[Air-L] Deadline for CFP this week. Digital Culture meets Data: Critical approaches

[Ryan Burns]

Call for Papers
Digital Culture meets Data: Critical approaches
ECREA Digital Culture and Communication Section Conference.
6th -7th November 2017, University of Brighton, UK
Abstract deadline: 20 May 2017
Keynote speakers:

·         Rob Kitchin, Maynooth University, Republic of Ireland

·         Helen Thornham, University of Leeds, UK
Conference theme:
Algorithms and big data are today shaping our sociocultural and technical relations and our everyday experiences. Digital culture and communication are inevitably changing as media infrastructures, media practices and social environments become increasingly 'datafied'. We may think of surveillance, algorithmic profiling and self-tracking for example. Wearable technologies such as fitness trackers allow people to understand the body as a data-producing object. Our use of commonplace media technologies is mediated by data in ways that we do not ask for, nor even necessarily know about or consent to. Data interpellate us. Yet data are obscure and enigmatic.

But what does this turn to data mean for our research, scholarship and pedagogic practice? Has the data paradigm arrived as an unquestionable unifying concept for studies of digital culture and digital media, communication, technology? It may be that a shift of focus on algorithms and data is fundamentally disruptive to the ways in which we see our research and disciplines. It may even appear to limit the theoretical and methodological tools through which we increasingly try to understand mediation, the formation of identity, social life, politics and the creative industries. To others, the 'datalogical turn' may be plainly repeating the processes of earlier instances of technological innovation. And for some, it may provide an opportunity to frame new theoretical concepts and methodological tools for a whole new set of social, cultural and political phenomena.

The ECREA DCC Conference "Digital Culture meets data: Critical approaches" asks the question: what theoretical and empirical perspectives on data and the digital can be used to augment and diversify our research and educational approaches? And how might we challenge data paradigms or aim to show alternative or complementary ways to address digital culture and communication? We invite empirical and theoretical research papers and panels that address themes such as:

-       Media studies and datafication

-       Researching media and culture using data methods

-       Data visualisation, art and design

-       Data and the role of the imaginary, fantasy and myth

-       Data cultures and neoliberalism

-       Data activism and citizen engagement

-       Data and critical literacy

-       Data and gender, race, class inequalities

-       Datafication and the creative industries

-       Feminist approaches to data

-       Machine learning and AI

-       Mobile and locative media

-       Quantified self and data cultures

-       Smart cities, data and sustainability

-       Social bots and the management of sociality
The Conference will also host a YECREA Workshop entitled: 'The ambitious early-career scholar in an age of precarity: questions, challenges, opportunities' (Chaired by Ysabel Gerrard, University of Leeds). This workshop will facilitate open discussion between academics at various stages in their careers about some of the issues confronting ambitious early-career scholars in an increasingly competitive international job market.

Submission details, individual papers:
Please submit abstracts of 250-350 words, written in English. Abstracts should contain a clear outline of the argument, the theoretical framework, methodology and results (if applicable), and how this links to the theme and topics of this conference, or to the general concerns of digital culture and communication. Please include 3-5 keywords that describe your work, and a Bio note (max 100 words, stating affiliation).

Submission details, panels:
We welcome panel submissions, numbering 4 speakers.  Please submit abstracts of 250-350 words per paper, plus a 250-350 word rationale for the panel.  Individual abstracts should contain a clear outline of the argument, the theoretical framework, methodology and results (if applicable), and how this links to the theme and topics of this conference, or to the general concerns of digital culture and communication. Please include 3-5 keywords that describe each individual abstracts, plus 3-5 keywords that describe the panel, and Bio note for each individual abstract (max 100 words, stating affiliation).  All abstracts and rationale should be sent together as a single document by the panel proposer.

Details for abstract submission:
Please provide abstracts as .PDF, .DOC or .DOCX file types.  Abstracts should be emailed to brightondcc at gmail.com<mailto:brightondcc at gmail.com>.  Deadline for paper and panel submissions is May 20, 2017.  Notification of acceptance: June 20th, 2017.
You do not need to be an ECREA or DCC section member to apply.
For updates, please visit https://dccecrea.wordpress.com
For CFP http://dccecrea.wordpress.com/call-for-papers-2017-conference/

Registration fees:
Academic Employed full time .......... £65
Academic Employed Part Time ........ £40
Students / Unwaged ...................... £20

Organising committee: Ryan Burns, Aristea Fotopoulou, Leighton Evans, Ysabel Gerrard, Ana Jorge, Theodore Koulouris, Sander De Ridder, Maria Sourbati.

___________________________________
Dr Ryan Burns
Lecturer in Media Studies
 School of Media, University of Brighton, Watts Building, Room 609, Lewes Road, Brighton, BN2 4GJ


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