[ecrea] CfP - 12th Chinese Internet Research Conference

Call for Papers - 12th Chinese Internet Research Conference (CIRC)
19-21 June 2014

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

ABSTRACTS DUE BY JANUARY 1, 2014

Situated Practices on China's changing Internets:
>From the users of mobile ICTs and Apps to Weibo posters and Social 
Networkers

Website: http://myweb.polyu.edu.hk/~circ12/


Introduction
CIRC was started in 2003, when less than 25 million people had access to 
the Internet in China, to study the impact this new technology might 
have on China's still somewhat isolated society, culture, and politics. 
By July 2013, the Internet in China had grown to almost 600 million 
Chinese Internet users whose activities have influenced Chinese society 
and culture in many different ways. Meanwhile, the CIRC continued to 
investigate and discuss these exciting developments in annual 
conferences held most recently at Peking University (2010), Georgetown 
University (2011), University of Southern California (2012), and the 
University of Oxford (2013).

As an interdisciplinary conference, CIRC has profited from the exchanges 
between researchers from diverse academic and disciplinary traditions, 
as well as the inclusion of experts from outside academia. Academics, 
journalists, market researchers, industry analysts, legal practitioners, 
business leaders and others come together at the conference to discuss 
the latest developments of the Internet in China.

In June 2014, the Chinese Internet Research Conference will return to 
the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, a place both inside and 
outside China, with the world's fastest broadband Internet next to the 
world's most openly censored one. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 
will host CIRC 12 (June 19-21) as well as a related postgraduate student 
pre-conference (June 18 and 19), in the centre of the Hong Kong and just 
45 minutes by train from the physical and digital borders with Mainland 
China.

CIRC 12 wishes to continue the proud tradition of past Chinese Internet 
Research Conferences in challenging researchers to take a fresh look at 
the Chinese Internet by recognizing the complexity of the Chinese 
digital media ecology and focusing on the lived practices of Chinese 
Internet users and the embedding of the Internet into their lives. CIRC 
12 encourages papers that go beyond studies of the interactions between 
netizens and the state to look more closely at the rich variety of 
practices that have evolved on China's digital media platforms in its 
enforced distance from the global Internet.


Some of the many questions papers could address in this context are:
- How are different people in China using their mobile phones or 
computing devices to access networked services, and how is this 
affecting their work, leisure, relationships, families, studies, etc?

- Where and when are people in China accessing the Internet and what is 
it they are accessing?

- How are mobile phones and computing devices affecting businesses and 
the work or study environment in China?

- How do people in China describe 'the Internet' and their online 
practices, as well as their feelings and attitudes towards cyberspace?

- How have individual social networks in China been affected by the rise 
of networked services?

- How has the Internet affected China, and how has China affected the 
Internet?

- How has the Internet affected Chinese culture and vice versa?

- What is Chinese about the Internet in China?

- Who are the users of the Chinese Internet?

- What are the differences, if any, between Internet use in China and 
elsewhere, in particular in different parts of the Chinese-speaking 
world, e.g. Hong Kong, Taiwan, overseas Chinese?

- How do everyday practices on the Chinese Internet intersect with 
discourses - circulating both inside and outside China - on the Internet?

- How are practices on the Chinese internet related to policy?


Paper and Panel Proposals
The organising committee invites proposals for paper presentations or 
panels that address one or more of the questions above or related issues 
concerning the Internet in the Chinese-speaking world. Proposals should 
be written in English and should not exceed 500 words for individual 
papers, or 1000 words for panel proposals. Proposals and enquiries 
should be sent to (circ12 /at/ polyu.edu.hk)


Deadlines
Proposals for panels and papers should be submitted by 1 January, 2014. 
The organising committee will provide feedback on the proposals and full 
versions of the accepted papers of up to 8,000 words including 
references should be prepared by 1 May 2014 and sent via email to the 
organising committee.


Graduate Student Pre-Conference and Paper Competition
CIRC 12 will include a graduate student pre-conference 18-19 June 2014 
that will focus on methodology and ethics of Internet research in the 
People's Republic of China, both of which pose particular problems, 
which are often not discussed in sufficient depth. It is hoped that the 
pre-conference will promote a greater discussion of some of the 
difficulties new researchers face in analysing the Internet in China.

The pre-conference will consist of two master classes and postgraduate 
students are encouraged to submit paper proposals of up to 500 words 
focussing on methodology and/or ethics to the pre-conference, while 
papers for the main conference should focus on thematic issues.
The main conference continues to welcome graduate student papers, and 
submissions FOR THE MAIN CONFERENCE will be considered for CIRC's annual 
graduate student paper competition. Please note that only papers without 
faculty co-authors are eligible for the competition.


Organising Committee
Chair
David Kurt HEROLD, Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Social 
Sciences (APSS), HK Polytechnic University

Members
CHENG Chungtai, Teaching Fellow, APSS, HK Polytechnic University
Rodney CHU, Assistant Professor, APSS, HK Polytechnic University
Alex COCKAIN, Teaching Fellow, APSS, HK Polytechnic University
Patrick LAW, Assistant Professor, APSS, HK Polytechnic University


CIRC Steering Committee
ANG Peng Hwa, Director, Singapore Internet Research Centre, Nanyang 
Technological University, Singapore
William H. DUTTON, Professor of Internet Studies, OII, University of Oxford
HU Yong, Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Communication, 
Peking University
Randy KLUVER, Exec. Director, Global Partnerships and Projects, 
Associate Professor, Department of Communication, Texas A&M University
Monroe PRICE, Director, Center for Global Communication Studies and 
Adjunct Full Professor, Annenberg School of Communication, University of 
Pennsylvania
Jack Linchuan QIU, Associate Professor, School of Journalism and 
Communication, the Chinese University of Hong Kong
Ernest J. WILSON III, Dean and Walter H. Annenberg Chair in 
Communication, USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism
Peter K. YU, Kern Family Chair in Intellectual Property Law, and 
founding director of the Intellectual Property Law Center at Drake 
University Law School





====================
Dr. David Kurt Herold,
Assistant Prof. for Sociology,
APSS - GH325,
HK Polytechnic University,
Hung Hom, Kowloon,
Hong Kong

Tel.: +852-3400 3015
Fax: +852-2773 6558
http://myweb.polyu.edu.hk/~ssherold/
====================

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