[Commlist] CFP: Global Media and China_Special Issue: China’s Digital Infrastructures: Networks, Systems, Standards

*Global Media and China CFP *
(Follow us at: https://twitter.com/GCHjournal 
<https://twitter.com/GCHjournal>; 
https://www.facebook.com/Global-Media-and-China-110136464998539/ 
<https://www.facebook.com/Global-Media-and-China-110136464998539/>)

**** NO PAYMENTS FROM AUTHORS*
*
*
*Special Issue: China’s Digital Infrastructures: Networks, Systems, 
Standards*
*
*
*Guest Editor: Gabriele de Seta, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of 
Bergen, Norway ((gabriele.seta /at/ uib.no) <mailto:(gabriele.seta /at/ uib.no)>) *
*
*
*Time Schedule:*
*
*
*_—15 May 2022:_ *abstracts (250-300 words)
Submit to **
*Gabriele de Seta *
****
* ((gabriele.seta /at/ uib.no) <mailto:(gabriele.seta /at/ uib.no)>) *
**

*_—15 June 2022:_ *Invasion’s to submit full papers sent to authors

*_—15 October 2022:_ *full paper submission

*—15 January 2023:* peer review reports sent to authors
*
*
*—15 March 2023:* final paper submission to Global Media and China


*Overview: *
*
*

This special issue of /Global Media and China /seeks to chart and 
unravel China’s digital infrastructure by examining how networks, 
systems and standards coalesce in sociotechnical assemblages with 
profound cultural, economic and geopolitical implications. Decades of 
infrastructure studies scholarship have demonstrated the increasingly 
central role played by large technical systems in societies around the 
world (Bratton, 2015; Edwards et al., 2009; Misa et al., 2003; Parks & 
Starosielski, 2015). From the beginning of the reform era, the Chinese 
state has consistently promoted its infrastructure-building achievements 
by connecting them with economic growth, social stability and poverty 
reduction. The success of China’s informational network-building efforts 
(Hong, 2017), resulting in the world’s largest population of internet 
users and a national tech industry challenging the global dominance of 
Silicon Valley, testify to the increasing importance of digital 
infrastructure ‘with Chinese characteristics’ (Stevens, 2019). As of 
2020, the term /xin jijian/, or ‘New Infrastructure’, has become a top 
policy priority earmarking developments related to key domains of 
digital technology, including telecommunication networks, smart cities, 
industrial automation, cloud computing, and energy production 
(Meinhardt, 2020). Two years into the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, digital 
infrastructure remains a key priority for both state and tech 
industries, underpinning experiments in social governance, economic 
resilience and technological innovation (de Seta, 2021).

But what /is /China’s digital infrastructure? How do networks overlap 
and intersect, producing new infrastructural effects or reinforcing 
existing inequalities? Where do large sociotechnical systems emerge and 
which user populations do they enlist? When do practices and protocols 
become standards, reshaping global flows of devices and data? In order 
to answers these questions, we invite contributions from a broad range 
of disciplines including media and communication studies, sociology, 
anthropology, science and technology studies, digital humanities, 
cultural studies, human geography and area studies. This special issue 
revolves around a broad understanding of digital infrastructure that 
ranges from physical and material components (QR codes, 5G stations, 
data centers, surveillance cameras) to software and quantification 
protocols (social apps, fintech, artificial intelligence, credit 
scoring), and from policy imaginaries (New Infrastructure, New Silk 
Road) to industry hypes (smart cities, blockchain, the metaverse). Open 
to historical reviews, contemporary accounts and future speculations, we 
welcome contributions that revisit and respond to concepts and theories 
from infrastructure studies, drawing on empirically driven analyses of 
networks, systems and standards to articulate new critical 
understandings of China’s digital infrastructure. **


*References*

Bratton, B. H. (2015). /The Stack: On software and sovereignty/. MIT Press.

de Seta, G. (2021). Gateways, sieves, and domes: On the infrastructural 
topology of the Chinese stack. /International Journal of Communication/, 
/15/, 2669–2692.

Edwards, P. N., Bowker, G. C., Jackson, S. J., & Williams, R. (2009). 
Introduction: An agenda for infrastructure studies. /Journal of the 
Association for Information Systems/, /10/(5), 364–374.

Hong, Y. (2017). /Networking China: The digital transformation of the 
Chinese economy/. University of Illinois Press.

Meinhardt, C. (2020, June 4). /China bets on “new infrastructure” to 
pull the economy out of post-Covid doldrums/. MERICS.

Misa, T. J., Brey, P., & Feenberg, A. (Eds.). (2003). /Modernity and 
technology/. MIT Press.

Parks, L., & Starosielski, N. (Eds.). (2015). /Signal Traffic: Critical 
Studies of Media Infrastructures/. University of Illinois Press.

Stevens, H. (2019). Digital infrastructure in the Chinese register. 
/Made in China Journal/, /4/(2), 84–89.





---------------
The COMMLIST
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier. Please use it responsibly and wisely.
--
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit http://commlist.org/
--
Before sending a posting request, please always read the guidelines at http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
URL: http://nicocarpentier.net
---------------