[Commlist] CFP: Continuum ‘The Dark Social: Online Practices of Resistance, Motility and Power’

This is a call for papers for a special edition of/Continuum/‘*The Dark 
Social: **Online Practices of Resistance, Motility and Power’*

The intention of this special edition is to provoke critical examination 
of dark social spaces that are characterised by privacy enhancing 
technologies that might give rise to acts of resistance, division and 
evasion. Frequently, the actors using these technological affordances 
are commonly identified as subcultural groups, activists, marginalised 
cultures and communities, trolls and socially divisive actors who seek 
to evade, refuse or disrupt institutional power. We want to suggest, 
however, that this interpretation creates an artificial binary 
positioning a fringe of radical actors against institutions of 
governance, regulation and control. Similarly, approaches that 
distinguish between social agency and technological affordances 
protecting privacy, on the one hand, and institutional regulation and 
centralised surveillance on the other, do not acknowledge how powerful 
institutional actors use these decentralised technologies to reinforce 
their authority and control.

This special edition seeks to draw on, but push past these binaries to 
create new approaches to darknet and dark social studies. What is dark 
online often connotes moral registers toward what society hides or 
fears. Yet social spaces that are ‘dark’ offer autonomy and relief from 
the ever-lasting digital light in current iterations of capitalisms, 
authoritarianisms and surveillance cultures. A technical rather than 
moral definition of darkness (Gehl 2018) critiques moral determinism and 
opens for exploration those dark social spaces that seek legitimacy by 
offering linked anonymities for reader and publisher, against structural 
surveillance.

Such understandings of ‘dark social’ are in tension with social and 
political theories which argue that for politics and ‘acts’ to matter 
they must appear in the public light. They are also in tension with 
popular narratives of the ‘dark recesses of the web’ which are leveraged 
by structural powers to keep their subjects knowable, in and of the 
clear web. We argue that the binary of dark versus light is challenged 
by the swirling, /brackish /existence of identity, politics, and 
everyday communication practices that modulate between online and 
offline, and being open and obfuscating.

This special edition will focus on the tensions present in what is dark 
and social online, while also considering how practices do not neatly 
fit in a dark/light binary.

We seek papers that offer nuanced theoretical, empirical, creative, 
methodological, and ethical approaches to ‘dark social’ digital 
place[s], power, and practices whether technical, moral, or otherwise. 
The framing we suggest surpasses previous literature to consider the 
practices that exist outside the clear web in ways other than those 
conceived as ‘moral darkness’. Humans and their communications—digital 
or otherwise—do not exist in solely transparent space and practice. 
Recognition of these complexities of being ‘online’ is a crucial step to 
explore and critique an age concerned with post-privacy, ubiquitous 
surveillance and authenticity of the message and messenger.

In the context of the above, we seek papers of no more than 6,000 words 
each that might address Issues for darknet and dark social studies 
through a critical lens of:

  * The affordances/implications of online privacy enhancing technologies;
  * Chinese and/or non-western social media platforms;
  * Global Online Surveillance and other State-regulated social media
    platforms;
  * Communication and authenticity online;
  * Socio-cultural/technical acts of online resistance, division and
    evasion.

*Key Dates*:

  * Please send 450-500 word ABSTRACTS by *25th May 2020*to
    <(darksocial2020 /at/ gmail.com)>
      o Include the name(s) of the author(s);
      o The affiliation(s) and address(es) of the author(s);
      o The e-mail address, and telephone number(s) of the corresponding
        author:
  * FIRST DRAFT SUBMISSION:*26th November 2020*
  * REVISION DEADLINE:*April 2021*
  * PUBLICATION: *June 2021*

/Guest editors: Toija Cinque (Deakin University), Robert W. Gehl 
(Louisiana Tech University) and Alexia Maddox (Deakin University)/


---------------
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
---------------