[Commlist] CFP ‘openliteracy’ Digital Games, Social Responsibility and Social Innovation Symposium, Perth, Western Australia, September 30 & Oct 1

Please find below the details of our forthcoming Open Literacy symposium 
on Sept 30 & Oct 1 at Curtin in Perth, Western Australia.

*_‘OPEN LITERACY’_*

*_Digital Games, Social Responsibility and Social Innovation_*

/An international Research Symposium at Curtin University, Western 
Australia/

*Background*

**

/ “We cannot stress highly enough the importance of greater public 
understanding /

/of digital information—its use, scale, importance and influence ... /

*Digital literacy should be a fourth pillar of education, *

*alongside reading, writing and maths.*/” /[1] <#_ftn1>**

**

*Curtin University’s Centre for Culture & Technology (CCAT) and Tencent 
are proud to launch the Curtin-Tencent Research Centre*at this 
international research symposium, focusing on digital media and the 
creative economy, with a special emphasis on digital online games.

The event also marks the 20^th anniversary of *Internet Studies at 
Curtin University*. We invite you to join our researchers, including 
*John Hartley,* *Katie Ellis, Tama Leaver, Crystal Abidin* and others, 
and share your work with visitors from China and the world. 
Alternatively, save the date and simply attend the event to participate 
on the day.

*International Keynote Speakers*:

•*Henry Jenkins*(University of Southern California);

•*Zizi Papacharissi*(Illinois-Chicago);

•*Tencent *games executive/developer VP (tba);

•*Mathew Allen//*(Deakin University)––Matt launched Internet Studies at 
Curtin in 1999.

Date: *September 30-October 1, 2019*, prior to the Annual Conference of 
the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR). We are offering this 
event as a *‘satellite conference’ of AoIR*. Scholars will be able to 
break their journey in Perth before heading to Brisbane in time for 
AoIR’s pre-conference day.

With Tencent’s support, we can offer a limited number of *bursaries to 
international and Australian doctoral students and early career 
researchers*. Selected applicants will be offered $500 towards the 
PER-BNE leg of their travel costs, and we will waive our Registration 
fee for presenters.

**

*We invite proposals for papers and presentations on what we are calling 
‘Open Literacy’.*‘Open’ literacy links the domain of digital popular 
culture and entertainment, including video and online games, with that 
of formal knowledge.

At a time when there is increasing tension between large-scale, global 
connectivity on the one hand, and a population marked by division, 
difference and asymmetries of access on the other, it is more urgent 
than ever to extend participation in knowledge and social 
responsibility––science and civics––beyond exclusive institutions and 
restricted professions.

Recent developments in ‘open access’ scholarship, ‘open science’ 
initiatives and ‘open source’ software offer new ways to update Karl 
Popper’s vision of ‘the open society’ for the connected age.

Focusing on the extension of digital capabilities among a broad global 
population via smart devices, apps and digital entertainment to smart 
users, groups and enterprises, we want to explore how opening digital 
knowledge systems to popular participation may boost innovation and 
social inclusion and responsibility.

Many media scholars are sceptical of the ‘mass media effects’ tradition 
of research, inherited from anxiety about earlier forms of popular 
media, from print to broadcasting. At the same time they are mindful 
that public debate about this topic still depends on outmoded industrial 
and individualist theories.

We want to go beyond that paradigm, to understand the challenges of 
digital, online media and the possibilities for renewing knowledge 
systems and social groups in times of technological change and 
geopolitical uncertainty. In short, what do entertainment systems and 
knowledge systems––and their users––have in common?

**

In this context, /‘Open Literacy’ refers to the dynamic combination of 
(i) individual skills, capabilities and creative imagination (developed 
through ‘purposeless’ play-practice) with (ii) the social networks, 
teamwork, conflict management and difference needed in public/media 
environments, to (iii) build new social groups––‘knowledge clubs’ and 
‘knowledge commons’––for social innovation under uncertainty. /Open 
literacy is user-centred and system-wide, producing unforeseen network 
effects that in turn change the rules of the game. Navigating newness 
raises new questions:

•Of what does ‘open literacy’ comprise in the global-digital-connected era?

•How do citizens in different contexts, places and opportunity-spaces 
practice it?

•Open knowledge, open science, open access: what should policymakers, 
educators, arts/literature agencies, sport/exercise bodies and 
commercial entertainment/ leisure providers do about it?

To reflect on these developments and to report on cutting edge research 
linking games, social innovation and social responsibility, the ‘Open 
Literacy’ Research Symposium will be held over two days. Papers and 
presentations––including work by postgraduate and early-career 
researchers––may address (but is not confined to) the following themes.

In the context of pervasive computational and communicational literacy 
in the digital age, presenters will think through the relationships 
among /games, social innovation /and/social responsibility:/

•‘Games’ include digital games and analogue play;

omain focus is on video games, internet and online games;

obut also branded play (Lego/Barbie);

ocompetitive games (sport/health);

ochildhood games (indoor/outdoor play).

•Responsibility includes corporate and individual.

oCorporate: what are the social responsibilities of games developers and 
publishers? What are they doing right or wrong, according to whose criteria?

oIndividual: rights and duties of players and gamers themselves; how 
parents and young people achieve and maintain social responsibility 
through play.

•Responsibility and control:

ohow games work in the production of what Michele Willson calls “the 
ideal child” (/Media Culture Society/, 2018);

ohow can games and other online changes be historicised meaningfully;

opolitical, moral, religious, authoritarian crackdowns on games/popular 
media.

The event will also consider a counter-narrative to the rhetoric of 
responsibility and social innovation through games.

•‘Serious Games’ in medical, health, teaching/learning and development 
contexts.

•Games and innovation:

oExpansion of the creative economy

oGames as a mass spectacle (e.g. Korea).

•What does gaming teach the next generation?

oLessons from China.

The event will include presentations from global thought-leaders, 
scholars and practitioners from the USA, Australia, China and elsewhere. 
Selected postgraduate students will be eligible for financial assistance 
(bursaries) for travel and for the preparation of their papers and 
presentations. The intention is to produce a *published* *report from 
the proceedings* of the day, including selected keynote, specialist and 
early-career (HDR+ECR) contributions.

Potential presenters, please send your *abstract, of between 250-500 
words in length *or *a short paper (1000-3000 words in length)**, to Dr. 
Huan WU,**by April 5, 2019*: (huan.wu /at/ curtin.edu.au) 
<mailto:(huan.wu /at/ curtin.edu.au)>. Queries and correspondence may be 
addressed to the symposium convener, John Hartley. We will confirm 
acceptance during May. For those with institutional support for their 
research outreach, there will be a registration fee to cover venue costs 
and catering. If you wish to attend without presenting a paper, just let 
Huan know.



------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] <#_ftnref1>Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee (14 February 
2019) /Disinformation and ‘fake news’: Final Report. /UK: House of 
Commons, pp. 85; 87 
(https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmcumeds/1791/1791.pdf). 


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