[ecrea] CfP: spheres – Journal for Digital Cultures #4 "Migration"

Call for Abstracts: spheres #4 „Migration"
http://spheres-journal.org/4-migration/

We are witnessing an acceleration of the deployment of digital 
technologies in border regimes as well as in migratory practices. This 
does not necessarily make borders ‘smarter’, but it points to spiraling 
dynamics between border and migration practices to which digital 
technologies prove central. Technologies deployed for example by 
European countries to manage the so-called “refugee crisis” – from 
fences to the EuroSur drone system – have their reverse: while digital 
networks facilitate surveillance systems, they foster mobility and 
challenge border regimes at the same time. Persisting migration in 
defiance of ever more sophisticated border technologies demonstrate the 
possible detour of control systems. For our fourth issue of spheres we 
invite potential contributers to consider the significance of digital 
technologies for migration and to investigate the relation between 
migratory regimes and practices on the one hand and digital cultures and 
infrastructures on the other.

In which way do systems of big data and border regimes interact? What 
kinds of devices and actors cooperate to guarantee the functioning of 
the complex socio-technical networks of surveillance and control and 
what kinds of processes of orchestration, translation and coordination 
do they necessitate? To what extent do specific identification and 
surveillance technologies reconfigure the power relations between mobile 
subjects and those charged with controlling their mobility. In how far 
does the datafication of migration implicate new problematisations of 
human mobility and its governance? And to what extent can resistant 
practices, such as border hacking, invisible theatre, or tactical media, 
be applied in the current situation?

How do refugees and migrants use and appropriate technologies of 
mobility, such as smart phones, maps and facebook, and develop 
strategies of counter-surveillance to cross borders? To what extent do 
migrant individuals and communities participate in the production and 
transformation of transnational digital networks? How do the 
experiences, histories and everyday practices of migrants moving between 
geographical areas and digital spaces reproduce and challenge cultural 
forms and identities in their environments at home, at their host 
country or in-between? And how do they challenge notions of space, of 
the digital and the geographical? Which role do digital tools play in 
the self-organisation and the organisation of protest of refugees and 
migrants in the countries of arrival? Which digital technologies foster 
forms of empowerment? What is the relation of supporters and refugees 
when fostering public and media spheres to integrate newcomers?

spheres: Journal for Digital Cultures is an open peer-re­view­ed web 
jour­nal associated with the Cent­re for Di­gi­tal Cul­tu­res (CDC) at 
Leu­pha­na Uni­ver­si­ty of Lüne­burg. It is con­cer­ned with 
con­tem­pora­ry, his­to­ri­cal and emer­ging dis­cus­sions about 
di­gi­tal cul­tu­res, thereby ex­plo­ring the theo­re­ti­cal, 
po­li­ti­cal and so­ci­al sta­kes wi­t­hin the­se de­ba­tes as well as 
scrutinising key con­cepts like pu­blic sphe­res, me­dia sphe­res, 
at­mo­s­phe­res and now: spheres of migration.

If you are in­te­rested in cont­ri­bu­ting, plea­se wri­te to 
(editors /at/ spheres-journal.org) <mailto:(editors /at/ spheres-journal.org)> with a 
short ab­stract (up to 500 words). Deadline: 31. July 2016





--
Sascha Simons 
<http://www.leuphana.de/en/university/staff-members/sascha-simons.html>
DCRL Digital Cultures Research Lab
Leuphana University
Am Sande 5
21335 Lüneburg
Twitter <http://twitter.com/DCRLab>
Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/dcrl.leuphana>





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