CfP: Call for Chapter Abstracts for the Book â??The Internet & Surveillanceâ??
PDF version of CfP:
http://fuchs.uti.at/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/CfP_Internet_Surveillance.pdf
Editors: Christian Fuchs, Kees Boersma, Anders Albrechtslund, Marisol Sandoval
Supported by COST: European Cooperation in
Science and Technology, COST Action Living in
Surveillance Societies (LiSS, IS0807), Working
Group 2: Surveillance Technologies in Practice
Abstract submissions until October 15, 2009
(deadline) to (christian.fuchs /at/ sbg.ac.at)
The overall aim of this collected volume is to
bring together contributions that show how
surveillance works on the Internet and which
risks are connected to Internet surveillance in
general and surveillance connected to â??web
2.0â?? and â??social softwareâ?? in particular.
The publication and publishing process is part
of the COST Action â??Living in Surveillance
Societiesâ?? (LiSS) that is funded by the
European Science Foundation (2009-2012, see
http://w3.cost.esf.org/index.php?id=233&action_number=IS0807
for further information and details) and is a
project by the LiSS working group
â??Surveillance Technologies in Practiceâ??. The
editors are members of this working group.
Routledge has expressed interest in publishing this volume.
The collection of data for organizing
bureaucratic and economic life is inherent in
modern society. At the same time that privacy
has been postulated as important value of modern
society, privacy-threatening surveillance
mechanisms have been structurally implemented
and institutionalized in modern society. This
collected volume explores perspectives on
privacy, surveillance, and the
privacy-surveillance-paradox in relation to the Internet.
Background
Many observers claim that the Internet has been
transformed in the past years from a system that
is primarily oriented on information provision
into a system that is more oriented on
communication and community building. The
notions of â??web 2.0â??, â??social Softwareâ??,
and â??social network(ing) sitesâ?? have emerged
in this context. Web platforms such as
Wikipedia, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Google,
Blogger, Rapidshare, Wordpress, Hi5, Flickr,
Photobucket, Orkut, Skyrock, Twitter, YouPorn,
PornHub, Youku, Orkut, Redtube, Friendster,
Adultfriendfinder, Megavideo, Tagged, Tube8,
Mediafire, Megaupload, Mixi, Livejournal,
LinkedIn, Netlog, ThePirateBay, Orkut, XVideos,
Metacafe, Digg, StudiVZ, etc are said to be
typical for this transformation of the Internet.
No matter if we agree that important
transformations of the Internet have taken place
or not, it is clear that a principle that
underlies such platforms is the massive provision and storage of
personal data that are systematically evaluated,
marketed, and used for targeting users with
advertising. In a world of global economic
competition, economic crisis, and fear of
terrorism after 9/11, especially two kinds of
actors are interested in accessing such personal
data: corporations on the one hand and state
institutions on the other hand. Will the
Internet under the current societal conditions
advance the intensification and extension of
surveillance so that a coercive and totalitarian
surveillance society that George Orwell would
have only thought about in his worst dreams will
emerge or not? Are there counter-tendencies? The
contributions in this book deal with these
topics by elaborating theoretical concepts and
presenting the results of empirical case studies.
We are especially interested in papers that do
not primarily discuss single examples, but
attempt to discuss Internet surveillance from a
broad perspective that takes into account
societal contexts or that embed examples or case
studies into the discussion of societal contexts.
Research Questions
Chapters could for example relate to one or more of the following questions:
* What is electronic surveillance? What are
specific qualities of electronic surveillance on
the Internet? How does Internet surveillance
differ from other forms of surveillance?
* Which theories do we need for thinking about
Internet & surveillance? How important (or how
outdated) are the thoughts by Michel Foucault
and George Orwell for studying surveillance on
the Internet? How suitable are the theories of
thinkers like Max Weber, Karl Marx, Anthony
Giddens, and others for the analysis and
conceptualization of Internet surveillance?
* What is the relationship of privacy and
surveillance in respect to the Internet?
* What is privacy, how should it be defined, and
how does it change in the age of the Internet?
* Is Internet surveillance a form of â??new
surveillanceâ?? (Gary Marx)? What are the
differences and commonalities between Internet
surveillance and concepts such as computer
surveillance, dataveillance (Roger Clarke), the
electronic panopticon (Mark Poster), electronic
surveillance (David Lyon), the panoptic sort
(Oscar H. Gandy), social Taylorism of
surveillance (Frank Webster, Kevin Robins), or
the synopticon (Thomas Mathiesen)?
* What are the normative and ethical implications of Internet & surveillance?
* What is a surveillance society and what is the
role of the Internet in surveillance society?
Should the notions of surveillance and
surveillance society be used as general, neutral
terms or as negative terms? What are the
implications of certain definitions of
surveillance and surveillance society for studying the Internet?
* What does it mean to study Internet &
surveillance critically? What is a critical
theory of Internet surveillance, what are
critical studies of Internet & surveillance?
What are the ontological, epistemological,
methodological, and axiological dimensions of such studies?
* What are central aspects of the political
economy of surveillance on the Internet?
* What is the role of surveillance for â??web
2.0â?? and â??social softwareâ??? How is
surveillance connected with mass
self-communication and communication
power/counter-power (Manuel Castells) in web 2.0?
* What is the role of surveillance on social
networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook?
* How is surveillance used in the Internet
economy? What problems are connected to
surveillance in the Internet economy? What is
the role of surveillance for Internet business models?
* How does targeted advertising work as economic
mechanism for generating profit? What are the
problems that are connected to it?
* Presentation and generalization of case
studies about how specific Internet platforms
(Google, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, etc) or
applications use surveillance and about the connected problems and threats.
* How are terms of use and privacy terms
designed by Internet corporations in order to
enable surveillance? What are the problems and
societal implications connected to such practices?
* How has surveillance on the Internet changed after 9/11?
* Which different legal frameworks for
surveillance on the Internet are there
(international comparison) and how have they changed after 9/11?
* What are the major threats and problems of surveillance on the Internet?
* What is to be done in order to solve the
problems that are connected to surveillance on
the Internet? What is the role of information
policies, data protection, governments,
governance, civil society, and social movements in this respect?
* How do social movements and groups that
struggle against the establishment of a
â??maximum surveillance societyâ?? (Clive Norris
and Gary Armstrong) make use of the Internet for
cyberprotest and cyberactivism?
* How do Internet & society have to be designed
in order to avoid the emergence of a total
surveillance society? Which alternative design
principles for Internet & society are needed in
this context? What is the role of
privacy-enhancing Internet technologies in this context?
* Which Internet surveillance technologies are
there and how can they be systematically classified?
* What is the role of surveillance and
surveillance technologies in Internet-based eGovernment and eGovernance?
Submission of Structured Abstracts:
Please submit structured abstracts for chapter
proposals, short author biography/biographies,
and your contact details (in a word document)
until October 15th, 2009 to Christian Fuchs by
email: (christian.fuchs /at/ sbg.ac.at). The editors
are interested in abstracts for original,
unpublished contributions that have not been
submitted for consideration in journals or other publications.
The abstracts should adhere to the following
structured format and should have approximately 650-900 words.
(1) Purpose
What are the reasons for writing this chapter?
Why is the topic important? What are the aims of
research? What are the research questions?
(2) Approach/Theoretical framework/Design/Methodology
How are the objectives achieved? Include the
main method(s) used for the research [theory
construction is also considered as a method in
this context]. What is the approach to the topic
and what is the theoretical or subject scope of the paper?
(3) Findings
What was found in the course of the work? What
are the main results presented in the chapter?
This will refer to analysis, discussion, or results.
(4) Research limitations/implications (if applicable)
Suggestions for future research and any
identified limitations in the research process.
Implications for academic fields, disciplines, state of the art.
(4) Practical and societal implications (if applicable)
What outcomes and implications for practice,
applications and consequences are identified?
How will the research impact upon society? How
will it influence public attitudes? How could it
inform civil society or public or industry
policy? What changes to human practices should
be made as a result of this research? How might
it affect quality of life? Not all chapters must
necessarily have practical and societal implications.
(5) Originality/value
What is new in the paper? How does it differ
from and go beyond the state of the art in
respective research fields? State the value of
the paper and for whom it is relevant.
Author short biographies should be approximately
200-300 words and contain information on
academic position, institutional affiliation,
research interests and topics, major
publications, projects, networks, affiliations, roles, etc.
Time Schedule
October 15, 2009: deadline for the submission of
structured abstracts of chapter proposals
End of October 2009: notification of authors on
acceptance/decline of proposals; submission of
the overall proposal, abstracts, author data to Routledge
End of November 2009: decision on publication by the publisher
End of September 2010: deadline for the
submission of full chapters (further details will be announced)
End of November 2010: feedback of review comments to the authors
End of December 2010: submission of final versions of chapters
January 2011: submission of final manuscript to the publisher
About the Editors
Christian Fuchs is associate professor for ICTs
and society at the University of Salzburg,
Austria. He is management committee member of
the ESF COST Action Living in Surveillance
Societyâ?? (LiSS) and member of the LiSS working
group â??Surveillance Technologies in
Practiceâ??. Kees Boersma is associate professor
for science and technology studies at Vrije
Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He is
leader of the working group â??Surveillance
Technologies in Practiceâ?? and management
committee member of the ESF Cost Action
â??Living in Surveillance Societiesâ??. Anders
Albrechtslund is assistant professor for
surveillance and ethics at Aalborg University,
Denmark. He is management committee member of
the ESF Cost Action â??Living in Surveillance
Societiesâ?? and member of the LiSS working
group â??Surveillance Technologies in
Practiceâ??. Marisol Sandoval is research
associate at the University of Salzburg,
Austria. She is member of the working group
â??Surveillance Technologies in Practiceâ?? of
the ESF Cost Action â??Living in Surveillance Societiesâ??.
