[ecrea] CFP: Strategic Narratives of Technology and Africa

*** For detailed submission guidelines and more information, please see 
the conference website. For queries, please email Cátia Jardim at 
(snta-admin /at/ m-iti.org) <mailto:(snta-admin /at/ m-iti.org)> ***

**

*CFP: Strategic Narratives of Technology and Africa 
<http://snta.m-iti.org/>*

September 1-2, 2017

Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute, Funchal, Portugal

Submission deadline: 1 May 2017

*http://snta.m-iti.org/*

**

*Thematic Overview*

In 1884, a group of thirteen European policymakers met to negotiate 
standards for the "effective occupation" of Africa. At the time of this 
now-infamous Berlin Conference, about 10 percent of Africa was under 
European control. By 1914 Europe "controlled" 90 percent of the continent.

In 1987, a little over one hundred years after Berlin, a group of 
technologists from fifteen European countries met on the island of 
Madeira, and in a highly fractious and politicized meeting set standards 
to divide time and radio spectrum, narrowly agreeing on the technical 
specification of the GSM mobile telephone system. At the time less than 
1 percent of Africa was covered by phones. By 2014 mobile "penetration" 
in sub-Saharan Africa was around 80 percent.

Africa was never mentioned in the Madeira meeting. Indeed the UK 
representative described the spread of GSM to people globally, including 
those who "live in the poorest countries on the planet," as an 
"unintended consequence." Yet, mobiles have been described as “the new 
talking drums” (de Bruijn), and a “communication lifeline” (Pew Research 
Center) that will “pave way for huge opportunities” (Financial Times).

Phones have swept through the African continent in the last decade, 
followed by WhatsApp, fiber, and mobile payment systems. As recently as 
2000 Manuel Castells could call Africa "the black hole of the 
information society," but now the World Bank speaks of the "African 
digital renaissance," citing a proliferation of tech hubs and locally 
produced apps. The "Africa Rising" narrative focuses on the peaks of a 
complex terrain with many remarkable innovations and translations, while 
at the same time access is almost wholly owned by Mark Zuckerberg and a 
handful of telcos. In the valleys one government falsely tells its 
activist citizens that it has cracked WhatsApp’s encryption, while 
another restricts the use of Skype, and around the continent mobile 
operators extract the most rent possible from their poorest customers, 
creating new forms of poverty. International funders preach development 
through entrepreneurship, teach tech innovation based on Silicon Valley 
models, and support mobile application development for "strengthening 
social inclusion." Inclusion, though, also means imbrication into a 
global financial information system that is better known for its shocks 
than its comforts, with new forms of micro-lending and mobile cash 
allowing neoliberal financialization of those at the "bottom of the 
pyramid" and in the most rural areas.

**

*The Conference*

The conference brings scholars, technologists, and cultural producers 
together on the island of Madeira: a European territory off the coast of 
Africa, a historical site of mutual entanglement between the Atlantic 
continents, and a point of departure for European expansion. Here we’ll 
strategize ways to revisit, reframe, and recode the future of technology 
on and for the continent. What can African theorists, technologists, and 
cultural producers do to generate alternatives to the influx of 
neocolonial narratives of tech entrepreneurship? Taking as a given that 
Africa is “a variegated site of innovation” (Mavhunga), what are key 
epistemologies and ways of being which are endemic in Africa that should 
be offered to the world through new systems and processes? Technology is 
politics by other means (Latour), even if its agency is generally 
dissimulated. How, then, might we consider anew progressive social and 
political goals and their conjoining with cultures of technical 
creativity already embedded in Africa's diverse contexts of life? How 
might new strategic narratives nurture and promote a vision of the 
continent as a crucible for radical new socio-technical paradigms? How 
can an African information economy avoid the dynamics of the resource 
curse, where connectivity is extractive and exercised upon African 
citizens rather than by and through them? What can Western technologists 
do differently, and what are the spaces for collaboration? This 
conference aims to reinvestigate these relationships and engender dialog 
between African and Western audiences and participants, who should leave 
Madeira equipped with new strategies and new collaborative partnerships.

We are accepting papers, creative works, and technologies that explore 
or demonstrate alternative socio-technical strategies. Contributions 
should be grounded in analysis and move toward synthesis: We hope to 
paint the “art of the [radical] possible” and generate new threads and 
pathways for the development of fresh technologies. We hope that this 
focus on the possible near future will differentiate this event from 
many generative but more phantasmal Afro-futurist speculations. Creative 
works and technologies eligible for consideration may include, but are 
not limited to: software, technical systems (“low” or “hi”), images, 
objects, demos, film/video, poetry, performances, interventions, 
illustration, and more. Works will be selected by jury for an exhibition 
in Funchal, the capital city of Madeira, at the galleries of the Colégio 
dos Jesuitas, a re-purposed 16th century Jesuit compound.

Example themes include:

•Alternative globalist or transnational technologies

•African technical epistemologies

•Activist or political new media

•Re-coding remittances

•Technologies of migration and diaspora

•Technology and race

•Decolonizing ICT4D, Tech4D, and M4D

•Postcolonial computing

•Markets, math, and statistics of domination

•Histories of Africa and global production

•Non-western (or syncretic) applied science

•Anti-extractive technical and financial systems

•Artist’s critical interventions into technology and technical practice

*Guidelines for Paper Submission*

Abstract Submission Deadline: May 1

Authors Notified: May 22

Full Paper Submission Deadline: July 3

Authors Notified: July 24

Final Paper Submission Deadline: August 21

Abstracts of 1,000 - 1,200 words will be accepted for review. These may 
include any additional materials, such as images or tables. The text of 
your abstract must be anonymized for double blind peer review. Each 
abstract will be read by at least three reviewers. After a period of 
three weeks, authors will be notified of rejection, acceptance, or 
request for revision. The ensuing abstract revision period will be three 
weeks.

Full papers must be no more than ten pages (2600 words), exclusive of 
notes and bibliography. Each paper will be read by at least three 
reviewers. After a period of three weeks, authors will be notified of 
acceptance or request for revision. This revision period will also be 
three weeks. Please use the Chicago Manual of Style, latest edition, for 
matters of style, capitalization, spelling, and hyphenation. Citations 
should be Chicago style [Notes and Bibliography]. The Manual can be 
found here: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html.

**

*Guidelines for Creative Work and Technology Submission*

Creative Work and Tech Submission Deadline: May 1

Creators Notified: June 1

We will accept works including (but not limited to) software, technical 
systems (“low” or “hi”), images, objects, demos, film/video, poetry, 
performances, interventions, illustration, and more. Submissions should 
include a description of the project of 500 words or fewer and this 
supplementary submission form, saved as PDF. As appropriate, your 
submission may include an additional PDF of images or plans, or a URL to 
a website or video (under 3 minutes) documentation. The text of your 
abstract or project description must be anonymized for double blind peer 
review. Each description will be read by at least three reviewers.

Note that the conference cannot offer funding to help produce projects 
or to transport them. We will have exhibition space and staff to assist 
with installation; the conference program will include exhibition tours 
and demonstration periods, and we will publish online documentation of 
the exhibitions.

**

*Submission*

Submissions will be done using the /Open Conference System. /You will 
need to create an account with this conference before submitting your 
materials.//Please follow this link to initiate the process: 
http://snta.m-iti.org/index.php/snta/snta/user/account

The submission for both _papers and creative works_ submission is *May 
1, 2017*.


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