[Air-L] CFP: Chinese Internet in Global South

Wed Dec 7 04:27:57 PST 2022

Dear all,

Some of you may be interested in this CFP below for the 20th Chinese
Internet Research Conference:
https://www.digitalasiahub.org/2022/12/05/circ-2023-the-chinese-internet-in-the-global-south-reconfigurations-experiments-and-frictions/

Please help spread the word and look forward to seeing AoIR members there
in Chiang Mai, Thailand!

Cheers,
jack

*CIRC 2023*: *The* *Chinese Internet in the Global South: Flows, Frictions,
and Futures*12-14 July 2023
Chiang Mai, Thailand

*Hosted by Digital Asia Hub*
*with local partner The Faculty of Mass Communication, Chiang Mai
University*

Smartphones, Mobile Apps, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing,
Internet of Things (IoT), 5G, Blockchain, Metaverse – The Chinese Internet
has evolved into a multilayered stack of digital technologies and devices
with embedded protocols, cultures, and norms, used by billions of people
around the globe.  The Global South is where Made-in-China digital
technology meets the world, reconfiguring how billions live and China’s own
relationship with the world.

The Digital Asia Hub and Chiang Mai University welcome you to the 20th
Chinese Internet Research Conference (CIRC) – *The* *Chinese Internet in
the Global South: Flows, Frictions, and Futures*. The conference will take
place from 12-14 July 2023 at the Faculty of Mass Communication, Chiang Mai
University, in a hybrid format, with in-person attendance and some online
participation. The conference invites scholars from across disciplines to
zoom in on the Global South as a geographic and epistemological site of
inquiry, with a focus on South and Southeast Asia (but also including other
developing regions of Asia, Africa, and Latin America), to study the
influence of the Chinese Internet. We invite papers and panel discussions
touching on digital culture, innovation, surveillance, geopolitics, public
infrastructure, digital rights, and more.
*Flows*

Chinese smartphone manufacturers make up close to ⅓ of the global market
share <https://www.counterpointresearch.com/global-smartphone-share/> (and
a dominant share in Southeast and South Asia). Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, and
ByteDance, along with dozens of smaller companies, have invested several
billions in local tech startups in India
<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zXM4wljM8zRSrAlC1wldrSypBoyCE7Tc8Ci9jW8cySc/edit#gid=2062271368>,
Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia. TikTok, the world’s fastest growing social
media platform
<https://www.reuters.com/technology/tiktok-hits-1-billion-monthly-active-users-globally-company-2021-09-27/>,
counts Indonesia, Brazil, and West Asia as central to its global
<https://interconnected.blog/how-does-tiktok-do-global-expansion/>success.
Huawei is nearly universally present in the Global South
<https://www.huawei.com/en/facts>, growing from a telecom supplier to a digital
transformation partner
<https://www.itnewsafrica.com/2022/09/absa-bank-kenya-partners-with-huawei-to-accelerate-digital-transformation/>.
Within the past decade Chinese technologies, along with a supply chain of
capital and people, are deeply embedded in the Global South, reconfiguring
the dynamics of economies and societies.

We invite papers and panels that examine the influence of the Chinese
Internet in the Global South, especially highlighting the interplay and
bi-directional linkages between local innovation and startup ecosystems,
how they may compare with their Western peers, and how Western or other
technology companies are learning from China’s approach. Papers can also
train a focus on the reconfiguring of socio-political landscapes through
providing digital surveillance
<https://africacenter.org/spotlight/surveillance-technology-in-africa-security-concerns/>
tools
or advancing Beijing’s discourse power
<https://digichina.stanford.edu/work/lexicon-discourse-power-or-the-right-to-speak-huayu-quan/>
 (话语权).
*Frictions and Futures*

China has permeated public consciousness globally and brings new frictions
as political rhetoric around China affects how Made-in-China digital
technologies are perceived and consumed. India became the first country in
the world to ban and block
<https://technode.com/2020/07/27/insights-does-india-need-china-tech/>WeChat
and TikTok alongside hundreds of other Chinese apps, having found them to
“violate Indian sovereignty and security.” How countries in the Global
South interpret and act against perceived influence of the People’s
Republic of China (PRC) deserves more study to help shed light on
non-Western attitudes towards Chinese technology. Several countries,
notably Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Vietnam, are introducing new laws
and rules to more closely control the national Internet, regulate
international platforms, and spur local innovation. Inquiry around how
governments may be mirroring and building on the “China model” is timely as
governments around the world are actively regulating digital spaces and
data flows, another example of the multi-directional flows of knowledge and
practices.

The globalisation of the Chinese Internet also includes values, norms, and
legal frameworks for governing digital spaces. The landscape within the PRC
is presently in a period of significant flux. The Data Security Law
(数据安全法), the Personal Information Protection Law (个人信息保护法), and a more
empowered “super regulator
<https://digichina.stanford.edu/work/behind-the-facade-of-chinas-cyber-super-regulator/>”
the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), are reconfiguring the Chinese
Internet. How these new changes affect global data flows, governance norms
and rules, and even the culture of innovation in China need to be better
understood to determine what the future of the Chinese Internet in the
Global South will look like.

We invite papers and panels that shed light on these frictions and the
multidirectional nature of laws, values, and norms for digital spaces
between China and the Global South. These papers may study the changes
within the PRC and chart possibilities of how they may influence the
globalisation of the Chinese Internet with Global South countries.
*About the Hosts*

On the 20th anniversary of CIRC we are delighted to bring the conference to
Thailand for the first time. Historically, the Chinese diaspora community
has played meaningful roles in shaping modern Thailand
<https://aseasuk.org/2020/07/30/review-of-wasana-wongsurawat-the-crown-and-the-capitalists-the-ethnic-chinese-and-the-founding-of-the-thai-nation-seattle-university-of-washington-press-2019/>.
Chiang Mai University will be an idyllic site to embrace the spirit of the
Global South and foster a dialogue around the Chinese Internet. We hope to
highlight fresh scholarship outside the traditional “China vs West”
paradigm that dominates mainstream discourse. This interdisciplinary
conference will highlight emerging scholars in a number of fields including
law and policy, media and communications studies, political science,
computer science, among other disciplines. As the first non-university
co-host of CIRC, Digital Asia Hub will bring its own values of speculative
thinking and policy-oriented, multistakeholder discourse to the conference.
In the leadup to the conference new institutions will be announced and
added as CIRC 2023 partners and sponsors.
*Submission guidelines*

*Abstract and panel proposals should be submitted by **28 February 2023**.
All submissions should be written in English. All submissions can be made
here: **https://airtable.com/shrKs8SCkG6OGCHpo*
<https://airtable.com/shrKs8SCkG6OGCHpo>

*Abstract:** Individual or co-authored abstracts should be 300-500 words,
excluding the title page and references. The title page should include the
title of the paper, the name of the author/co-authors,
academic/professional affiliation(s), and email address(es). The abstract
should include central arguments and a substantive summary. *

*Panel proposal:** Panel proposals are limited to 1,000 words, excluding
the title page, references, and appendices.*

*The organizing committee will inform applicants of its decision by **3* *April
2023**. Full versions of the accepted papers are to be submitted by **1
June 2023**. Papers should not exceed 8,000 words, including notes,
references, and appendices, and should be uploaded to the submission system
or sent to the organizer via email.*

*For further inquiries, please contact: **circ2023 at digitalasiahub.org*
<circ2023 at digitalasiahub.org>*. *

-- 
Jack Linchuan Qiu, Ph.D.

Professor <https://ap5.fas.nus.edu.sg/fass/cnmqlj/>, Dept of Communications
& New Media, <https://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/cnm/> National U of Singapore
New article "A new approach to the geopolitics of Chinese internets
<https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4258574>", *iCS* (2022)
New chapter "Data power & counter-power with Chinese characteristics
<https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-96180-0_2>", *New
Perspectives in Critical Data Studies *(2022)
New article "Back to Bandung for the future: The never-ending project of
de-imperialization <https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtac004>", *Comm Theory *
(2022).
Article "Institutions, occupations & connectivity: The embeddedness of gig
work & platform-mediated labor market in Hong Kong
<https://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/XKYE8KP6SKJBKMWSFYIN/full>", *Critical
Sociology *(2022)
Article "Empowerment or warfare? Dark skin, AI camera, & Transsion’s patent
narratives
<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2022.2056500>", *iCS
*(2022)
Article "Humanizing the posthuman: Digital labor & food delivery during the
pandemic <https://doi.org/10.1177/13678779211066608>", *IJCS* (2022)
Article "Conducting research in difficult, dangerous &/or vulnerable
contexts <https://doi.org/10.1177/08933189211058706>", *MCQ *(2022)
Article "Transfer or translation? Rethinking traveling tech from Global
South <https://doi.org/10.1177/01622439211072205>", *ST&HV* (2022)