(Barcelona, 10-11/June/2020)
Manuel Castells The Information Age Trilogy has been one of the most influential works to understand the societal
change in the awake of the digital revolution of the last decades. It is, as Frank Webster (2002: 97) points
out, one of “the most illuminating, imaginative and intellectually rigorous
account of the major features and dynamics of the world today”. The theory of
the network society developed in these books “open[ed] up new perspectives on a
word reconstituting itself around a series of networks strung around the globe
on the basis of advanced communication technologies” (Stalder, 2006: 1).
Indeed, the work of Manuel Castells has influenced a generation of scholars,
shaped a research agenda and has got important repercussions beyond academia
(Bell, 2007).
Yet, more than two decades after the launch of his theory, the network
society and the information age have been developing at a faster pace that
anyone suspected in terms of: socio-technological and economic transformation
(e.g. platform capitalism, sharing economy, robotization, algorithmic driven
society, artificial intelligence and IoT, etc.), power geometries, new
identities and socio-political contestation (e.g. populism, indignados, gilet jaunes, alt-right, technopolitics, buen vivir, #meetoo, LGBTIQ,
black-lives-matters, youth for climate change, etc.) and new geopolitics and
geographies of inequality and power (the rise of China as global power,
multipolarity, the emergence of the Global South, the uneven impact of
environmental crises, etc.).
At the same time, during the last decades a number of theoretical and
epistemological trends have developed or consolidated in the social sciences
that can be read as either influenced by or challenging the Trilogy position.
Among others, the rise of network theories, mobilities paradigm, communication
and power theory, technopolitics, post-colonialism or the relation between
digital societies and nature.
In this regard, as 2021 will mark the 25th anniversary of the
publication of the first volume of Manuel Castells’, it is time to revisit the
trilogy and explore the relevance of Castells’ pioneering work in the light of
the current state of the network society and of the ways to research about it.
Thus, our aim is to gather together scholars from a wide range of disciplines –
Including Castells himself – to engage with the Trilogy and debate on its
contributions, legacies but as well shortcomings and new developments not
envisioned at the time of its launch to try to develop a critical perspective
on future trajectories of the network society and the information age.
We welcome contributions that sympathetically and/or critically engage
with the Trilogy in any theoretical, methodological or empirical topic around
the contemporary developments of the network society. Examples of areas and
themes that we would like to discuss (but are not limited to) are:
- Information, data, datafication and the (new) sources of economic value
- Networks, space-times, economy and society
- Contesting the network society power configurations: politics, social movements and new identities.
- The network society in the world: uneven geographies and geopolitics of the information age.
- The Trilogy of the Network Society in front of the new turns in social sciences.
- The influence on the epistemic communities either geographically (e.g. Latin America, Europe, Asia…) or disciplinary (Sociology, media, geography, STS…)
Important dates
23/06/2019 →Abstract submission. 500 words + up to 5 keywords. Submit your proposals
to netsociety@uoc.edu
23/07/2019 →Communication of abstract acceptance
20/3/2020 →Full paper submission: 5.000 – 8.000 words (mandatory). Papers
will be the basis for the comments and discussion during the workshop. They
will be submitted to a special issue / edited book
Confirmed keynote speakers:
Prof. Fernando Calderón (FLACSO, Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias
Sociales, Universidad Nacional San Martín Argentina)
The workshop is free of charge. Food will be provided at the conference
for presenters. Accommodation and transportation are not included.
The workshop presentations should be the basis for a special issue in an
international peer-review journal by 2021 to discuss the work of Manuel
Castells in the 25th anniversary of the launch of the first volume.
Organization Committee (IN3 - Open Unversity of Catalonia)
Mireia Fernández-Ardèvol
Ramon Ribera-Fumaz
David Megías
Organization
This workshop is organized by the IN3 – Internet Interdisciplinary Institute, Open University of Catalonia. The workshop constitutes a central
part of the IN3’s 20th anniversary.
Further info and queries: netsociety@uoc.edu
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario