[Commlist] cfp: Digital inequality and automated decision-making workshop and journal special issue

This is a reminder regarding the upcoming deadline for abstract 
submissions for the workshop and journal special issue on digital 
inequality and automated decision-making at RMIT, Melbourne and online 
on *18**July 2022*.

The workshop is convened by Dr Jenny Kennedy, Dr Indigo Holcombe-James, 
Professor Anthony McCosker & Distinguished Professor Julian Thomas, and 
forms part of the upcoming symposium on automated societies delivered by 
the ARC CoE for Automated Decision-Making and Society 
(https://www.admscentre.org.au/event/symposium2022/ ).

*500 word abstracts are due by 14 June 2022, with all details provided 
below. ***

++++++++

*CFP - Digital inequality and automated decision-making*

Workshop - 18th July 2022, Melbourne, Australia and online

https://www.admscentre.org.au/digital-inequality-and-automated-decision-making-workshop/ 



While digital inclusion is not a new research topic, with studies of the 
digital divide, its dynamics, and impacts extending back to the 
mid-1990s, recent events — bushfires, and the COVID-19 pandemic and its 
associated restrictions — have brought it into sharp focus. In fact, 
every move to digitise and automate the services and interactions we 
take for granted in our daily lives increases the potential for digital 
exclusion. These processes multiply problems associated with the 
inability to access, make use of, and afford the digital technologies 
and services required to meaningfully engage with contemporary life 
(Thomas et al., 2021). Restrictions to in-person connections with people 
and services have emphasised the persistent link between social and 
digital inequalities. Those who are unable to navigate platforms for 
social connection or work, new modes of QR access to venues and 
services, or manage their personal vaccination status through linked 
health and identity documentation are literally locked out. Similarly, 
there has been a forced acceleration of digital transformation for many 
institutions, businesses, services, and non-profit organisations. As we 
move further into the new era of pandemics, there is wide recognition 
that, as Ellen Helsper puts it, digital engagement is 'a continuous 
process—a scene of constant struggle' (2021: 1).

Automated systems increasingly mediate decision-making across many 
domains of the digital society, the 'scene of struggle' is widening and 
deepening. Concerns about digital inclusion and exclusion are in this 
way exacerbated by automation. The continued uptake of automated 
decision-making (ADM)—with these decisions in part based on data derived 
from digitally included participants—raises specific questions about the 
consequences of digital exclusion. How does digital inclusion (and, by 
extension, how does digital exclusion) inform how people experience ADM? 
Whose digital practices are informing ADM, and whose are left out? What 
might a focus on digital inclusion and exclusion tell us about how 
institutions can promote responsible, ethical, and inclusive ADM? How 
might machines such as recommender systems consider digitally excluded 
and non-users? And what data models, processes, and capacities does an 
attunement to digital exclusion reveal? With ADM systems barely 
explainable by their creators, we see yet another frontier opening up 
for forms of digital exclusion and inequality.

We are particularly concerned with identifying and thinking through 
questions of digital inclusion and automated decision-making that may 
presently be tangential to dominant fields and debates, and are 
especially keen to hear from scholars working in fields beyond media and 
communications. In doing so, we aim to create a generative space in 
which we can draw out the implications of digital inclusion for broader 
concerns.

*Important dates:*

  * Abstracts due (500 words): 14 June 2022
  * Notification: 21 June 2022
  * Workshop (Melbourne and online): 18th July 2022
  * Full paper due (8000 words): November 2022
  * Special issue publication: TBC

*Guidelines:*

Authors are first invited to submit an abstract of 500 words that states 
the paper’s main argument, methods, and scholarly contribution. The 
abstract should clearly explain how the full submission will contribute 
to the aims of the special issue. Authors should email abstracts and a 
short biography for each author to (jenny.kennedy /at/ rmit.edu.au) 
<mailto:(jenny.kennedy /at/ rmit.edu.au)>, cc’ing 
(indigo.holcombe-james /at/ rmit.edu.au) 
<mailto:(indigo.holcombe-james /at/ rmit.edu.au)>, by 14 June 2022.

Authors of accepted abstracts will be invited to present their work in a 
workshop, held at RMIT, Melbourne and online, on 18th July 2022. 
Following the workshop, attendees will be invited to submit original 
full papers–up to 8000 words in length–for a special issue of [journal 
to be announced shortly]. Full papers will be peer-reviewed, and the 
selection of papers to be published in the special issue will be decided 
according to the journal guidelines.


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