[ecrea] Call for Chapters -- Online China: Locating society in online spaces (16 April 2012)

Subject: Call for Chapters -- Online China: Locating society in online 
spaces (16 April 2012)

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*Online China: Locating society in online spaces
*A volume edited by Peter Marolt and David Kurt Herold (proposed for 
Routledge)

The Chinese Internet has emerged as a growing field of research and 
scholars have grown mindful that public spaces and movements in 
cyberspace are intrinsic to understanding social issues that exist 
offline, and /vice versa/. Online and offline spaces are increasingly 
recognized and rendered as interdependent and inseparable dimensions of 
social, political, economic, and cultural activity and their 
interrelationship is driving change across all facets of social life.

In this volume, online and offline China are conceptualised as separate, 
but inter-connected spaces in which human and institutional actors are 
interacting under the gaze of the seemingly monolithic authoritarian 
state. The cyberspaces comprising 'online China' are understood as 
spaces for interaction that influence 'offline China', and can be 
described as augmented spaces that allow their users greater 'freedoms' 
despite ubiquitous control and surveillance of state authorities. 
Individuals, groups, and institutions are creating and shaping spaces 
for thought and action to express ideas, produce shared meanings, engage 
in social interactions, etc, in a blend of online and offline contexts.

The proposed volume seeks to gather contributions that discuss and 
reflect on aspects of the diversity of social and cultural practices 
taking place in online and offline spaces in China. We encourage 
contributors to reflect on how various actors utilize the Internet to 
create and re-create meaningful spaces, institutions and movements in 
their quest to shape their lives, and how these spaces propel or hinder 
the transformation of societal structures. The chapters in the volume 
should strive to deconstruct the notion of the all-powerful and 
monolithic state, while also avoiding to cast Chinese Internet users in 
a primarily 'political' role. Chinese cyberspace is home to many 
different users, groups, events, happenings, movements, artefacts, etc., 
whose goals and purposes are rarely 'political' in a narrow sense -- 
even if they have an effect on politics. In the same way, 'the Chinese 
state' consists of many individuals, groupings, institutions, etc. who 
are often at odds with each other, and have differing views on online 
China. Chinese netizens are faced with contradictory, and ever shifting 
regulations and 'harmonizing' state interventions that require constant 
choices, compromises, and great flexibility, in negotiating the 
boundaries of permissible online and offline behaviour. A 
re-conceptualisation of both online and offline China and their networks 
of relationships will allow for a much deeper understanding of the 
importance of the Internet in today's China (and beyond).

The editors hope to assemble and integrate empirical findings and 
conceptual imaginings of the ways in which 'Online China' invokes the 
re-making of 'Offline China' and how people create new, blended 
socio-cultural spaces in today's China. We particularly welcome, but are 
not limiting ourselves to studies that focus on:

- Groups of Chinese Internet users

- Diversity of online, or online/offline practices

- Diversity in actions/comments/etc. of 'the state'

- Interactions and negotiations among and between Internet users and 
state authorities

- Emerging grassroots and alternative spaces and projects

- Thoughts on how to detect and analyze such spaces and projects -- as 
they tend to be small-scale, often invoking 'only' incremental, 
happenstance or transient transformations

- Other studies that showcase the richness and diversity of Chinese 
cyberspaces

We also invite submissions that provide an explicit comparative 
perspective or that elaborate on how organically grown initiatives, 
movements, or institutions are using online and offline spaces to inform 
urban planning, policy, laws and governance.

If you would like to contribute to this volume, *please contact one (or 
both) of the editors.*

*Important dates:*

16 April 2012 Submission of *500 word* abstracts for a chapter proposal

4 May 2012 Decision of the editors

20 August 2012 Submission of full chapters

Dr. Peter Marolt

Research Fellow

Asia Research Institute

National University of Singapore

Singapore

(marolt /at/ nus.edu.sg) <mailto:(marolt /at/ nus.edu.sg)>

	

Dr. David Kurt Herold

Lecturer for Sociology

Department of Applied Social Sciences

HK Polytechnic University

Hong Kong

(ssherold /at/ polyu.edu.hk) <mailto:(ssherold /at/ polyu.edu.hk)>