[ecrea] CfP Symposium Dis/Connection: Conflicts, Activism and Reciprocity Online and Beyond

The Cultural Matters Group at the Department of Sociology, Uppsala 
University on Sept. 27-28 organizes a symposium called Dis / Connection: 
Conflicts, Activism and Reciprocity Online and Beyond, and we look 
forward to receiving your papers!



Deadline for submissions is June 18, 2018.



The symposium focuses on a fundamental aspect of social relationships, 
namely the idea of connection. We invite abstract submissions on the 
possibilities of connectivity, but also the problems and promises of the 
act of disconnection. Digital networks embedded in everyday lives have 
transformed virtually every aspect of social life ? from intimate 
relations with family and friends to the collective acts of digital 
activism. Digital relations and connections are our starting point for a 
broader discussion of notions of connectivity and how they are 
developing, failing, or simply being reproduced. Therefore, we also 
focus on the idea of disconnection as a voluntary act to take control 
over one?s use of digital technologies, as an act of resistance and of 
saying no to the opaque structures of power and control in the networked 
society. The goal is to further the discussion on the gains, costs and 
possibilities of ethical life in the culture of hyperconnectivity. The 
symposium also aims to address destructive functions of connected 
living, such as surveillance, trolls, selfies, fake news, fake news 
accusations, sexual harassment, click baiting, commercialism, terrorism, 
viruses, spam, and the colonization of private life. In other words, we 
are interested in how connectivity and disconnectivity can give rise to 
and facilitate social inclusion and democratic processes, as well as 
exclusion, isolation and conflict.




Confirmed keynote speaker Adam Fish is a cultural anthropologist and 
senior Lecturer at the Sociology Department at Lancaster University. He 
will give a talk entitled ?Anthropology, Atmosphere, Anthropocene: 
Drones, Disruptive Justice, and the Disruption of the Earth.? The talk 
will include insights from his latest research on the use of drones in 
various contexts: surveillance, environmental protection, and war. Fish 
is the author of Technoliberalism and the end of participatory culture 
in the United States (2017, Palgrave) and After the internet (2017, 
Polity), together with Ramesh Srinivasan, and is currently working on a 
book called Hacker States.


Further speakers to be announced.



Mako Ishizuka, Japanese artist based in Paris, will conduct a 
performance art piece in parallel with the talks and paper sessions. She 
has exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions internationally, 
including France, Japan and the Netherlands. For more info see: 
http://makois.com <http://makois.com/><http://makois.com/>



Papers could address but are not limited to the following themes:



   *   What is ?connectivity? and how can we analyze it?


   *   Sexism, peer pressure and online harassment


   *   Digital activism / hacktivism


   *   Bad connection ? communication networks gone awry


   *   The digital underclass ? outsourced journalists, click farm and 
troll factory workers, and networking refugees


   *   ?Someone is very wrong on the internet? ? risk, edgework, and 
the rise of the internet as a polarized political space


   *   Digital afterlives and post-humanism


   *   Digital intimacies


   *   Online radicalization and extremism


   *   Epistemic enclosures (so called ?Google Bubbles?) and the future 
of representative democracy


   *   The colonization of attention and attention economy


   *   The self promotion video as a technique of the self


   *   1337 h4x0rz


   *   Politicians? tweets, dick picks, inappropriate tagging and other 
downsides of being connected


   *   Analog relationships offline ? embodied relationships between 
humans (and other animals) as a way to opt out of the digital


   *   Voluntary disconnection




Abstract submission and fees: The symposium will be free of charge, 
including coffee and a dinner in the evening of the 27th September. The 
number of participants is limited.



Please submit your abstract to (disconnection /at/ soc.uu.se) 
<mailto:(disconnection /at/ soc.uu.se)><mailto:(disconnection /at/ soc.uu.se) 
<mailto:(disconnection /at/ soc.uu.se)>> together with your name, affiliation 
and contact details. Use the same address for queries, and if you want 
to attend the conference without presenting a paper. Abstracts should 
not exceed 250 words. You will be notified concerning your participation 
in the beginning of July.



Deadline for submissions is June 18, 2018.


We're looking forward to receiving your papers!



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