[Air-L] CFP: Understanding the social in a digital age (correct years)

[Zoetanya Sujon]

This one contains the correct dates (my apologies for repetition and
cross-posting)


*Understanding the social in a digital age: **An interdisciplinary
conference on media, technology, and the social*



The pervasiveness of social media has led to both the rise and erasure of
‘the social’. The social is increasingly evasive, at once found everywhere
and nowhere. Social media are widely lauded for connecting people and
enabling richer, more dynamic socialities yet many critique these processes
as emptying out social connection in favour of data accumulation,
self-promotion, and platform capitalism. Similarly, these new ways of
experiencing, augmenting, and understanding the social are rife with their
own socio-cultural and socio-economic biases, born out through designers
and users, meaning not every user experiences these spaces and relates to
these technologies in the same manner. It becomes apparent that ‘the
social’ presumes a singular experience, when realities are far more diverse.



Current research on social media draws in an interdisciplinary manner from
a wide range of thinking on what the social means, and is increasingly
challenging extant theories and conceptions of the social. This poses a
number of questions for how we consider, define, and explore the social,
and crucially what our responsibilities are as researchers and educators.
This also poses a number of opportunities to work across disciplinary
boundaries to explore and reframe our understandings of media, technology,
and the social.



*Keynotes will be given by Professor Nick Couldry, London School of
Economics and Professor Gina Neff, Oxford Internet Institute.*



This event aims to critically examine not only the meanings of the
social in contemporary digital practices across cultures, but also
challenges underlying epistemologies of the social in research and popular
cultures. Papers may approach the topic from theoretical, conceptual,
and/or empirical positions.



Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:



·       Challenges of and negotiations around agency and structure

·       The relationship between technology, self, and society

·       Educational challenges and responsibilities in the digital age

·       Changing socialities in the face of platform capitalism, the
sharing economy, the gig economy, the rise of mediation, & networked selves

·       The embedding and disembedding of socio-cultural resources online

·       Resistance and transgression on, in, with, and through technology

·       The role of designers, users, researchers and the public in the
framing, conceptualisation, and representation of ‘the social’ online

·       Extant and emerging social structures in the digital age

·       Boundaries between online and offline social practices

·       Affordances and mediation of social practices

·       Alternative media and sub-altern communities

·       Technological mediation of public / private

·       Digital citizenships and the politics of belonging

·       Emerging technologies and digital futures



This list is merely suggestive of the range of topics of interest to the
organisers and is not in any way restrictive of possible interpretations of
the theme.  We encourage contributors to be imaginative in formulating
ideas and paper proposals.



Abstracts of no more than 300 words and a short bio of 100 words should be
submitted via email by *28th August 2018. *



You will receive notification of the outcome of your submission by
September 30. Submissions from early career researchers are highly
encouraged. Final papers should be no longer than 8,000 words / 20 minutes.
All those who submit final papers by January 7th will also be invited to
submit to a special edition of an international peer-reviewed journal.



The event is *free to attend and present*, and will be hosted at the School
of Education and Lifelong Learning and the University of East Anglia,
Norwich, UK, on the *8th January 2019. *



*Key dates:*

Abstract submission: August 28th 2018

Notification of outcomes: September 30th 2018

Draft papers due: January 7th 2019

Conference: January 8th 2019, at UEA



Organisers:

Dr Zoetanya Sujon (University of Arts London)

Dr Harry Dyer (University of East Anglia)



*Enquiries: **UnderstandingTheSocial at gmail.com*
<UnderstandingTheSocial at gmail.com>






-- 
'You are marvellous. The Gods wait to delight in you.' ('The Laughing
Heart' by Charles Bukowski).