[Air-L] CFP: Ethical Pluralism and Intercultural Information Ethics in Asian Contexts

[Charles M. Ess]

Dear AoIR-ists,

with the usual regrets for duplication and cross-posting - please 
distribute to potentially interested colleagues and/or relevant lists. 
Many thanks! - charles

Call for Papers
Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia (JCEA), Vol 20, No 1 -­ Summer 2021

Special Issue: Ethical Pluralism and Intercultural Information Ethics
in Asian Contexts
Invited editor: Charles M. Ess, University of Oslo (c.m.ess at media.uio.no)
     The early 1990s and the Internet’s rise as an engine of 
globalization forced a central task upon emerging Intercultural 
Information Ethics (IIE): how to conceptualize and implement a global 
information and computing ethics conjoining (quasi-) universal ethical 
norms and principles with a robust defense of local, culturally variable 
identities and practices? Discourses pitting a homogenous imposition of 
Western values and norms against resistance to such homogenization for 
defending local cultural identities, but at the cost of potential 
fragmentation and isolation, first forced these issues. Increasing 
recognition of “computer-mediated colonization” –  as Western-centric 
cultural norms and communicative preferences, embedded in ICT design, 
were imposed upon “target” cultures – made these concerns still more 
urgent.

    In response, ethical pluralisms (EPs), as conceptualizing 
connections (such as shared norms) preserving irreducible local 
differences, were developed and successfully implemented in both Western 
and non-Western contexts. But Western-based EPs remain open to critique. 
In Asia, EP is integral to conceptions of resonance and harmony in 
Daoist, Confucian, Buddhist, and Islamic traditions. Furthermore, 
Chinese and Indian technological innovation hubs have also emerged, 
grounding further exploration of Asian-rooted conceptions of EP, 
resonance, and harmony, which remain central to an IIE opposing 
colonizing adaptation of Western values and norms in Non-western 
cultures. These are especially critical vis-à-vis the ongoing 
encroachment of advanced ICTs, e.g. AI, Big Data, the IoT, “surveillance 
capitalism” and the Chinese Social Credit System, as increasingly 
defining our cultural lives.

   Our primary questions: what sorts of EP and similar notions of 
resonance or harmony might help resolve these central problems in the 
contemporary developments of (East) Asia? And: do earlier IIE traditions 
and evaluation of “radical” technologies fruitfully respond to even 
“more radical” emerging ICT challenges evoked by contemporary, far more 
powerful ICTs?

   This special issue of the JCEA invites papers that deal with 
theoretical and practical dimensions of EP, notions of harmony and 
resonance in contemporary Asian contexts, and/or traditional/recent 
resonances of ICT-related challenges.

We are particularly interested in but not limited to:

· Critical evaluations and possible expansions of contemporary EP, 
especially as oriented towards / grounded in (East) Asian contexts
· Concrete examples of EP in praxis – whether successful or not in 
sustaining shared norms and irreducible local differences in (East) 
Asian contexts
· Theoretical and practical explorations of (East) Asian relatives of 
Western-centric pluralisms from Confucian, Buddhist, and other local 
traditions – e.g., of resonance, harmony, etc. – that might offer 
advantages over EP on both theoretical and practical grounds.

Please submit your 500-word abstract (maximum) in English to 
c.m.ess at media.uio.no by September 1, 2020 (subject line should include 
“JCEA Special Issue”).

Deadlines

Abstract Submission: 
September 1, 2020
Abstract Notification: 
October 1, 2020
Article Submission: 
December 31, 2020
Notification of Acceptance/Rejection:                  March 15, 2021
Final submission of revised papers:                      June 1, 2021

For more information about the JCEA, refer to https://jceasia.org/


-- 
Professor in Media Studies
Department of Media and Communication
University of Oslo
<http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/people/aca/charlees/index.html>

Fellow, Siebold-Collegiums Institute for Advanced Studies, 
Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Germany

Co-chair & Editor, Internet Research Ethics 3.0
<https://aoir.org/reports/ethics3.pdf>

3rd edition of Digital Media Ethics now out!
<http://politybooks.com/bookdetail/?isbn=9781509533428>

Postboks 1093
Blindern 0317
Oslo, Norway
c.m.ess at media.uio.no