[Commlist] CFP Essachess / n° 1(33)/ 2024: Digital Methods and Fields: Feminist Perspectives

ESSACHESS – Journal for Communication Studies is excited to announce
the launch of the Call for Papers for its July 2024 issue (n° 1(33)/ 
2024) on Digital Methods and Fields: Feminist Perspectives
The complete call is available here: 
http://essachess.com/index.php/jcs/announcement/view/38 
<http://essachess.com/index.php/jcs/announcement/view/38>
Guest editors: Audrey BANEYX, Research Engineer, Médialab, Sciences Po, 
France,(audrey.baneyx /at/ sciencespo.fr) 
<mailto:(audrey.baneyx /at/ sciencespo.fr)> ; Hélène BOURDELOIE, Associate 
professor, CIS (CNRS) & LabSIC, Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, France, 
Helene.Bourdeloie@univ-Paris13.f 
<mailto:(Helene.Bourdeloie /at/ univ-Paris13.fr)>r; Mélanie LALLET, Associate 
professor, UCO Nantes, Arènes, CHUS & Irméccen, France, 
(melanie.lallet /at/ yahoo.fr) <mailto:(melanie.lallet /at/ yahoo.fr)>

Important Deadlines
November 10, 2023: submission of the proposal in the form of an extended 
abstract of maximum 2 pages. The proposal must include a list of recent 
references and 5 keywords
November 30, 2023: acceptance of the proposal
February 15, 2024: full paper submission
March 30, 2024: reviewer’s comments to be communicated to authors
April 30, 2024: submission of paper with final revisions (after revisions)
July 2024: journal publication

Full papers should be between 6,000-8,000 words in length. Papers may be 
submitted in English or French. The abstracts should be in English or 
French as well (150-200 words) followed by 5 keywords. Please provide 
the full names, affiliations, and e-mail addresses of all authors, 
indicating the contact author.

Papers, and any queries, should be sent to: (essachess /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(essachess /at/ gmail.com)>
No payment from the authors will be required.

CALL FOR PAPERS

The digital, at once instrument, method, field and object of research 
(Bourdeloie, 2013) renews the methods and methodologies of the social 
sciences (Millette /et al/., 2020). When combined with a feminist 
perspective, it also has the potential to undermine the gender "system", 
starting from the idea that science and the techniques that underpin it 
are not “pure”. The calculations involved are not neutral, and the 
massive amounts of data collected are no guarantee of objectivity 
(Venturini /et al./, 2014). The methodologies used have "political 
consequences" (Proulx, 2020). A "political and epistemic gaze" (/Ibid/.) 
on methods and methodologies sheds light on the conditions of data 
production, collection and analysis, in other words, on the "impure" and 
situated nature of knowledge (Harding, 1991). Interrogating methods and 
methodologies from a feminist position therefore means paying particular 
attention to the biases that preside over the production and 
interpretation of data, and turning these biases into heuristic and 
epistemic resources with a view to producing more "objective" research 
(/Ibid/.).

Digital technology, no longer as a method or tool but this time 
considered as an environment, blurs the boundaries of gender. Computer 
sciences, and today artificial intelligence, denounced as the "new 
engineering of power" (Crawford, 2021), are imbued with gender biases 
infused into the social body. From design to use, gender norms circulate 
in productions, traces, discourses and practices. The aim is to examine 
the new challenges posed by statistics and massive data to gender and 
the observation of this social relationship. Challenges are indeed posed 
in terms of method, as digital technology opens up new possibilities. 
Following on from work on feminist epistemology (Haraway, 2007; Harding, 
1991), the aim of this call for proposals is to ask whether feminist 
research^1  can enrich digital methods (Hesse-Biber, 2012), promote more 
inclusive approaches, escape the gender biases to which conventional 
methodologies expose themselves, escape the binarity of technical and 
investigative devices, make the identification of these biases a source 
of reflexivity, and make visible the words of gender and sexual 
minorities in data processing. Finally, from a critical perspective, we 
will also ask whether, in response to the concentration brought about by 
the Internet giants, other alternative forms of organization are 
possible (Dulong de Rosnay and Musiani, 2020).

Proposed themes

Theme 1. Mixed, interdisciplinary methods and "online/offline" articulation

This topic focuses on work that articulates several methods, disciplines 
and levels of analysis, within the framework of a feminist perspective 
applied to the digital.

Firstly, we wish to discuss the relevance of using mixed methods, which 
articulate elements borrowed from quantitative and qualitative 
approaches. We look forward to receiving proposals presenting 
methodological considerations or fieldwork that transcend the 
traditional divide between the qualitative and the quantitative. 
Epistemological approaches aimed at defining the boundaries, 
contributions and limits of mixed methods in feminist digital studies 
are also welcome. As an example, we can cite the use of network analysis 
to obtain a targeted corpus which size is no longer an obstacle to 
qualitative study, used by Julien Mésangeau and Céline Morin in their 
analysis of the social activity of the manosphere on YouTube (Mésangeau 
and Morin, 2021). Virginie Julliard's study of the structuring of the 
anti-gender mobilization on Twitter, coupled with the study of the 
circulation of images and a semiotic approach, is another example of a 
possible combination (Julliard, 2022). The inter- and 
multidisciplinarity of the methods used can also be problematized. 
Gender studies, like digital media analysis, take place in a context of 
strong interdisciplinarity within the social sciences. This area will 
welcome proposals that address research carried out in inter- or 
multidisciplinary contexts, as well as reflections on how disciplinary 
divisions impact our understanding of the phenomena under study. 
Confrontation and discussion of models may also aim at identifying blind 
spots. In his computer science thesis, Nick Doty (2020) uses an 
interdisciplinary approach that combines ethnographic work with the use 
of statistical and computer science methods, to address the question of 
gender inequalities (among others) in participation in the development 
of Internet standards affecting privacy.

Lastly, proposals may address the articulation between digital and 
"offline" methods for apprehending online phenomena^2 . The intention 
here is to highlight work that uses face-to-face social science survey 
methods (such as in-depth interviews, /in situ/observation, user 
observation research, focus groups, etc.) alongside digital fieldwork. 
In this way, we hope to go beyond the common-sense opposition between 
digital practices and "real life", while reflecting on how the online 
phenomena observed make sense within the framework of a wider social 
reality. For example, one possible investigative approach to identifying 
the relevant online spaces to study in order to understand the uses of a 
community consists in starting from the practices described by 
interviewees in different circles of sociability on the field 
(interrelational network, associations, etc.). This was the choice made 
by Lucie Delias and Mélanie Lallet in their study of online information 
practices around transidentity (Lallet and Delias, 2018; Delias and 
Lallet, 2019). In her thesis on the conditions of production and 
circulation of "online/offline" discourses produced by the #NousToutes 
movement, which fights against sexist and sexual violences, Irène 
Despontin Lefèvre (2022) also articulates online observation of the 
digital platforms used by the collective with an ethnographic approach 
combining on site observations and interviews.

Regardless of the chosen angle, the authors are particularly encouraged 
to implement a reflexive approach, questioning the interest of the 
articulations proposed as well as the modes of data collection and 
analysis developed to correspond to their research objectives.

Theme 2. What contribution does feminist epistemology make to digital 
methods?

The humanities and social sciences have debated feminism as an 
epistemology, methodology or method. Debates have focused on how 
feminism might challenge traditional methodologies, and on the possible 
specificity of feminist methods of inquiry (Harding, 1987). While Sandra 
Harding acknowledged that there were no "distinctively feminist" 
methods, she did concede that feminist research gathered its material 
under specific conditions. As Isabelle Clair (2016) writes of the 
relationship to the field, the "nature of the interactions that develop 
in the course of an investigation, as well as the investigator's 
transformation of the lives of others on the field(...) pose numerous 
problems that singularly intersect with the promotion of a feminist 
science" (Clair, 2016, p. 70). This characteristic feminist outlook has 
led several authors to consider that, by focusing on the political, 
feminist research enriches classical methodological approaches and their 
methods (Hesse-Biber, 2012; DeVault and Gross, 2012; Reinharz and 
Kulick, 2007; Bobo, 1989; hooks, 1992), just as it promotes more 
inclusive approaches (Hesse-Biber and Piatelli, 2012, p. 145; 
Chandrashekar, 2020).

Digital technology, as an instrument, method, field and research object 
(Bourdeloie, 2013), has renewed social science methods and methodologies 
(Millette /et al/., 2020). Inspired by standpoint theory, academic 
research has explored whether it can be mobilized, on a methodological 
level, for research on social media (Luka and Millette, 2018); and to 
what extent it is possible to adopt an ethic of care. For instance, the 
work of Jaércio Da Silva (2020) studies the deployment of intersectional 
and related social movements on the web (such as Afrofeminism).

The aim of this focus area is to emphasize the specificities in terms of 
approach, methodology and method posed by feminist, intersectional and 
gender studies. More than a category, an observable or a tool of 
subjectivity, could gender not also constitute an approach, method or 
methodology for observing multiple genders and sexualities? To what 
extent do shifts in observed gender boundaries modify methods and ways 
of conducting research, and vice versa? To what extent does feminist 
research mobilize specific methods for observing mechanisms of social 
differentiation, categorization and hierarchization? And above all, to 
what extent can the digital constitute a method for deploying a feminist 
ethic?

Theme 3. What challenges do big data pose for gender?

  Digital technology and the new dynamics of production, collection and 
analysis of so-called big data pose new challenges to gender (Luka and 
Millette, 2018). Gender becomes problematic when it is used as a 
measurement tool and confused with the notion of sex (Cervulle and 
Quemener, 2014). If, for a long time, quantitative sociology was only 
able to rely on the official recording of the individual's "sex" (de 
Singly, 2012) and limit itself to collecting and analyzing gendered 
data, more and more surveys are deploying new devices to meet challenges 
more in line with complex, individual realities. However, from a 
methodological point of view, is it possible, in statistical terms, to 
observe this social relationship, to design new indicators and new 
descriptions? The aim of this section is to examine how - and to what 
extent - massive, qualitative and quantitative data can be used to 
investigate gender-related issues. How can we build quality data and 
tools that are gender-sensitive and escape the binary model? How can we 
think about group logics and particularities? To go beyond the question 
of representativeness and tackle issues of inclusiveness in data and 
models, particularly statistical models, we need to devise an 
appropriate data policy and rework notions of transparency, 
representation, accessibility and ethics. How can we meet this 
challenge? While data availability and accessibility are increasing, it 
is also important to promote the use of existing data to deepen and 
diversify analyses of gender issues. These efforts need to be supported 
by initiatives to promote and raise awareness of gender data among 
research staff, public officials and the general public, so as to 
improve understanding and use of such data.

Finally, are there any attempts to renew methods of data collection and 
analysis linked to the research questions investigated by gender 
studies, in order to better grasp the interweaving of social relations? 
This is, for example, what was proposed by the approach of the 
"Violences et rapports de genre" (Virage) survey conducted in France by 
the Institut national des études démographiques (Ined, 2017; Brown /et 
al./, 2021), which "instituted the foundations of a methodology that 
avoids using  the legal gender categories in the questions put to 
interviewees".

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