Archive for March 2023

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[Commlist] CfC: Digital Commons, Social Order and Education. Rebuilding communities and democracy in the digital age.

Mon Mar 06 22:08:01 GMT 2023






Call for Chapters: Digital Commons, Social Order and Education.  Rebuilding communities and democracy in the digital age.

Editors:

Matteo Stocchetti, Arcada University of Applied Science, Finland & Helsinki University

Pekka Buttler, Arcada University of Applied Science, Finland & Hanken School of Economics, Finland

SUMMARY

We are inviting book chapter proposals for a forthcoming edited volume on the significance, future potential and current & future hazards of the digital commons in relation to individuals, communities, social order and democracy.

Our interpretation of ‘digital commons’ is non-exclusive, and is intended to include both well-known categories such as Creative Commons, Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS), Open Data as well as any other approaches focused on the open sharing or non-appropriation of digital material.

We are especially interested in contributions that discuss the role or potential (for good or for evil) of the digital commons for individuals, in connection to communities, in relation to democracy or with regards to questions of the political economy.

The edited volume aims to invigorate discussion around the current and potential roles of the digital commons and hopes to collect both research that is anchored in practice as well as conceptual, novel and radical ideas and approaches.

Hence, we invite proposals from scholars in all fields who wish to contribute to furthering the discussion. We especially encourage proposals that approach the digital commons from a new direction or using novel approaches and look forward to contributions from interdisciplinary and academic–practitioner teams. Case studies that elucidate affordances of the digital commons or illustrate that the digital commons can have wider/societal ramifications are also welcome.

We are currently in discussions to have the edited volume published by a reputable publisher in such a way that the entire result is available open access. However, as this is contingent on the quality of contributions, we cannot yet promise such a result.

BACKGROUND

The increasing individualisation and commercialisation of all things digital does not mean that the public domain would have become irrelevant, on the contrary – now more than ever we need to reinvent the public domain (Murdock, 2005). In short, we need to build a practical, actionable understanding of the digital commons.

Digitalization is significantly changing our everyday lives, but in no other field is its potential for fundamental upheaval greater than in the commons. The digital commons is fundamentally different to the commons’ of old, in that their potential utility is multiplied, while all those characteristics of common access and use of physical property (whether grazing land, communal kitchens or library books) that underlie the ‘tragedy of the commons’  (Hardin, 1968) are mitigated to the point of practical irrelevance.

The digital commons is not only interesting in itself, but also because it and the forms it will take are likely to exert a significant influence on almost every facet of humanity in the digital age. Hence, the potential areas of applicability of considerations regarding the digital commons are myriad.

The digital commons (as a whole) and its constituent elements and practices have not avoided academic interest. On the contrary, we are aware of the debate that, for almost three decades now, has provided many and diverse arguments concerning the technological, economic, educational, social and political aspects and affordances of the digital commons (Levy, 1984; Moglen, 1999; Kollock, 1999; Raymond, 1999; Lessig L. , 2000; Wayner, 2000; Himanen, 2001; Bollier, 2002; Rajani et al., 2003; Greco & Floridi, 2004; Weber, 2004; Lerner & Tirole, 2002&2005; Vainio & Vadén, 2007; Gläser, 2007; Söderberg, 2008; Chopra & Dexter, 2008; Fuster Morell, 2010; Powell, 2016; Husted & Plesner, 2017; Rikap & Lundvall, 2020; Böhm, Schubert, Blind, & et al. 2021; Fuchs 2020 & 2021)

Simultaneously, we think so much has changed in terms of both the maturity of the technological underpinnings of the digital commons, the increasing concerns regarding the concentration of power in closed platforms (e.g. Zuboff, 2019; Lehdonvirta, 2022), the drastically improved abilities of global villagers to partake in the digital commons, the increasing role of the digital in fields such as education (e.g. Stocchetti, 2020) as well as the increasingly antagonistic political macroenvironment, that a broad-spectrum revisiting of the digital commons seems not only fruitful, but very timely.

POTENTIAL TOPICS

The (non-exhaustive) list below contains some of the questions that the editors consider fruitful avenues. If your topic is not on the list, don’t let that stop you from proposing it (or sending an inquiry).

* History: e.g. what are the salient features of the history of the digital commons/FLOSS/OD/OA movement, the ideals and the economics behind it?

* Ideology: e.g. Is there an implicit or ‘applied’ ideology associated with the theory and practices of the digital commons? If yes, what are its features? If not, what is the nature of the ideational/normative structures responsible for the organization of distribution of power in the digital commons-related communities?

* Economics: e.g. what are the main features of the economics of the digital commons? To what extent does digital commons economics challenge mainstream economics? What are, if any, the opportunities and the limitations of this challenge?

* Legal: e.g. What is the current relationship between mainstream legal systems and the digital commons? What kinds of pressures would an expansion of the digital commons exert on the Legal Status Quo? What kind of legislation could support or strengthen the digital commons?

* Political Economy: e.g. What implications would an expansion of the digital commons have for the political economy – on the local, national or international level. How does/could the digital commons influence the field of international political economy?

* Politics and social order: e.g. Is the digital commons commensurate with the capitalist social order, or does the digital commons challenge capitalist social order and how does it do that? Does the digital commons constitute an opportunity for an alternative social order?

* Internal sustainability: e.g. Is the digital commons and the socio-political order associated with it sustainable? What are the challenges associated to their sustainability? What is the role of education to address potential sustainability challenges?

* External sustainability: e.g. What are the potential contributions of the digital commons to furthering economic, environmental and social sustainability? Can the digital commons contribute to sustainability transitions?

* Community (re)building: e.g. To what extent does digital commons -related organizing (e.g. the FLOSS community) serve as a model or offer guidelines for the rebuilding of the community in the ‘liquid’ conditions (Bauman, 2001) of the neoliberal age?

* Privacy & Security: e.g. Do privacy and security concerns pose limitations to the digital commons? How can the digital commons contribute to alleviating current concerns regarding privacy and security of the internet economy?

* Democracy: e.g. How can the digital commons contribute to Democracy? Could the digital commons help address the epistemic dimension (Dahlgren, 2018) of the crises of democracy, and how?

* Pedagogy & Education: e.g. Is there an implicit or even explicit pedagogy in digital commons communities (e.g. FLOSS development)? If yes, what are the distinctive features (assumptions, ideals, implications, etc.) of this pedagogy? If not, what is needed to extrapolate a pedagogy from the experience of learning and social experience of FLOSS development and projects?

* Dissemination: e.g. What (if anything) can the digital commons learn from the experiences made in Open Access publishing? Has Open Access publishing developed any modes of operation that could find utility outside of the field of scholarly dissemination?

SUBMISSION PROCEDURE:

Authors are requested to submit their extended abstracts for consideration to the editors per e-mail by the 16.4.2023. Abstracts should not exceed 2 pages and should contain:

- Author(s) (name(s) and affiliation(s))

- Author-selected keywords

- An abstract of the intended contribution, focusing on

o a description of which aspect (if any) of the digital commons the contribution is concerned with.

o a description of the approach/methods/theories the authors are intending to employ.

o a brief indication (if possible) of the key conclusions/contributions the contribution would make.

o a list of key references.

Authors/teams are expected to understand that by submitting a suggested contribution they are also committing to

- participating in reviewing other chapters in accordance with the collection’s schedule

- conducting revisions in a timely fashion.

Authors/teams are encouraged to proactively contact the editors with any inquiries, requests and significant updates.

IMPORTANT DATES:

* Deadline for abstracts: 16.4

* Communication of acceptances (acceptance of abstract does not guarantee acceptance of paper): (15.5)

* First draft of full paper: 31.7,

* Reviewers comments by: 30.9

* Second draft: beginning of November

INQUIRIES:

PhD, Principal Lecturer Matteo Stocchetti

(matteo.stocchetti /at/ arcada.fi)

D.Sc. (Econ), Researcher Pekka Buttler

(pekka.buttler /at/ arcada.fi)

References

Bauman, Z. (2001). Community: Seeking Safety in an Insecure World. London: Polity.

Bollier, D. (2002). Silent theft: The private plunder of our common wealth. Routledge.

Böhm, M., Schubert, T., Blind, K., & et al for the European Commission, D.-G. f. (2021). The impact of open source software and hardware on technological independence, competitiveness and innovation in the EU economy. Bruxelles: Publications Office of the European Union.

Chopra, S., & Dexter, S. D. (2008). Introduction. In S. Chopra, & S. D. Dexter, Decoding Liberation: The Promise of Free and Open Source Software (pp. xiii-xviii). New York: Routledge.

Dahlgren, P. (2018). Media, knowledge and trust: The deepening epistemic crisis of democracy. Javnost-The Public, 25(1-2), 20-27.

Fuchs, C. (2020). The ethics of the digital commons. Journal of Media Ethics, 35(2), 112-126.

Fuchs, C. (2021). The digital commons and the Digital Public Sphere: How to Advance Digital Democracy Today. Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, 16(1).

Fuster Morell, M. (2010). Governance of online creation communities: Provision of infrastructure for the building of digital commons (Doctoral dissertation).

Gläser, J. (2007). The Social Order of Open Source Software Production. In K. St. Amant, & B. Still, Handbook of Research on Open Source Software. Technological, Economic and Social Perspective. (pp. 168-182). Hershey: Information Science Reference.

Greco, G. M., & Floridi, L. (2004). The tragedy of the digital commons. Ethics and Information Technology, 6(2), 73-81.

Hardin, G. (1968). The tragedy of the commons. Science, 1243-1248.

Himanen, P. (2001). The Hacker Ethic. New York: Random House.

Husted, E., & Plesner, U. (2017). Spaces of open-source politics: Physical and digital conditions for political organization. Organization, vol.24(5), 648-670.

Kollock, P. (1999). The economies of online cooperation. Gifts and public goods in cyberspace. In M. A. Smith, & P. Kollock, Communities in Cyberspace (pp. 219-238). London: Routledge.

Lehdonvirta, V. (2022). Cloud Empires: How Digital Platforms Are Overtaking the State and How We Can Regain Control. MIT Press.

Lerner, J., & Tirole, J. (2002). Some simple economics of open source. The journal of industrial economics, 50(2), 197-234.

Lerner, J., & Tirole, J. (2005). The economics of technology sharing: Open source and beyond. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 19(2), 99-120.

Lessig, L. (1999). Open Code and Open Societies: Values of Internet Governance. Chicago-Kent Law Review 74, 1405.

Lessig, L. (2000). Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace. New York: Basic Books.

Levy, S. (1984). Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press/Doubleday.

Moglen, E. (1999). Anarchism Triumphant: Free Software and the Death of Copyright. First Monday, 4(8).

Murdock, G. (2005). Building the digital commons. In G. F. Lowe, Cultural Dilemmas in Public Service Broadcasting. Göteborg: Nordicom.

Powell, A. (2016). Hacking in the public interest: authority, legitimacy, means, and ends. New Media & Society 18(4), 600–616.

Rajani, N., Rekola, J., & Mielonen, T. (2003). Free as in education: significance of the free/libre and open source software for developing countries. Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, Department for Development Policy.

Raymond, E. S. (1999). The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary. Sebastopol, Calif.: O’Reilly & Associates.

Rikap, C., & Lundvall, B.-Å. (2020). Big Tech, knowledge predation and the implications for development. Innovation and Development, 12(3):389-416.

Stocchetti, M. (2020). The Digital Age and Its Discontents: Critical Reflections in Education (p. 274). Helsinki University Press.

Söderberg, J. (2008). Hacking capitalism: The free and open source software movement. New York: Routledge.

Vainio, N., & Vadén, T. (2007). Free Software Philosophy and Open Source. In K. St. Amant, & B. Still, Handbook of Research on Open Source Software. Technological, Economic, and Social Perspectives (pp. 1-11). Hershey: Information Science Reference.

Wayner, P. (2000). Free for all: How Linux and the free software movement undercut the high-tech titans. New York: Harper Business.

Weber, S. (2004). The Success of Open Source. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Zuboff, S. (2019). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. London: Profile Books.

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