Due to the announcement of a public holiday in the UK on 29 April
2011 the conference $B!F(BPlatform Politics$B!G(B at Anglia Ruskin
University, Cambridge UK, which was scheduled to begin on that date,
has had to be rescheduled to 12 & 13 May 2011. The organisers are
happy to announce all the featured speakers are able to attend for
the rescheduled dates. The
<http://www.networkpolitics.org/content/platform-politics-call-papers>call
for papers has been altered accordingly, including a new deadline
for abstract submission of 14 February 2011. For further details
please check the website
<http://www.networkpolitics.org>www.networkpolitics.org or contact
the organisers Joss Hands
<mailto:(joss.hands /at/ anglia.ac.uk)>(joss.hands /at/ anglia.ac.uk) and Jussi
Parikka <mailto:(juss.parikka /at/ anglia.ac.uk)>(juss.parikka /at/ anglia.ac.uk)
The revised call for papers as below.
Platform Politics - Call for Papers
A Multidisciplinary Conference in Cambridge, UK, 12 & 13 May, 2011
Wired recently announced the $B!F(Bdeath$B!G(B of the Web, based on
the premise that platforms are becoming the primary mode of access
to the Internet. Platforms are portals or applications that offer
specific Internet services, frameworks for social interaction, or
interfaces to access other networked communications and information
distribution systems. Additionally the prevalence of mobile
computing and its operating systems, that prioritise Internet access
via $B!F(Bapps$B!G(B not web browsers, is intensifying this
transformation, and this model is now being applied to tablet
computing - and may well soon spread into general computing and
computer mediated communication. These platforms are able to take
advantage of the scale-free architecture of the Internet to built
very large user bases and communities of interest. However, unlike
the world-wide-web, these platforms are often proprietorial, have
closed protocols and operate as a kind of privatised public space.
As such platforms themselves are becoming the object and enabler of
politics, but also new arenas of control. Therefore network politics
can be seen as pertaining not only to the question of content (what
questions, agendas and activities are taken up and promoted as
political?) but also to the role of platforms and apps as political
$B!F(Bobjects$B!G(B that shape the form and the structure of
political mediation.
Such proprietorial platforms as Facebook and Twitter have been used
in the various modes of organization of political events, both on
and offline, and have been discussed with enthusiasm as new tools
for stimulating the democratic process, with electoral campaigns,
and as organising tools to influence public opinion and create
pressure groups. At the same time the proprietorial nature of these
platforms and their role as an integral part of a
$B!F(Bcommunicative capitalism$B!G(B works to create a situation of
great ambiguity and has not gone unnoticed in either network theory
or software development. There is, however, an emerging movement of
software development for activism, and non-proprietorial social
networking, that places at its core the values of openness,
decentralisation and not-for-profit projects - such as Diaspora and
Thimbl - that are emblematic of the alternative political economies
of network politics. So the question of how politics is increasingly
processed through the form of software and hardware design, as well
as the hacking of closed platforms and creation of peer-to-peer
networks, is a pressing one. This conference thus wishes to engage
with the full range of these concerns and to map out the place of
software, hardware and online platforms, as a realm of both control,
but also as opportunity for radical political practices, in the
$B!F(Bdemocratising$B!G(B of democracy, and in the challenge to the
$B!F(Binterpassive$B!G(B political economy of communicative capitalism.
Hence, this conference is interested in such questions as:
$B!|(B What are the platforms on which network politics takes
place and what can we think of as political $B!F(Baction$B!G(B in this context?
$B!|(B What are the particular forms of platform politics and
how can we theorize such forms and practices?
$B!|(B Can we extend critical theory into such new modalities
as media critique through software?
$B!|(B How to think circuit bending, hardware hacking and such
practices as political?
$B!|(B What are the future forms and new conceptualisations of
hacking that merit attention?
$B!|(B Can we really conceive the $B!F(Bopenness$B!G(B of FLOSS
(Free, Libre, Open Source Software) as a genuinely radical practice or
rather another circuit in the production of communicative capital?
$B!|(B Is it too late to $B!F(Bde-monetise$B!G(B social media?
We invite theoretical interventions, empirical papers, as well as
case studies from theorists, practitioners, and activists to engage
with the question of $B!H(Bplatform politics$B!I(B.
Speakers include: Nick Couldry (Goldsmiths College, University of
London), (Michael Goddard (University of Salford), Tim Jordan
(King$B!G(Bs College, University of London), Dmytri Kleiner
(Telekommunisten), Tiziana Terranova (University of Naples,
L$B!G(BOrientale). Also with Greg Elmer (Ryerson University) and
Ganaele Langlois (University of Ontario Institute of Technology)
representing the <http://www.infoscapelab.ca/>Infoscape Research Lab.
Please send your abstracts of up to 400 words by Monday 14 February
2011 to both
organisers:<mailto:(joss.hands /at/ anglia.ac.uk)>(joss.hands /at/ anglia.ac.uk)
and<mailto:(jussi.parikka /at/ anglia.ac.uk)>(jussi.parikka /at/ anglia.ac.uk) -
acceptances will be announced by Tuesday15 February 2011.
This conference is part of the project Exploring New Configurations
of Network Politics, funded by the AHRC and situated at Anglia
Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK. The project$B!G(Bs previous events
have tackled methodological and theoretical questions underpinning
network politics, as well as new object oriented approaches for
interdisciplinary analysis. For more information and to participate
in other aspects of the project please visit
<http://www.networkpolitics.org>http://www.networkpolitics.org
EMERGING EXCELLENCE: In the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2008,
more than 30% of our submissions were rated as 'Internationally
Excellent' or 'World-leading'.
Among the academic disciplines now rated 'World-leading' are Allied
Health Professions Art English Language Geography & Environmental
Studies; History; Music; Psychology; and Social Work & Social Policy
& Administration.
Visit www.anglia.ac.uk/rae for more information.
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