*CFP* "COVID-19 NOW AND THEN: REFLECTIONS ON MOBILE COMMUNICATION AND THE PANDEMIC", SPECIAL ISSUE, MOBILE MEDIA & COMMUNICATION JOURNAL

In this special issue, Mobile Media & Communication Journal is looking for future oriented pieces that analyze how the pandemic has shaped and changed our mobile communication, sociability and networked urban mobility practices around the world. We welcome papers that might take the lessons learned during this pandemic and consider how these lessons can help us in the future. We particularly welcome contributions that analyze the impacts of the pandemic in the practices of minoritized populations, especially in the Global South.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• The future of urban networked mobility in both Global North and South
• The shift to more sustainable forms of micromobiity, particularly focusing on the integration between transportation and mobile apps
• New forms of experiencing urban and public spaces via mobile technologies that take into account active mobility and walking
• The mobile-guided gig economy for delivery of services
• The development of location-based apps that can help us prepare for the next pandemic
• The future of contact-tracing apps, and their relationship with privacy and surveillance

*CFP* "OPTING OUT OF PANDEMIC DIGITALITIES: DIGITAL DISENGAGEMENT AND COVID-19", EDITED COLLECTION

Emerging from the concept of “digital disengagement” – a framework developed by the editors to examine digital media from the point of disconnection, refusal, and opting out – this book brings into interdisciplinary dialogue two critical key areas of concern in the context of COVID-19. The first one is what we call “pandemic digitalities” – the rapid and extensive increase, reliance and shifts in meaning of digital technologies in the age of COVID-19 and post-COVID futurities across various spheres in science, technology and society: from public health, to education, to politics, to everyday life. The second concerns the politics of refusal, the right and even the viability to opt out of digital technologies, networks, tracing surveillance, and databases.

At this unique moment in time, both have global spread and significance: the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every society globally; so do digital technologies and networked communication. Crucially, “global” should not be mistaken for “universal” – while both the virus and digital technologies are spread around the world, their adoption, use and impact are profoundly different both across, and within different countries, societies and communities. Within the growing field of Disconnection Studies, research on opting out and digital refusal has focused almost exclusively on “the West”/“global North”. To this date, no literature addresses in great depth the implications, consequences and (im)possibilities of opt out in the quickly changing digital landscape and lived realities of the COVID-19 pandemic which has forced a rapid and sudden digitisation in times of crisis.

*CFP* "THE POLITICAL ECONOMY SECTION", IAMCR SECTION, THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF COMMUNICATION JOURNAL

The Political Economy Section of the IAMCR has a dedicated section journal The Political Economy of Communication.

This is a ‘diamond’ open access publication which is free to access and free to contributing authors whose work is published.

We are encouraging IAMCR members, especially those in the Political Economy section, to contribute to the forthcoming issues of the journal.  Due to the Covid-29 disruption we are adjusting the deadlines we sent out earlier:

There are two options for publication:  

Full articles of 5000-12,000 words are double-blind reviewed. Any topic dealing with the political economy of communication and media is welcome.

*CFP* "CAPITALISM IN GLOBAL CRISIS. ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATIONS, NEW AUTHORITARIANISM AND RESISTANCE", DISCOURSENET WINTER SCHOOL Nº7

DiscourseNet Winter School Nº7

Capitalism in Global Crisis: economic transformations, new authoritarianism and resistance

13-15th of January, 2021

University of Valencia, Spain 

The DiscourseNet Winter School brings together advanced MA as well as PhD students (BA students with an own research project are also welcome) who want to pursue research on Capitalism in Global Crisis revolving around economic transformations, new authoritarianism, and resistance with respect to Discourse Studies and to discuss the methodological and theoretical challenges of their thesis projects or first ideas.

In the last decades, the economies in different countries and regions as well as the global economic power relations have changed. Three characteristics are significant: first, the US economic hegemony, expressed by a dominant position in almost all traditional leading industries, becomes step by step replaced by a tri-pole structure consisting by a rising Asian field of economic innovation (with China as regional superpower), a declining North American pole and a consolidating European pole (with Germany as regional hegemon) torn between the aspiring East and former West.

*CFP* "RETHINKING DIGITAL LABOUR", SPECIAL COLLECTION, THE ECONOMIC AND LABOUR RELATIONS REVIEW

A number of important topics, themes and concepts frequently recur in studies of digital labour, such as exploitation, precariousness (Standing 2011), ‘the gig economy’ (Graham 2019), and unpaid labour, including those of digital ‘users’ (Terranova 2004) and audiences. Concepts of immaterial, affective and emotional labour have been widely prevalent (Hardt and Negri 2000, 2005). This first generation of critical research has drawn, often valuably so, on a variety of Marxist, post-structuralist and Weberian sources to question prevailing neo-liberal and centrist models centred on values of efficiency and the supposed empowerment of workers and users. Some debates in East Asia follow this tendency to explore labour issues in the digital economy, such as platform workers (Chen and Kimura 2019, Chen 2018, Steinberg 2019, Shibata 2019) and workers in the technology assembly factories (Pun 2005, Qiu 2016, Sacchetto and Andrijasevic, 2015).

While these topics, themes and concepts have been beneficial in establishing a basis for critique, there is a danger that, at least in the form they have been applied, they may become rather familiar and in some cases potentially even a little stale. If so, this suggests a need to renew critique of digital labour, as the digital realm stabilizes around a set of key global players and platforms and as labour activists continue to face serious obstacles to success in an era of authoritarian populism. With its broad scale in the valorization of digital work, here, we concentrate our arguments on the professional workers in the information and communication technologies (ICT) related industries.

*CFP* "GOBIERNO DIGITAL Y TECNOPOLÍTICA", SPECIAL ISSUE, VITAM JOURNAL

En la última década, el uso de Internet y de las Redes Sociodigitales se volvió una necesidad de primer orden para el gobierno y por supuesto para los ciudadanos, la gran mayoría de países en el mundo se percataron que Internet permitía mejorar los procesos burocráticos y con ello facilitar la convivencia entre la ciudadanía y el gobierno. Con ello, Internet sería considerado en gran parte del mundo como un derecho fundamental para los ciudadanos, porque precisamente este medio de comunicación garantizaba derechos fundamentales como: el derecho a la información, la libertad de expresión y la transparencia. Y bajo esta lógica se comenzó a vincular directamente el uso de la tecnología con la calidad de la democracia.

Sin embargo, al ir creciendo el número de usuarios de Internet se comenzaron a gestar los denominados “movimientos en red” o de “ciberactivismo”, los cuales tenían como principal característica que su organización se daba a partir del uso de las redes sociodigitales e internet (y éstos servían como ese espacio idóneo para agrupar ideas, construir afinidades e identidades alrededor de los objetivos que perseguía el movimiento). Los movimientos de ciberactivismo, a la larga han comenzado a demostrar que el llamado “cerco” o control informativo impuesto desde los medios de comunicación tradicionales (prensa, radio y televisión) se diluye frente a las nuevas agendas comunicativas que se construyen desde internet y las redes sociodigitales.

*CFP* "WHO CARES? DIGITAL PLATFORMS, SHARING AND REGULATION IN CONNECTED ECONOMIES" EDITED VOLUME, COMUNICAÇAO E SOCIEDADE

Sharing Economy is a common expression used to refer to various forms of exchange facilitated by digital platforms involving a great diversity of profit-oriented and non-profit activities with a broad spectrum of social, economic, cultural, and political purposes. The underlying idea of the sharing economy is generally about giving access to unused resources. This model has rekindled the promises of an economically sustainable society shaped by the various forms of connections.

On the one hand, it is considered that the connective power of information and communication technologies has led to the creation of new business models motivated by cyber culture-inspired logics (e.g., open access, collaboration and sustainability), as well as favouring the financial autonomy of users and environmental preservation through a community consumption project on the global and/or regional scales. On the other hand, a more critical view considers that when it is being dominated by large companies such as Uber and Airbnb, Sharing Economy helps to instrumentalise expensive social concepts such as the idea of home, solidarity, and trust to reinforce capitalist interests and reiterate precariousness, technological dependence, and social inequalities.

*CFP* “NEW DIGITAL CHALLENGES OR OLD PRESSURES?” SYMPOSIUM ON POLITICAL JOURNALISM AND THE IMPACT OF THE NEW MARKET

New Digital Challenges or Old Pressures?
11-12 de Junio de 2020

Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, Netherlands

This symposium aims to examine the effects of the /market /on political journalism in democratic societies in Europe, covering various national contexts with different political and financial circumstances. The measures of austerity that have been imposed either directly or indirectly on various economies in Europe and subsequently on political journalism are at the very core of what the symposium seeks to explore, as it aims to examine the effect of these policies on key areas, such as media business models, working conditions, new regulations, and perceptions of journalistic identity.

The symposium poses the question of whether the current challenges are a result of the digitization and the inclusion of a variety of platforms in the media ecology, that directly affected the economic media models across Europe, or whether these challenges reflect established market mechanisms.

*CFP* “MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES TO CROWDFUNDING PLATFORMS”, CHAPTER BOOK

During recent years, the number of crowdfunding platforms has increased in worldwide. In order to discuss ideas, problems, challenges, and solutions for changes in society and organizations to improve crowdfunding platforms, we prepare this book. This book has an important role to play in providing knowledge for researchers, experts, and practitioners of crowdfunding platforms in the global digital economy. It also intends to provide guidelines for economists, managers, entrepreneurs, consultants, policy makers, and technology developers.


Objective

This book will aim to provide relevant theoretical frameworks and the latest empirical research findings in the area. It will be written for professionals who want to improve their understanding of crowdfunding at different levels of the knowledge.

*CFP* “GLOBAL SCREEN WORLDS: AN INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP”, SOAS UNIVERSITY OF LONDON 2021

Comparative film studies…must necessarily proceed by way of a collaboration between intellectuals from different geo-historical formations. The precondition for such a collaboration is that the participants should be prepared to consider their own intellectual formations and thought-habits as symptomatic constellations shaped by the very same dynamics that animate historicity itself. Paul Willemen, For a comparative film studies, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 6.1 (2005): 99

We need to forge ‘off-centered’ networks of individual scholars, academic programs and institutions, and venues for publication internationally.  The final goal is not to create a globally unified discursive space of film studies, but to forge new networks and channels of communication.

Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto, A future of comparative film studies, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 14.1 (2013): 54-61

In September 2021, a three-day, fully-funded workshop will be held at SOAS University of London as part of the ERC-funded project Screen Worlds: Decolonising Film and Screen Studies. This workshop will form part of the Global Screen Worlds strand of the project which inspired by Willemen’s and Yoshimoto’s words above – calls for comparative, interdisciplinary and “off-centered” approaches to Film and Screen Studies. The workshop and the Open Access edited volume that will result from it are, accordingly, designed to inspire and facilitate collaborative dialogue, research, and authorship among Film and Screen scholars from different parts of the world, but especially from Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and those working on indigenous cinemas.

*CFP* “HYBRID WARS IN THE AGE OF PLATFORM IMPERIALISM”, 2020 CONFERENCE

Hybrid Wars in the Age of Platform Imperialism

25-26 de Septiembre de 2020

National Research University “Higher School of Economics”, Moscow, Russia

Keynote speakers

Dr. Oliver Joseph Boyd-Barrett, Bowling Green State University, Ohio (USA)

Dr. Piers Robinson, Organization for Propaganda Studies (UK)

Dr. David Miller, University of Bristol (UK)

This conference provides a forum for researchers who seek to analyze, challenge, and rethink the concepts of “platform imperialism” in the age of hybrid warfare.

Basically, we are interested in the exchange of opinions on the following issues:

• The distribution of global power in terms of the domination over the global platform market by the West (predominantly, the US: e.g., Google, Facebook, Youtube) and control over regional platform markets by China (Baidu, QQ, etc.), Russia (VK, Yandex, etc.), Korea (Cyworld), and so on.

*CFP* “CRITICAL DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA STUDIES”, CHAPTER BOOK

Critical Digital and Social Media Studies is an established book series edited on behalf of the Westminster Institute for Advanced Studies and published by the University of Westminster Press (UWP). We invite submissions of book proposals that fall within the scope of the series.

After the publication of twelve titles in the series (and several others commissioned for 2020) we invite submission of book proposals (adhering to the guidelines set out below) as one document with one full chapter for book titles in the range of 35,000-80,000 words. The books in the series are published online in an open access format available online without payment using a Creative Commons licence (CC-BY-NC-ND) and simultaneously as affordable paperbacks. We are able to publish a number of books in the call without any book processing charges for authors. Potential authors are welcome to contact the series editor outside of the initial time frame of this call for book proposals but should note that priority for funding support for suitable projects will be given to those proposals meeting the deadline. There is a preference for the submission of proposals for books whose writing can be finished and that can be submitted to UWP within the next 6-15 months. In the event of a surplus of strong proposals preference will be given to single-authored book proposals over edited volumes.

*CFP* “ALL FOR EVERYONE? CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES”, EDITED VOLUME

Introduction and general description

This collection of contributions brings together critical debates about Artificial Intelligence (AI) to interrogate how we should understand what constitutes AI, its impact and challenges. If we want to make sure that AI-powered applications and solutions will benefit society at large andmitigate AI’s potentialnegative consequences, we need to overcomethe widespread dichotomic(utopian/dystopian) thinking about AI. By offering different perspectives and engaging in critical conversations on the potential and impact of AI, this collection aims to invite all stakeholders involved to contribute to a more nuanced vision of how to make sure AI will deliver benefits for everyone, if at all possible (and what is needed to facilitate change).

What makes this collection timely and necessary:

*CFP* “FOURTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMMUNICATION & MEDIA STUDIES”, UNIVERSITY OF BONN 2019 CONFERENCE

The Fourth International Conference on Communication & Media Studies will be held at the Unviersity of Bonn, Bonn, Germany 26-28 September 2019. 

We invite proposals for paper presentations, workshops/interactive sessions, posters/exhibits, virtual lightning talks, virtual posters, innovative showcase, or colloquia addressing one of the following themes:

Theme 1: Media Cultures

Theme 2: Media Theory

Theme 3: Media Technologies and Processes

Theme 4: Media Business

Theme 5: Media Literacies

*CFP* "EL FUTURO DEL TRABAJO", REVISTA EMPRESA Y HUMANISMO

La vertiginosa metamorfosis de la sociedad, unida a las innovaciones técnicas, la progresiva maquinización y la híper-especialización laboral de los últimos decenios están originando una transformación del trabajo de incalculables consecuencias.

La llamada Industria 4.0 hará desaparecer algunos puestos de trabajo basados en el esfuerzo físico, al tiempo que ampliará el espectro de los empleos relacionados con el conocimiento y la creatividad. Este cambio exigirá nuevos modelos de formación y preparación profesional para adaptarse a las nuevas demandas de empleo que se generen. Será necesario cambiar los modos de formar profesionalmente a las generaciones futuras, poniendo énfasis en la Educación STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math), en las habilidades (soft skills and hard skills), pero sin olvidar el papel de las Humanidades.

La Revista Empresa y Humanismo invita a la comunidad investigadora a remitir sus trabajos para un número especial dedicado al futuro del trabajo. El objetivo es reflexionar sobre las tendencias en la evolución de todos los aspectos alrededor del trabajo desde una perspectiva multidisciplinar.