Journal of Communication* and *Online Information Review*.
   - Ottawa is Canada’s Capital, and is celebrating its 150th Anniversary
   in 2017. The City is home to numerous international museums and galleries,
   and Carleton University is set along the beautiful Rideau River and the
   Rideau Canal.

Best wishes,

The Data Power Conference team
*Tracey, Helen, Jo, Ganaele, Ysabel *& *Merlyna*
*datapower2017 at gmail.com <datapower2017 at gmail.com>*

Tracey P. Lauriault & Merlyna Lim, Carleton University, Canada
Helen Kennedy & Jo Bates, University of Sheffield, UK
Ganaele Langlois, York University, Canada
Ysabel Gerrard, University of Leeds, UK



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