[Commlist] cfp: Data migration and mobility workshop

/Call for papers/

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*Workshop: *

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*Data Migration and Mobilities: Towards a New Research Agenda*

Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), Tallinn, 8-9 April 2026

Data has long been described as flows, streams, journeys, or transfers — 
metaphors that have provided rich ways of thinking about how information 
circulates. Yet we still know too little about the underlying social 
mechanisms by which data moves, replicates, and transforms across 
contexts. To address this gap, recent studies have started to propose 
new conceptual and methodological frameworks. One line of work 
introduces /data migration/ to understand data movements through 
analogies with human mobility and theories of social transformation 
(Masso et al., 2025). Another develops the notion of /data mobilities/, 
focusing on the mechanisms of replication, proliferation, and 
transformation in data sharing (Kitchin, et al., 2025).

Taken together, these perspectives point to the emergence of a new 
research focus concerned with /how data moves, what frictions and 
paradoxes shape these movements, and how they transform societies/. They 
open crucial questions: How can data be imagined as non-rivalrous and 
frictionless while in practice its circulation is hindered and limited? 
How does the processes of sharing reshape datasets and the social 
realities they represent? When do flows of data empower individuals and 
communities, and when do they entrench inequalities and dependencies? 
How does data migrations/mobilities contribute to state and corporate 
regimes of governance and to the political economy of data and 
facilitate data capitalism?

This workshop seeks to bring these perspectives into dialogue and to 
collectively explore /data migration/ and /data mobilities/ as an 
emerging and shared research agenda. We invite conceptual, 
methodological, and empirical contributions that critically examine the 
paradoxes of how data moves, to explore the transformations it produces 
in governance, social life, and geopolitics, and to debate the 
frameworks and methods needed to understand these dynamics as both 
technical and societal transformations.

*Suggested topics (non-exhaustive)*

  * Socio-technical infrastructures that enable, constrain, or transform
    data migration / mobilities
  * Data imaginaries and the paradoxes of circulation, openness, and 
control
  * The entanglement of data migration with geopolitics, governance, and
    global inequalities
  * Everyday consequences of data mobility for individuals, communities,
    and institutions
  * Analogies and tensions between data migration/mobilities and human
    migration/mobilities
  * Methodological innovations for tracing data migration as a process
    of social transformation

*Submissions*

We welcome abstracts (up to 250 words) that outline ongoing or completed 
research, conceptual work, or case studies. Position papers and 
work-in-progress contributions are also encouraged. *Please submit your 
abstract by 15 October 2025 to *(anu.masso /at/ taltech.ee) 
<mailto:(anu.masso /at/ taltech.ee)>.Authors will be notified of acceptance by 
November 2025.

*Publication*

Selected contributions may be invited for inclusion in a special issue 
or an edited volume (details to be confirmed).

*Organisers*

Anu Masso, Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance & 
DataLab, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia,
(Anu.Masso /at/ taltech.ee) <mailto:(Anu.Masso /at/ taltech.ee)>

Rob Kitchin, Maynooth University Social Science Institute (MUSSI), 
Ireland, (Rob.Kitchin /at/ mu.ie) <mailto:(Rob.Kitchin /at/ mu.ie)>

For questions, please contact either organiser

*References*

Kitchin, R., Davret, J., Kayanan, C. and Mutter, S. (2025) Data 
mobilities: Rethinking the movement and circulation of data. Mobilities. 
https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2025.2481309 
<https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2025.2481309>

Masso, A., Grotto, A. and Lauriault, T. P. (2025). Social Data Migration 
Concept: Analysing Transborder Data Flows in the Post-Industrial 
Economy. /Social Media + Society/, /11/(1). 
https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251320697 
<https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251320697>

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