[ecrea] CFP - Cell phones and communities: The use of mobile media in Brazil

SPECIAL ISSUE CALL FOR PAPERS  Cell phones and communities: The use of
mobile media in Brazil
Edited by: Adriana de Souza e Silva (North Carolina State University)&
Isabel Froes (IT University of Copenhagen)
Convergence: The international journal of research into new media
technologies

Important dates: Abstracts: February 15th, 2012 (500 words).
Notification of accepted abstracts: March 15th, 2012.
Full papers: June 15th, 2012 (8000/9000 words).
Notification of accepted papers: September 15th, 2012.

By the second decade of the 21st century, mobile phones have reached
saturation levels in many countries in the world, surpassing the number
of landlines and personal computers. Although initial scholarly interest
on the social use of mobile phones focused on Europe, Asia, and the
United States, the impact of mobile phone on the developing world (or
Global South) is increasingly evident and perhaps much more profound. As
Ling and Horst (2011) note, “the mobile phone has quietly provided
people at the bottom of the income pyramid access to electronically
mediated communication; often for the first time.” For many, the mobile
device is the first phone, the first internet connection, the first TV
set, and the first global positioning system.

Among developing nations, Brazil is a key site for studying the social
dimension of mobile technologies. The country is part of the so-called
BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China), an acronym that refers to
fast-growing developing economies. Brazil is the fastest growing economy
in Latin America, and has over 217 million mobile phones, which
represents an average of 111 working devices per 100 inhabitants . The
country has also experienced one of the fastest mobile phone growth
rates in the world since 2005 (averaging 16.6% annually); is the largest
mobile phone market in Latin America; and is the fifth-largest mobile
market in the world in absolute numbers, with roughly 217 million
subscriptions as of September 2011. However, numbers alone reveal little
if not analyzed within a broader social, cultural, and economic
framework. The focus on a homogeneous large-scale market leads to overly
sanguine perspectives that often obscure how socioeconomic diversity
causes and reflects mobile phone use.

As in many developing countries, Brazil has astounding income gaps among
different sectors of the population which influence and are influenced
by technology development and use. For example, the use of high-end
services such as mobile banking, and location-based services like
Foursquare and Yelp is an intrinsic part of the daily mobile practices
of the high-income population in the country. Conversely, the
lower-income population in Rio de Janeiro is familiar with the diretão—a
mobile phone that allows users to make clandestine calls to anywhere in
the world with the use of an illegal sim card. However, Brazil has also
been at the forefront of an experimental and innovative approach towards
new technologies, forecasted in cultural events that focus on art, music
and film festivals dedicated to new and creative uses of mobile
technologies, such as the Mobilefest and Arte.mov.

Despite this cultural and socio-economic diversity, and the relevance of
its marketing, the social use and development of mobile phones in Brazil
is largely under theorized and poorly studied. With the goal of
contributing to bridge this gap, this special edition invites essays
that critically investigate the inter-relations among mobile
technologies, culture, and social development within the Brazilian
society. Submitted manuscripts are encouraged (but not limited) to focus
on four main areas:

(1) History of mobile phones in Brazil. Essays are encouraged to explore
the development of mobile phones in Brazil, comparing them to the
landline infrastructure and internet growth within the Latin America
socio-economic and political framework. Authors may explore the
development and use of new mobile services, such as the mobile inter(2) Social uses and appropriation of mobile phones. We welcome essays as
empirical or theoretical studies dealing with the use and appropriation
of technology by low-income communities. Of special interest are essays
that explore how mobile and wireless technologies reconfigure the life
of community dwellers and how people find new and unexpected uses for
existing technologies.

(3) Mobile art and games. We invite essays that investigate mobile
phones as artistic and gaming interfaces, including essays that explore
uses of hybrid reality, location-aware and pervasive activities in
educational contexts, media arts, and gaming.

(4) Location-based services. Submitted essays should investigate the
uses and development of location-based services in Brazil, such as
mobile annotation, location-based social networks, and mobile mapping.


Proposed abstracts (500 words) are due by February 15th, 2012. The
authors will be notified about accepted abstracts by March 15th. Those
accepted will be requested to submit full papers by June 15th, 2012.
Full papers will undergo a double blind-review process. Submissions may
be in the form of empirical research studies or theory-building papers
and should be 8000/9000 words in English. Papers must also include a
brief biography of the author(s). Proposals and inquiries should be sent
electronically to Isabel Froes ((icgf /at/ itu.dk)). ( mailto:((icgf /at/ itu.dk)). )


About the editors: Adriana de Souza e Silva is Associate Professor at
the Department of Communication at North Carolina State University
(NCSU), affiliated faculty at the Digital Games Research Center, and
Interim Associate Director of the Communication, Rhetoric and Digital
Media (CRDM) program at NCSU.Dr. de Souza e Silva's research focuses on
how mobile and locative interfaces shape people's interactions with
public spaces and create new forms of sociability. She teaches classes
on mobile technologies, location-based games and internet studies. Dr.
de Souza e Silva is the co-editor (with Daniel M. Sutko) of Digital
Cityscapes—Merging digital and urban playspaces (Peter Lang, 2009), the
co-author (with Eric Gordon) of the book Net-Locality: Why location
matters in a networked world (Blackwell, 2011), and the co-author (with
Jordan Frith) of Mobile interfaces in public spaces: Control, privacy,
and urban sociability (Routledge, 2012).

Isabel Fróes has received her Masters degree from the Interactive
Telecommunications Programme at New York University (NYU) and a
Bachelor’s degree in psychology from Pontifícia Universidade
Católica, Rio de Janeiro, PUC-RJ in Brazil. She is a lecturer at the
IT University of Copenhagen (Denmark), where she works both as a
practitioner and scholar in the fields of communication, mobility, art
and design. With a focus towards valuable interactions between people
and technology, her research analyzes the future implications and
current uses of digital media. In her courses she taps into the value of
interactive elements in every arena and explores how they could affect
the ways new concepts and activities are developed in distinct fields.
She has presented some of these thoughts at various events such as the
AAM conference (2009), and the IXDA South America (2010). She has taught
various courses at Danish institutions such as IT University of
Copenhagen, University of Copenhagen and Kolding School of Design as
well as Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Querétaro in Mexico. Proposals
and inquiries should be sent electronically to Isabel Froes
((icgf /at/ itu.dk)). ( mailto:((icgf /at/ itu.dk)). )
Heather A. Horst
Vice-Chancellors Senior Research Fellow
School of Media and Communication
College of Design and Social Context
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
Building 9.4.39, City Campus
Melbourne Victoria 3001
Australia

Phone: +61 3 9925 3988
Email: (heather.horst /at/ rmit.edu.au)
Web: http://heatherhorst.org





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