[Air-L] Call for Participation: Data & Society Workshop on Tech & Organizations, 6/14

[Elizabeth Anne Watkins]

Dear Colleagues (with apologies for cross-posting),

The Data & Society Research Institute in NYC seeks applications for an
upcoming multi-disciplinary one-day workshop on the integration of
technology into organizations. Please do share with your networks far and
wide, and don't hesitate to reach out with any questions.

*Call for Workshop Participation*
*Algorithms on the Shop Floor: Data-driven Technologies in Organizational
Context*

Deadline for applications: April 19, 2019
Workshop date: June 14, 2019 in NYC at Data & Society
Application link: http://datasociety.net/algorithms-on-the-shop-floor
For questions, email events at datasociety.net

On June 14, 2019, Data & Society will host a workshop in NYC on the
intersection of technology and organizational theory and practice. The
workshop arises from an increasing need to understand how automated,
algorithmic, AI, or otherwise data-driven technologies are being
integrated into organizational contexts and processes.

The workshop will convene researchers who study how new technologies
are introduced, incorporated, resisted or maintained within organized
groups, and the changes this integration brings. Such changes might
include processes (workflows, tasks, “re-skilling,” “changed” skills,
augmentation) or in structures (roles, jurisdictions, authority), or
other key sociological issues (such as power, culture, diversity,
expertise, risk, rationality, legitimacy, and solidarity). In a world
where new technologies are being integrated into organizations of all
sizes and types, how can we make sense of what gets lost, what gets
gained, and what gets changed? Many of these questions are long
standing themes in organizational studies and ethnographies examining
the social complexities of working on the machine shop floor, to which
the title of our workshop alludes. Still, how do such integrations
provoke new shifts in power relations and social values?

The range of field sites and research questions appropriate for this
event is wide. The only requirements for participation are that: 1)
you must be a researcher (with or without an academic affiliation); 2)
your research questions must address a dimension of socio-technical
practice in the context of a formalized organization.

Relevant topics for this workshop might include:

How do formations of power, hierarchy, and discretionary
decision-making change when automated and AI technologies are
introduced?
How are issues of diversity and equity brought into and reconstituted
when new technologies are introduced?
How does the integration of new technologies into organizations
intersect with issues of access, inclusion, and disability?
What are sites of unintended use, resistance, or deviance with respect
to technology in organizations?
How are new forms of expertise, skill, and training emerging to meet
demands of using new technologies in the workplace?
How are new or existing labor organizations confronting the perceived
threat of AI?
What are organizational formations or organizational processes that
build on digital technologies to advance equity and social justice?
What lessons does the history of organizational theory and practice
hold for contemporary dynamics?
How are bureaucratic forms of control (such as auditing or impact
policy) integrated into the development of technology?

These examples are by no means exhaustive, but intended to provide a
flavor of the kind of relevant research questions. We are especially
interested in strange outliers and unexpected studies.

Key Dates
* Application Deadline: April 19, 2019
* Selection Decisions: May 1, 2019
* Full Paper Deadline: May 28, 2019
* Workshop: June 14, 2019

Participation Requirements
The structure of the Data & Society Workshop series is designed to
maximize scholarly thinking about the evolving and societally
important issues surrounding data-driven technologies. Participants
will be asked to read three full papers in advance of the event and
prepare comments for intensive discussion. Some participants will be
asked to be discussants of papers, where they will lead the
conversation and engage the room. Authors will not present their work,
but rather participate in critical discussion with the assembled group
about the paper, with explicit intent of making the work stronger and
more interdisciplinary.

All participants are required to read three papers in advance of the
event and come ready to offer constructively critical feedback. We
want researchers to constructively spar with and challenge one another
to strengthen ourselves across the board. This is not an event for
passive attendance, but an opportunity to engage each other
substantively.

This event is first and foremost an opportunity to collectively think
and help construct a field. Although this event is designed to bring
together 30-40 researchers, only 12 papers will be workshopped. Yet,
everyone who attends is expected to be an active participant and
contribute to rich conversations. We believe that it is through active
engagement with other scholars around research that new insights can
emerge. In other words, this event is designed to be the kind of
intense intellectual engagement that made you fall in love with being
a researcher in the first place.
Format

The day will be organized into three time slots, each 75 minutes long.
One paper will be workshopped in each session. Multiple sessions will
run in parallel so there will be a total of ~12 papers, but each
participant will only be responsible for reading and engaging with 3.
Within each group, a discussant will open with a critique of the paper
before inviting participants to share their feedback. (If you
participate in this event, you may be asked to be a discussant on one
paper.) All are expected to share feedback, with author response
towards the end of the session.

Logistics

The event will take place on June 14, 2019, and will run from 8:45am
to 6pm. Paper sessions will run until 4:15pm; afterwards, there will
be a reception for all participants.
All meals will be covered during the event. Unfortunately, we have
limited funding to support travel for this workshop; however, we’re
happy to provide a formal invitation for participation/“speaking” to
anyone who may need it to secure their own funding.
Application Process (Deadline: April 19)

For this event, we are looking to bring together researchers from
diverse disciplines studying technology in organizations. This can
include management, organization studies, communications, information
studies, computer-supported cooperative work, computer-human
interaction, science and technology studies, ethics, labor, law,
policy, anthropology, and design research. As a result, attendees
should expect to engage with scholars who are outside of their field
of study. We ask that attendees think of the Data & Society Workshop
series as an opportunity to engage with a broader cross-disciplinary
field, and to strengthen both relationships and research through
participation in the workshop.

Because the paper submission date is only a few weeks after the
application deadline, you should only apply as an author if you have a
paper that you’re actively writing right now and will be ready to
share a draft with others by May 28, 2019. If you aren’t already
working on this paper, you probably aren’t in a good position to
workshop it at this event. Appropriate papers may be a
work-in-progress book chapter or a journal article. (Full-length books
are a bit too much for this event, so if you’re writing a book, think
about the chapter that you most want to get feedback on.)

To apply as an author, please submit the following:
* Name, affiliation, title, email address, discipline.
* Big research question you’re seeking to answer with your research.
* Paper title + 100-250 word abstract.
* The current half-baked, thick-outline, total mess of the paper.**
** We are asking for the disaster of a paper to understand where you
are with the piece now, and the arguments you intend to make, so that
we can appropriately match you to a discussant. We won’t share this
version with anyone (we promise).
Please note: All co-authors for papers must apply separately. If your
co-author doesn’t apply, we will assume that s/he is not interested in
attending the workshop. It will be hard to add additional participants
later, so make sure your co-authors apply if they want to attend.

To apply as a participant/discussant, please submit the following:
* Name, affiliation, title, email address, discipline.
* Big research question you’re seeking to answer with your research.
* 100-250 word description of your research.

Application link: http://datasociety.net/algorithms-on-the-shop-floor
For questions, email events at datasociety.net