Second Call for Papers for a Special Issue of New Media & Society:
Internet Studies: The State of an Emerging Field?
Editor: Charles Ess, Guest Professor, Department of Information and
Media Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark, and Professor, Philosophy
and Religion, Drury University.
and William H. Dutton, Professor of Internet Studies, Oxford
Internet Institute, University of Oxford
Submissions are due to the editors by December 31, 2010.
Background
In 2005, Nancy Baym edited a special issue of The Information
Society (Vol. 21, No. 4) that asked the question, "Is Internet
Research a Virtual Field, a Proto-Discipline, or Something Else??"
In 2010, two handbooks of Internet Studies will appear (edited by
Hunsinger, Kastrup, & Allen [Springer] and Consalvo & Ess
[Wiley-Blackwell]) while a third has been launched (Dutton [Oxford
University Press]. These publications document the emergence and
development of Internet Studies as a field of research and
scholarship in its own right, one affiliated with a characteristic
topoi of issues, research questions, methodologies, and its own
distinctive ethics.
To further explore the broad terrains and structures of this
emerging field, the Oxford Internet Institute is organizing a series
of workshops and
lectures over the next two years, intended to encourage and gather
critical analyses and perspectives from a number of internationally-recognized
scholars and researchers, along with younger colleagues whose
research promises new insights and perspectives. The first of these
workshops, held at Aarhus University on 19 March 2010, took stock of
the field by critically assessing the two major volumes on Internet
Studies (Consalvo and Ess 2010, and Hunsinger et al 2010), with a
view towards developing further insights for the field, its current
and future directions, and its (potential) significance and impact.
Future workshops are being organized, including one that will be
held in Barcelona in early 2011. Steve Jones
(<http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/events/?id=380>), and Matthew Allen
(<http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/events/?id=344>) have held lectures in this series
at the Oxford Internet Institute, and Charles Ess
(<http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/events/?id=390> will present one of a
number of future lectures.
A special issue of New Media & Society is intended (a) to encourage
and collect the development of scholarly contributions developed
initially for these workshops, and lectures, and (b) gather related
scholarly research and reflections from the global community of
Internet scholars and researchers.
These contributions will build on the existing and forthcoming
handbooks and related compilations to stimulate and inform global
discussion about the emerging field of Internet Studies.
Accordingly, we invite contributions from across the range of
disciplines applied to study of the Internet that address our
thematic questions,
beginning with: can Internet Studies be discerned and demarcated as
a field (or fields) of academic research and scholarship out of the rapidly
growing body of research and scholarship intertwined with the
Internet and the array of human interactions it facilitates? And:
insofar as Internet
Studies can be argued to exist as a field(s) ? what are its defining
characteristics, including, e.g., a distinctive set of objects of
study, research questions, methodologies, a body of findings and
literature recognized as foundational or definitive, ethical
guidelines, professional expectations, and whatever else we may
argue to be necessary, if not sufficient, conditions for an academic
field(s) of study?
Contributions may take one of two forms. One, authors may seek to
develop comprehensive and authoritative overviews of how an
important topos of research on the Internet (e.g., social
interactions, emotion, identity play and development, etc., etc.)
has been studied, important findings, and areas in need of further
research. Two, authors may take a critical perspective on the field
as a whole or any sub-field within this area. Generally, the special
issue will not focus on the presentation of specific research, even
though it might connect well with and reflect upon a broader
synthesis or overview of a larger domain of Internet research. Other
special issues and articles are well suited for the publication of
original research. This issue will be more focused on generating the
most stimulating syntheses of the field ? defining the vitality and
overall state of the field.
Selected contributions will appear in the special issue of New Media
& Society.
Submissions are due to the editors by December 31,
2010. Submissions accepted by the editors will be returned to the
author(s) for any needed
revision by 31 March 2011; final versions will be due back to the
editors by 30 June 2011, followed by an external review process
resulting in final acceptance / rejection / or acceptance with revisions.
Final versions of accepted papers will be due by 1 December 2011.
Authors' Guidelines are available on the New Media & Society website
at <http://newmediaandsociety.com/index.php>: accessing these will
require signing up for a user id and password (also necessary for
any eventual submission to the special issue.) Briefly: submissions
require an abstract, keywords, and a target length of no more than
8,000 words, including notes and references. Documentation is Harvard style.
For further information about our workshops, lectures and this
special journal issue, please feel free to contact either of the editors:
Charles Ess: <mailto:(charles.ess /at/ gmail.com)>(charles.ess /at/ gmail.com)
William Dutton: <mailto:(director /at/ oii.ox.ac.uk)>(director /at/ oii.ox.ac.uk)
