[Commlist] CFP for the Special Issue in Mobile Media & Communication focusing on “COVID-19 Now and Then

Call for papers for a special issue of/Mobile Media & Communication/, 
vol. 11, no. 2 (May 2023)*COVID-19 Now and Then: Reflections on Mobile 
Communication and the Pandemic* 
<https://journals.sagepub.com/pb-assets/CFP%20MMC%20Special%20Issue%20Covid-19%20Now%20and%20Then-1622223587.pdf>*.*

Editors:

*Adriana de Souza e Silva*((aasilva /at/ ncsu.edu) <mailto:(aasilva /at/ ncsu.edu)>)

Professor of Communication, North Carolina State University

*Mai Nou Xiong-Gum*((mnxiong.gum /at/ furman.edu) <mailto:(mnxiong.gum /at/ furman.edu)>)

Assistant Professor of Communication, Furman University

Although our history with pandemics is long, our collective memory of 
pandemics is short. The 1918 influenza pandemic, for example, infected 
almost a third of the world’s population and claimed more than 100 
million lives, and yet it has been scarcely mentioned afterwards 
(Crosby, 2003). This tendency to forget lessons learned from pandemics 
is problematic because it leads to the lack of proper public funds 
allocation for scientific research, public health, and pandemic 
preparedness. In addition, with the urge to go back to “normal,” we 
might forget important lessons that a large-scale public health crisis 
might have taught us about the way we communicate and experience spaces. 
Understanding these lessons is especially important to mobile 
communication scholars since mobile communication can distribute and 
diffract our ability to move in the world. Mobile communication can make 
our movements legible, as in the examples of contact-tracing apps or of 
aggregating location data to visualize mobility patterns at the 
individual and the community level (Ekong et al., 2020).

Our experience of spaces, mediated by mobile communication devices, has 
also drastically changed with the pandemic. While the traditionally 
mobile global elites (Castells, 2000) are privileged enough to become 
immobile and work remotely, many low-income populations with limited 
access to technology or the infrastructure that supports mobile 
communication are forced to keep moving in order to work or to find 
access to these infrastructures. Noticeably, refugees and migrants, as 
well as low-income communities in rural or “less developed” areas in the 
Global North and South, developed creative forms of mobility to deal 
with the required immobility imposed by the pandemic (de Souza e Silva & 
Xiong-Gum, 2020). For example, for many people with no computer or 
internet connection at home, their mobile phone became the most 
important instrument for mobile work, connecting from home, reaching out 
to clients, taking orders, and paying bills. Mobile phones became 
systematically used as interfaces for tele-medicine, locate testing 
sites, and contact-tracing. For those who shelter in place, mobile 
applications that support delivery services for food or grocery items 
play a critical role in the continued circulation of goods in the 
growing of a mobile-guided gig economy. In locations without access to 
mobile communication such as signal “dead zones,” people have to travel 
to engage in mobile communication and in locations where others cannot 
travel, mobilities are outsourced. As a result, a network of mobilities 
emerge as our mobile capabilities inform our mobile communication 
capabilities and vice versa.

The COVID-19 pandemic may soon be over, but we know it won’t be the last 
one. Preparing for the next pandemic includes understanding the past and 
planning for the future. It also includes rethinking “normal” ways of 
interacting with others and the spaces in which we live. What else have 
we learned during this time of forced immobility that might challenge 
the traditional roles of mobile communication in our everyday lives? 
Will the way we experience public and domestic spaces via mobile 
technologies change? What are some of the more sustainable futures of 
urban networked mobility? How can we rethink the meanings of social 
interaction while immobile and at distance? And, will some of these 
shifts permanently stay with us and change how we communicate, play, and 
socialize? These are just some questions that emerge when we consider 
the future of mobile communication and networked urban mobility after 
COVID-19.

In this special issue, we are looking for future oriented pieces that 
analyze how the pandemic has shaped and changed our mobile 
communication, sociability and networked urban mobility practices around 
the world. We welcome papers that might take the lessons learned during 
this pandemic and consider how these lessons can help us in the future. 
We particularly welcome contributions that analyze the impacts of the 
pandemic in the practices of minoritized populations, especially in the 
Global South.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

  * The future of urban networked mobility in both Global North and South
  * The shift to more sustainable forms of micromobiity, particularly
    focusing on the integration between transportation and mobile apps
  * New forms of experiencing urban and public spaces via mobile
    technologies that take into account active mobility and walking
  * The mobile-guided gig economy for delivery of services
  * The development of location-based apps that can help us prepare for
    the next pandemic
  * The future of contact-tracing apps, and their relationship with
    privacy and surveillance
  * The shift in the nature of hybrid spaces from urban to domestic spaces
  * The role of mobile augmented-reality and mobile videoconferencing
    for remote work
  * The role of mobile communication in helping low-income and
    minoritized communities

Submitted articles can come from various theoretical and methodological 
perspectives, as long as they engage with mobile communication 
scholarship and focus on the future and lessons learned from the 
pandemic from a mobile media and communication perspective.

*Important dates:*

  * Extended abstracts submission (1,000 words): 30 August, 2021
  * Full papers submission (8,000 words): 1 March, 2022
  * Final acceptance: 15 January, 2023

*Guidelines:*

Please submit an extended abstract of no more than 1,000 words 
(including references) that states the paper’s main argument, 
contribution, and takeaway. The abstract should clearly explain how the 
full submission will contribute to the aims of this special issue. 
Please email extended abstracts (tocovid19nowandthen /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(covid19nowandthen /at/ gmail.com)>by 30 August 2021. Abstracts should 
be accompanied by a short biography for each author (approx. 200 words). 
Also, include the names, titles, and contact information for 2-3 
suggested reviewers.

Positively reviewed abstracts (notification by 15 October 2021) will be 
invited to submit full articles by 1 March 2022, 
throughhttp://mmc.sagepub.com <http://mmc.sagepub.com>. Invited 
submissions will undergo a blind peer-review process following the usual 
procedures of/Mobile Media & Communication/. The special section will be 
published in Volume 11, no. 2 of/Mobile Media & Communication/in May 
2023. Please note that manuscripts must conform to the guidelines for 
Mobile Media & Communication. In case of further questions, please 
contact the guest editors.

*References:*

  * Castells, M. (2000). /The Rise of the Network Society/. Blackwell.

  * Crosby, A. W. (2003). /America's forgotten pandemic: the influenza
    of 1918/. Cambridge University Press.
  * de Souza e Silva, A., & Xiong-Gum, M. N. (2020). Mobile Networked
    Creativity: Developing a theoretical framework for understanding
    creativity as survival. /Communication Theory/.
  * Ekong, I., Chukwu, E., & Chukwu, M. (2020). COVID-19 Mobile
    Positioning Data Contact Tracing and Patient Privacy Regulations.
    /JMIR MHealth and UHealth/, /8/(4),
    e19139.https://doi.org/10.2196/19139 <https://doi.org/10.2196/19139>

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