[Air-L] Call for Papers - AoIR and the Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society

[Charles M. Ess]

Dear AoIRists, copy to Simon Rogerson, aline shakti franzke,

In light of the impending March 1 deadline for proposals to be submitted 
for this year's conference in Dublin, I regret that we are bringing this 
to your attention later than we would have liked.  But we hope that many 
of you will find the CFP to be sufficiently exciting and interesting 
that you can send along your proposals as outlined below as quickly as 
possible so that we can coordinate these into ethics panel proposals in 
time to meet the deadline.

Please feel free to address any questions to either me and/or Simon 
Rogerson as seems best.

==
CFP – Special theme issue, Journal of Information, Communication and 
Ethics in Society: Ethics, society and the internet – AoIR 2020

Background
Since its inception, the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) has 
fostered critical reflection on the ethical and social dimensions of the 
internet and internet-facilitated communication. These reflections and 
analyses have been at work in innumerable conference presentations and 
conference-related publications, as well as in the Association’s 
signature development of ethical guidelines for internet research ethics 
(IRE).
Given the nature of ethics, there will be continuing debate and 
disagreement: over the years, nonetheless, there have emerged both 
defining and characteristic commitments to ethical norms and 
imperatives. The AoIR 2014 statements on Diversity and Inclusivity 
articulate defining commitments to “the most fundamental principles of 
academic freedom, equality of opportunity, and human dignity” 
(https://aoir.org/diversity-and-inclusivity/).  These commitments have 
been manifest from the beginning of AoIR in manifold panels and 
presentations informed by focus on basic rights to privacy, personality 
(Persönlichkeitsrecht – the right to shape and define who one is as a 
free person, including one’s sexual identities, preferences, etc.), 
freedom of expression, democratic political engagement, etc., as based 
on fundamental norms of emancipation, equality and gender equality, 
justice, fairness, and so on – and all of this from global / 
cross-cultural perspectives.  They are further evoked throughout the 
list of thematics for the AoIR 2020 conference call, beginning with 
Power, justice, and inequality in digitally mediated lives; Life, sex, 
and death on, through, and with social media; and Political life online 
(https://aoir.org/aoir2020/cfp/).
Concomitantly, Simon Rogerson, Chief Editor of the Journal of 
Information, Communication and Ethics in Society (JICES), describes the 
Journal as aiming to “…promote thoughtful dialogue regarding the wider 
social and ethical issues related to the planning, development, 
implementation and use of new media and information and communication 
technologies. Drawing from a wide authorship it provides necessary 
interdisciplinary, culturally and geographically diverse works essential 
to understanding the impacts of the pervasive new media and information 
and communication technologies.”

JICES and AoIR thus share central interests in the ethical and social 
dimensions of the internet and internet-facilitated communication. As 
part of a collaboration aimed at giving AoIR conference presentations 
and papers broader publicity via JICES, we invite proposals for 
ethically-focused presentations and panels at AoIR’s 21st annual 
meeting, to be held in Dublin, Ireland, 28-31 October 2020.  Papers 
generated by these presentations and panels will then be published in a 
theme issue of JICES in 2021. (See Ess 2020 - ref. 1)
Most briefly, we hope to attract papers in a first Special Issue of 
JICES that blend theory and practice in ways that will have the 
potential to make a real difference in the field.

We invite proposals that take up one or more specific ethical and/or 
social dimension of the internet and internet-facilitated communication. 
  The following list of topics is meant to be suggestive only – by no 
means comprehensive or exclusive:
• uses of these technologies to exploit, attack and/or defend both 
“everyday users” and those rendered more vulnerable by given social, 
political, and/or economic structures.

Possible topics here range within and across a heuristic taxonomy:
   macro-level analyses and evaluations of, e.g., authoritarian 
surveillance and/or surveillance capitalism; repression of dissent, 
freedom of expression, and political organization (e.g., the Hong Kong 
umbrella movement); “ethics by design,” perhaps vis-à-vis ethics washing 
by multinational corporations, professional organizations and/or NGOs;
   meso-level analyses and evaluations of, e.g., emancipatory uses of 
internet-facilitated communication by minority populations, women, 
children, LGBQt+, indigenous peoples, the poor, refugees and immigrants 
… vs. repressive / oppressive counter-uses of these technologies, e.g., 
cyber stalking, location-tracking and image-based abuse – see Tanczer et 
al (ref. 2)
   micro-level analyses and evaluations of specific examples and 
case-studies illustrating more individual- and group-level phenomena, 
e.g., democratically-oriented uses of these technologies for 
whistle-blowing and corporate / nation-state efforts to suppress these; 
and so on

• good lives and flourishing in a digital era, including as these are 
specifically evoked in the conference topics “Machines and the good 
life: ethical principles versus ethical practices,” and “Health, 
wellbeing, and the internet.”  That is, “the good life” and “wellbeing” 
are signature concepts and aims of virtue ethics – where virtue ethics 
has become increasingly central in analyses of the social and ethical 
impacts of ICTS.

• analyses of the impacts and implications of internet-facilitated 
communication through the lenses of additional ethical and philosophical 
frameworks such as deontology, utilitarianism, care ethics, global 
ethical traditions such as Confucian thought, Buddhism, and so on.

• existential media studies perspectives and analyses, as these conjoin 
a number of such frameworks, beginning with virtue ethics and care 
ethics, with classic existential analyses, now refined and transformed 
for apt analyses and guidance for our lives as mortal and thus 
vulnerable beings (Lagerkvist - ref. 3). Existential media studies 
further intersect with the work of media scholars such as Paddy Scannell 
and John Durham Peters – and specifically with the AoIR 2020 conference 
theme of “Death online.”

• internet research ethics, beginning with its basic elements (see 
franzke et al 2020 - ref.4) as well as current examples and case 
studies, e.g., mis/uses of corporate data – e.g., Humphreys 2019 
(ref.5); how to discern and foster researchers’ ethical capacities and 
responsibilities, e.g. Lammers et al 2019 (ref. 6); unfolding 
implications of GDPR for research ethics, and so on.

Procedures
In the first stage, proposals should be sent to Charles Ess 
(c.m.ess at media.uio.no – subject: AoIR-JICES).  Proposals will be jointly 
reviewed by Charles Ess and JICES Chief Editor Simon Rogerson: accepted 
proposals will be collected within one or more ethics panels to be 
proposed to the AoIR conference as part of the regular submission and 
review process. (AoIR submission deadline: March 1)

Proposals should include author name(s), title, a brief abstract (5-10 
lines) plus one or two essential references. Please be as clear as 
possible as to how your proposed presentation addresses a central 
ethical theme, challenge, etc. (whether included in the above list or 
not) and how the presentation addresses the JICES thematics of 
"thoughtful dialogue regarding the wider social and ethical issues 
related to the planning, development, implementation and use of new 
media and information and communication technologies. Drawing from a 
wide authorship it provides necessary interdisciplinary, culturally and 
geographically diverse works essential to understanding the impacts of 
the pervasive new media and information and communication technologies."

Please keep in mind the important restriction on submissions:
In the interest of diversity and collegiality, each conference 
participant is limited to presenting one individual paper and one paper 
in a panel, and to participating in one roundtable. You can be a 
co-author on additional papers, but you must not be the scheduled 
presenter of these papers. Please do not submit as a presenter for any 
more papers than this, to allow everyone an opportunity to participate 
in the conference.

Again, our regrets for the comparatively short notice of this CFP - but 
we hope to hear quickly from many of you!

All best,
charles ess


References

1. For an initial overview, see: Charles M. Ess, Viewpoint: at the 
intersections of information, computing and internet research, Journal 
of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society. 
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JICES-01-2020-0001/full/html

2. Tanczer, L M, Dragiewicz, M, O’Neale, R, Harris, B and Kennedy, J 
(2019), “Technology-facilitated abuse: How tech is transforming 
coercion, control, and violence”, panel presented at the Association of 
Internet Researchers conference, 2-5 October, Brisbane, Australia. 
Abstract available at 
https://www.conftool.org/aoir2019/index.php?page=browseSessions&presentations=show&search=Tanczer 


3. Lagerkvist, A. (2019) Digital Existence: An Introduction. In: 
Lagerkvist, A. [Ed.] Digital Existence: Ontology, Ethics and 
Transcendence in Digital Culture. London: Routledge.

4. franzke, a s, Bechmann, A, Zimmer, M, Ess, C and the Association of 
Internet Researchers (2020). Internet Research: Ethical Guidelines 3.0. 
https://aoir.org/reports/ethics3.pdf

5. Humphreys, S (2019), “The Challenges of Ethical Data Use for 
Commercial Enterprises”, paper presented at the Association of Internet 
Researchers conference, 2-5 October, Brisbane, Australia. Abstract 
available at 
https://www.conftool.org/aoir2019/index.php?page=browseSessions&presentations=show&search=THE+CHALLENGES+OF+ETHICAL+DATA+USE+FOR+COMMERCIAL+ENTERPRISES

6. Lammers, J C, Curwood, J C, Tekobbe, C, Magnifico, A M, Stornaiuolo, 
A (2019), “Respectful Ethical Decision Making: Positioning the Online 
Researcher as a Bearer of Moral Consequence”, panel presented at the 
Association of Internet Researchers conference, 2-5 October, Brisbane, 
Australia. Abstract available at 
https://www.conftool.org/aoir2019/index.php?page=browseSessions&presentations=show&search=Lammers+ 




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

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

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

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