[Commlist] CfP: Annual Symposium of the Digital Geography Research Group (RGS-IBG) 2025

    Call for Papers


    Annual Symposium of the Digital Geography Research Group, RGS-IBG

19-20 June 2025, online


  Global Digital Geographies: Digitalising the Territorial /
  Territorialising the Digital

The Digital Geography Research Group of RGS-IBG invites submissions for 
its annual symposium 2025 on the theme "Global Digital Geographies: 
Digitalising the Territorial / Territorialising the Digital."

By *global digital geographies*, we aim to foreground two interconnected 
dimensions of the global. First, we engage with geography’s 
long-standing critique of the binary conception of territory and network 
in the context of globalization—a debate that has gained renewed urgency 
and complexity with the advent of digitalisation and information 
technology. Second, we envision this as a global platform for scholarly 
exchange, bringing together diverse perspectives and insights on these 
topics from different regions around the world. With that in mind, the 
online symposium will be organized across three regional sections—Asia, 
Europe, and Africa—to better accommodate global participation.

*Confirmed speakers *

  * Paul C Adams, University of Texas at Austin
  * Azadeh Akbari, University of Twente
  * Jordan Branch, Claremont McKenna College
  * Mirjam de Bruijn, University of Leiden
  * Ayona Datta, University College London
  * Iginio Gagliardone, University of the Witwatersrand
  * Georg Glasze, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität
  * Sam Kinsley, University of Exeter
  * Alexandru-Codru Preda, Lingnan University
  * Norma Möllers — Queen’s University
  * Carwyn Morris, University of Leiden
  * Luke Munn, University of Queensland
  * Jiang Xu, Chinese University of Hong Kong

*Theme and Focus*

In 1998, Stephen Graham (1998) posed a provocative question—/“The End of 
Geography or the Explosion of Place?”/—to explore how flow-oriented 
information and communication technologies (ICTs) challenge our 
conventional understanding of territory. Nearly two decades later, 
Milton Mueller (2017) raised the opposite question—/“Will the Internet 
Fragment?”/—reflecting growing concerns about digital sovereignty and 
state practices of enclosure, fragmentation, and governance.

These contrasting perspectives reveal the non-linear evolution of 
digital geographies—oscillating between flow and fixity, circulation and 
enclosure (Barabasi, 2002; Glasze et al., 2022; Zhang & Morris, 2023). 
While early imaginaries of an open and networked world emphasized 
fluidity and deterritorialization, the recent buzzword "digital 
sovereignty" exemplifies the assertion of nationalist logic of 
territory, wherein geopolitical rivalries, regulatory enclosures, and 
cyber securitization strategies reinforce spatial boundaries even as 
open data movement proliferates (Glasze et al., 2022; Lambach, 2020; 
Schindler et al., 2021).

Studies on digitalising the territorial demonstrate how digital 
technologies transform our society (Van Dijck, 2021; van Dijck et al., 
2018), from socioeconomic relations to material landscapes (Luque-Ayala 
& Neves Maia, 2018; Wang & Tomassetti, 2024). Geospatial technologies 
(Latour et al., 2010; Leszczynski, 2012; Luque-Ayala & Neves Maia, 
2018), drones (Gregory, 2011; Jackman & Brickell, 2021; Yao & Wang, 
2024), and computational mapping practices (Atkins, 2021; Woods et al., 
2024) not only represent but actively produce territories. These 
processes operate as sociotechnical assemblages that reshape ethnical, 
urban, regional, and volumetric spatialities (Adey, 2010; Datta, 2024; 
Yebra López, 2021).

Conversely, territorializing the digital entails examining how states, 
corporations, and communities inscribe territorial logic into digital 
infrastructures, data and prosumer-citizens (Lambach, 2020; Lehdonvirta, 
2022; Möllers, 2021). The digital infrastructures --- from cable and 
data hubs to platforms and prosumer-citizens --- which were initially 
envisioned to support and channel the open flow of data, may 
concurrently serve as the very foundation for embodying the ideas of 
enclosure and demarcation (Lehdonvirta, 2022; Möllers, 2021; Munn, 2023).

Digital geographies are thus not immaterial or abstract but grounded in 
terrestrial politics, the operation of which depends on terrestrial 
resources—metals, energy, and labour—implicated in global extractive 
economies (Latour, 2011). Such an understanding is crucial for unveiling 
the patterns of digital neo-colonialism in the Global South (Fraser, 
2019; Mouton & Burns, 2021; Tait et al., 2022). A better understanding 
of digital-territorial dynamics cannot be achieved through an isolated 
focus on any single region. Instead, it must be situated within a global 
arena, where practices of “digitalising the territorial” and 
“territorializing the digital” across different areas and regions can be 
introduced, discussed, and used to inform conceptual efforts.

This symposium aims to serve as a global platform for such exchanges, 
emphasizing the importance of scholarly dialogue across diverse parts of 
the world. We invite papers that investigate the mutually constitutive 
processes of digitalising the territorial and territorializing the 
digital, as these unfold across different scales and are shaped by a 
variety of actors. Contributions are welcome on, but not limited to, the 
following themes:

  * Digital sovereignty, cybersecurity, and data governance
  * Digital technologies and their re-presentation of territories
  * Digital infrastructures
  * New patterns of territorial development (circulation, logistics, and
    enclosure ) shaped by digitalization
  * Techno-nationalism and digital statecraft on all fronts, from the
    jurisdiction of data and digital infrastructure to citizen-subjects
  * Ontological approaches to digital territories and (geo)politics

**

*Call for contributions*

We are seeking the following types of contributions to the symposium:

  * Individual Paper –please compose your abstracts of *250–300
    words* that outline the paper’s core arguments, methods, and
    contributions. Please include the paper title, author name(s), and
    affiliations.
  * Practice-based Session – An opportunity to showcase innovative and
    alternative approaches. These may be interactive, skills-based,
    practical or workshop-type contributions.
  * Pre-organised Panel/Session – Three to five individual
    papers speaking to a coherent theme concerning digital territories.
    Or combined Practice-based Sessions, run by three to six attendees.
  * Digital shorts – digital shorts are short videos (between 2 and 5
    minutes in length) that introduce, or summarise, an aspect of your
    research. Your recorded video could discuss:
      o Recent research findings
      o An emerging research idea or interest
      o A new or upcoming research output, publication, creative work, etc.
      o Research methodology
      o Approaches to teaching
      o Uses of digital technologies within academia

This format has been deliberately designed to require limited 
preparation, so is ideal for postgraduates, early career researchers, 
those with caring responsibilities, or other commitments. You can view 
examples of digital shorts on theDGRG YouTube channel 
<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfw3yN5P7dduwDJ7z7KH5CA/videos>. For 
accessibility purposes, please provide a transcript when submitting a 
digital short so that your video can be accurately subtitled.

*Deadline for Abstracts/sessions/digital shorts:*             April 14 
2025, Monday
*Notification of Acceptance:*     April 21 2025, Monday
*Symposium Date and Venue:*  19-20 June 2025, online

*Symposium Organising Committee of DGRG*

June Wang, Tess Osborne, Sammia C Poveda Villalba, Adam Packer, Harrison 
Smith, Sam Kinsley, Olivia Fletcher

*Submissions and Inquiries:*

Please submit your abstract to the link below:

https://qualtricsxmn4sh2rv6f.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9YuL5yhVu5fhhyK 
<https://qualtricsxmn4sh2rv6f.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9YuL5yhVu5fhhyK>

Please send questions to (June.wang /at/ cityu.edu.hk) 
<mailto:(June.wang /at/ cityu.edu.hk)>.

For more information, please check the link below:

https://digitalgeographiesrg.org/digital-geographies-research-group-annual-symposium-2025-cfp 
<https://digitalgeographiesrg.org/digital-geographies-research-group-annual-symposium-2025-cfp>

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