[ecrea] CFP: Special Issue of "Convergence": Digital Culture Meets Data: Critical Perspectives

Call for Papers

Digital Culture Meets Data: Critical Perspectives

Special Issue of Convergence: The International Journal of Research into 
New Media Technologies

Guest Editors: Aristea Fotopoulou (University of Brighton) and Helen
Thornham (University of Leeds)

Algorithms and big data shape our sociocultural and technical relations 
and our everyday experiences. Considerations of data, algorithms and 
infrastructure are now central to our critical perspectives on, and 
approaches to digital culture. The ‘data logical turn’ has been talked 
about as a necessary critical consideration for digital culture, not 
least because communication, media infrastructures, practices and social 
environments become increasingly ‘datafied'. But what does this turn to 
data mean for our research, scholarship and pedagogic practice? What 
does it mean for broader epistemological and ontological frameworks? Has 
the data paradigm arrived as an unquestionable unifying concept for 
studies of digital culture and digital media, communication, technology? 
It may be that a shift of focus on algorithms and data is fundamentally 
disruptive to the ways in which we see our research and disciplines. It 
may even appear to limit the theoretical and methodological tools 
through which we increasingly try to understand mediation, the formation 
of identity, social life, politics and the creative industries. To 
others, the data logical turn may be plainly repeating the processes of 
earlier instances of technological innovation. And for some, it may 
provide an opportunity to frame new theoretical concepts and 
methodological tools for a whole new set of social, cultural and 
political phenomena.

The focus of this special issue emerges from the ECREA conference of 
late 2017 and is motivated by conceptual and critical questions about 
the relationship between digital culture and data. We ask:  What 
theoretical and empirical perspectives on data and digital culture can 
be used to augment and diversify our research and educational 
approaches? How might we challenge data paradigms or aim to show 
alternative or complementary ways to address digital culture and 
communication?

We invite contributions that critically engage with digital culture and 
data specifically in relation to research, scholarship and pedagogic 
practice. We invite contributions that include (but are not reduced to) 
the following Themes:

§  Media studies and datafication
§  Researching media and culture using data methods
§  Data visualisation, art and design
§  Data cultures and neoliberalism
§  Data activism and citizen engagement
§  Data literacy
§  Data and audiences
§  Data and gender, race, class inequalities
§  Datafication and the creative industries
§  Feminist approaches to data
§  Machine learning and AI
§  Data and the body
§  Smart cities, data and sustainability
§  Social bots and the management of sociality

Articles should be in the range of 6000­- 8000 words (including all 
references). Please send a 500-word abstract and a 100-word biography to 
the editors: (A.Fotopoulou /at/ brighton.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(A.Fotopoulou /at/ brighton.ac.uk)> and (H.Thornham /at/ leeds.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(H.Thornham /at/ leeds.ac.uk)> by 31st August 2018. Authors of accepted 
abstracts will be notified by 1st October 2018. Full papers will be 
submitted 1st December 2018 and will undergo peer review following the 
usual procedures of the journal. The invitation to submit a full article 
does not guarantee acceptance into the special issue. The Special Issue 
will be out in 2020, and in time for REF.

Brief Bio of Guest Editors:

Dr. Aristea Fotopoulou is Principal Lecturer in Media and Communications 
at the University of Brighton, where she leads the MA Digital Media, 
Culture & Society. Her research focuses on critical aspects of digital 
and emerging technologies, with current emphasis on critical data 
literacy, digital health, and AI. She serves as Chair of the European 
Communication Research & Education Association (ECREA) Digital Culture 
and Communication Section. Publications include:

Fotopoulou, A. (forthcoming) Data practices, gender and citizenship. In 
Stephansen, H. and Trere, E. (eds) Citizen Media and Practice. Taylor & 
Francis/Routledge: Oxford.
Fotopoulou, A. (2018) From networked to quantified self: Self-tracking 
and the moral economy of data sharing. In Papacharissi, Z. (ed.) A 
Networked Self: Platforms, Stories, Connections. New York: Routledge.
Fotopoulou, A. (forthcoming) Citizen Media and Gender. In Baker, M., 
Blaagaard, B. and Pérez-González, L. (eds) The Routledge Encyclopedia of 
Citizen Media. New York: Routledge.
Fotopoulou, A. (2017) Feminist activism and digital networks: between 
empowerment and vulnerability, Palgrave Studies in Communication for 
Social Change, Palgrave MacMillan. (monograph).
Fotopoulou, A. and O'Riordan, K. (2016) Training to self-care: Fitness 
tracking and the knowledge-able consumer. Health Sociology Review.
Fotopoulou, A. and Couldry, N., (2015) Telling the story of the stories: 
online content curation and digital engagement. Information, 
Communication & Society, 18(2), pp.235-249.

Dr.Helen Thornham is an Associate Professor of Digital Cultures at Leeds 
University and has published widely on the social and cultural 
transformations of digital technologies. Her interdisciplinary work has 
been funded across RCUK,
including AHRC Knowledge Infusion Grant (AH/H500065/1), EPSRC Community 
and Cultures Network+ (EP/K003585/1), and ESRC Defence, Uncertainty and 
Risk Project (ES/K011170/1).

Publications include:
Thornham, H (2018 forthcoming) Gender and Digital Culture: 
Irreconcilability in the Digital. Taylor Francis
Thornham, H & Gómez Cruz (2017) Not Just a Number? NEETS, Data and 
Datalogical Systems. Information, Communication & Society
Thornham, Helen & Maltby, Sarah (2017) ŒBeyond Pseuydonmity¹: The 
socio-technical structure of online military forums. New Media and 
Society DOI 10.117/1461444817707273
Thornham, H & Gómez Cruz (2016) Hackathons, Data and Discourse: 
Convolutions of the data(logical) in Big Data and Society DOI: 
10.1177/2053951716679675
Thornham, Helen & Maltby, Sarah (2016) The Digital Mundane and the 
Military Media, Culture and Society DOI:
10.1177/0163443716646173
Thornham, Helen & Gómez Cruz, Edgar (2016) [Im]mobility in the Age of 
[im]mobile phones: young NEETs and digital practices. New Media and 
Society DOI: 10.1177/1461444816643430


---------------
The COMMLIST
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier. Please
use it responsibly and wisely.
--
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit http://commlist.org/
--
Before sending a posting request, please always read the guidelines at
http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
URL: http://nicocarpentier.net
---------------