[Commlist] cfp: epistemic injustice and higher education in the digital age

Reminder of the Call for papers — Journal of Digital Social Research - 
https://www.jdsr.io/call-for-papers <https://www.jdsr.io/call-for-papers>

EPISTEMIC INJUSTICE AND HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Guest editors- Matteo Stocchetti and Tiina Räisä

Background to this special issue

The notion of epistemic injustice is described in the seminal study by 
Miranda Fricker, Epistemic Injustice, Power and the Ethics of Knowing, 
and the contributions that followed (Anderson, 2012; Kidd, José Medina, 
& Pohlhaus, 2017; Medina, 2011; 2012; Pohlhaus, 2012). With this call 
for a special issue of the Journal of Digital Social Research we want to 
contribute to the development of this approach, extending the heuristic 
potential of ‘epistemic injustice’ to the epistemic effects of 
digitalization and to support democratic education by providing 
professional educators with an intellectual tool to equip future 
generations with the competences and moral inclination, to address the 
epistemic roots of the current ‘crisis’ of democracy (D’Olimpio, 2021). 
There is great potential to this exploration as it suggests, for 
example, that the contemporary concerns with epistemic trust in 
political communication (Dahlgren 2016) pay insufficient attention to 
issues of social power and to the idea that ‘social disadvantage can 
produce unjust epistemic disadvantage’ (Fricker, 2007, p. 2).

At least three arguments in the current debate, point to the key role of 
higher education in the fight against epistemic injustice. First, the 
importance of ‘epistemologies of ignorance’ (Mills, 2007), or the social 
ignorance about the limits of our knowledge that has roots in ‘social 
silences’ (Medina, 2012) and ‘willful hermeneutic ignorance’ (Pohlhaus, 
2012), and that plays a fundamental role in preserving epistemic 
injustice despite e.g. technological progress.

Second, the notion of institutional responsibility in the protection of 
epistemic justice (Anderson, 2012), or the idea that democratic social 
institutions must promote justice also  on epistemic level.

Third, the notion of ‘epistemologies of resistance’ (Medina, 2013) which 
engage with the epistemic level of the social practices fighting 
injustice. To look further into the epistemic dimension of social 
injustice is thus important for deeper understanding of the current 
‘crisis of democracy’ and the possibility of more effective educational 
and pedagogical interventions. Considering the extent to which the 
Internet is an integral part of (especially young) people's daily life, 
and the growing impact of artificial intelligence and machine learning 
in social governance, the impact of new technologies on epistemic 
injustice cannot be ignored. Previous research by the special issue 
editors has focused on the nature of epistemic beliefs (Ståhl, 2019) and 
epistemic authority (Ståhl et al., 2021) among higher education 
students, indicating that a higher level of internet reliance goes hand 
in hand with a view of knowledge as certain, as simply structured and as 
being handed down by authority. Most worryingly, the latter study 
suggests that ‘algorithmic authority’ seems to be a neglected concept.

*WHAT WE SEEK*

The main goal of this special issue is to develop the insights of the 
innovative analysis of Miranda Fricker & colleagues in support of 
democratic education and the responsibility of higher education in 
dealing with the epistemic injustice associated with the processes of 
digitalization in formal education. With this special issue we also seek 
to ‘map’ the approaches to epistemic injustice in the digital age. In 
doing so, however, we are aware of the fundamental problem of 
representation. While a map is a representation of a space that exists 
independently from the map itself, in the task we are setting to 
ourselves, problems and tools exists only and only if they are 
represented. It is the distinctive quality of epistemic injustice – 
every form of injustice depending on ways of knowing – to exist as 
injustice only if and when their existence is revealed by epistemic 
mutations: more or less fundamental changes in the way we experience the 
world.

*The special issue of the Journal of Digital Social Research welcomes 
contributions in form of a) summaries of the state of the art, b) 
preliminary efforts to combine epistemic injustice (EI) with 
digitalization, learning and higher education (HE), c) directions for 
further research aiming about combining EI, digitalization and HE in 
support of epistemic competences and democracy.*

We also welcome contributions dealing with, but not limited to, the 
following themes:

+ The case for applying the EI approach to digitalization and higher 
education.

+ The classical approach to EI: contributions to a ‘history’ of the 
approach itself that could facilitate the identifications of ‘bridges’ 
towards digitalization and higher education.

+ What are the main features (e.g. concepts and problems) of the 
classical and the more recent approaches to the study of epistemic 
injustice.

+ Available ‘explorations’ of EI in the field of digitalization and 
higher education.

+ Empirical exercises: instances in which the EI approach has inspired 
empirical studies.

+ Methodological problems associated with the study of EI and the 
application of this approach to digitalization and higher education.

+ Exploration of the linkage between EI, learning, critical pedagogy, 
Bildung, etc

+ Representation of EI in social media and professional online networks

+ EI and AI: the question of applying EI to AI and related technology 
from the standpoint of higher education: reviews of available study, etc.

+ EI and ‘surveillance capitalism’ a notion discussed in depth by 
Shoshana Zuboff in her work. The linkage between these two notions and 
the debates around them deserve more attention for its critical potential.

WHAT AND HOW TO SUBMIT

We invite researchers to submit an English-language abstract of no more 
than 500 words (without references). The author(s) should email their 
abstract  proposal as a Word file to both (matteo.stocchetti /at/ arcada.fi)  
and meda*_*(epistemic /at/ ad.arcada.fi)

Process and timeline

May 2, 2022: Abstract submission opens.

June 30, 2022: Abstract submission deadline.

Mid-August : Notification of the decision to submit the full manuscript 
to JDSR.

Please note that the initial acceptance of an abstract does not 
guarantee acceptance of the full manuscript. No payment from the authors 
will be required

January 15, 2023: Full manuscript submission deadline.

January – April, 2023: Review process (1-2 rounds).

April, 2023: Decision on manuscripts.

For more information on the Journal of Digital Social Research, please 
visit the journal’s website: https://www.jdsr.io/ <https://www.jdsr.io/> 
and the webpage with this call: 
https://www.jdsr.io/call-for-papers<https://www.jdsr.io/call-for-papers>

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