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Call for Papers: Taming digital practices
CfP Issue 01/2023 of Digital Culture and Society: Taming digital
practices – On the domestication of data-driven technologies Incl.
Author’s Workshop at CRC “Media of Cooperation”, University of
Siegen, February 7-8, 2022
When countries across the globe suddenly announced that their
citizens should stay at home, the Covid pandemic brought domestic
life to the center of public attention. With educational
institutions, workplaces, and leisure facilities closed, not only
work-related communication but also social interactions with
friends and loved ones has moved online faster than anyone ever
imagined. A wide spectrum of new practices of working, learning,
and gathering have since emerged, enabled by the accelerated
development of digital media and data infrastructures. This has
brought forth new publics as well as a redefinition of the home.
The domestic realm as a concept appears increasingly diffuse and
malleable as mobile and digital media become integral to ‘home
life’. At the same time, inequalities concerning access to and use
of digitally-connected media become more starkly visible and
consequential.
Against this background, the Special Issue Taming digital
practices – On the domestication of data-driven technologies and
the related author’s workshop propose to revisit and reconsider
the concept of domestication. In general, domestication refers to
the taming and cultivation of wild animals and plants for use by
humans. The term has been analogously used in media and technology
studies to denote the adoption and inclusion of media technologies
by “individual users and small user groups” (Karnowski, Pape &
Wirth, 2006) into their everyday lives (Berker et al. 2006). We
propose to regard domestic media practices involving digital media
technologies as data practices; by producing and depending on
data, these practices particularly tame data-driven technologies
to fit into everyday life. We wish to explore how data practices
are established by "communities of practice" (Wenger 1998), which
shape media practices and are themselves shaped by those
practices.
The production of (big) data, not least in the context of the
Internet of Things (IoT) and smart homes, is taking on an ever
more significant role in the already complex entanglement of
media, publics, and infrastructures. With the integration of data
flows and sensor media, networked devices such as intelligent
personal assistants, robot vacuum cleaners, home surveillance
systems and other smart technologies force us to reassess and
reconfigure our understandings of the interrelations between
public and private space.
Predominantly marketed as tools to enhance comfort and convenience
in everyday life, such devices can be crucial for those living
with disabilities, chronic diseases, or age-related impairments.
However, such groups may be structurally disadvantaged when it
comes to articulating their needs, and often also have limited
opportunities to gain digital literacy. This may make such groups
even more vulnerable in relation to the critical questions of
surveillance, power, and control raised by networked digital media
devices. At the very least, users of digitally-connected media
require access to infrastructures such as an internet connection,
and must be able to operate the devices concerned. Hence, the
specific context of any individual person or target group has to
be considered if we are to expand our understanding of how digital
and non-digital media are accessed and used in practice.
Following Bakardjieva (2006) and Hartmann (2007), we propose that
the concept of domestication as it was initially outlined by
Silverstone and Hirsch in 1992 needs to be expanded upon in order
to account for today’s networked homes, which transcend their own
walls.
Contributions should shed light on how everyday (digital)
practices are integrated within users’ individual lifeworlds.
Against this background paper proposals may relate to, but are not
limited to, the following questions:
● How are concepts like the home shaped by media and data
practices?
● How are media and their data appropriated and/or contested in
domestic spaces?
● How are voice-controlled devices integrated into everyday
practices? How are they used to connect to other infrastructures?
How do users deal with the data practices that their usage
entails?
● How are media practices shaped and domesticated in contexts of
migration?
● How are media and their data appropriated and/or contested in
homes ‘on the move’?
● How do media and data practices bring forth new forms of
(virtual) domestic spaces that may transcend geographical borders
and/or cut across socio- culturally diverse or stratified
communities, and how do those communities in turn shape the
practices and even infrastructures?
● How can opportunities be created to facilitate marginalized or
vulnerable target groups’ access to and use or appropriation of
ICTs?
When submitting an abstract, please make explicit to which of the
following categories you would like to submit your paper:
1. Field Research and Case Studies (full paper: 6000-8000 words)
We invite articles that discuss empirical findings. These may
include practices of circulating or collecting empirical data as
well processes of knowledge production and evaluations of
discourses, practices and technological applications.
2. Methodological Reflection (full paper: 6000-8000 words)
We invite contributions that reflect on the methodologies employed
when researching digital practices against the background of
domestication. These may include, for example, the specificities
of ethnographic fieldwork; challenges; approaches using mixed
methods; discussions of mobile and circulative methods; and
reflections of experimental forms of research.
3. Conceptual/Theoretical Reflection (full paper: 6000-8000 words)
We encourage contributions that reflect on the conceptual and/or
theoretical dimension of domestication of data-driven
technologies, and discuss or question how it can be defined, what
it can describe, and how it can be differentiated.
4. Entering the Field (2000-3000 words; experimental formats
welcome)
This experimental section presents initial and ongoing empirical
work in digital media studies, socio-informatics/HCI and artistic
research. The editors have created this section to provide a
platform for researchers who would like to initiate a discussion
concerning their emerging (yet perhaps incomplete) research
material and plans as well as methodological insights.
The author’s workshop (Feb 7-8, 2022) is intended to support the
submitted contributions with further feedback during the writing
process, supplementing the journal’s double-blind peer review
process by offering a multidisciplinary perspective beforehand.
The papers successfully admitted in the double-blind peer-review
process are expected to be published in the issue 1/2023 of
Digital Culture and Society (
http://digicults.org/), edited by the
organising team of the workshop (David Waldecker, Tim Hector,
Niklas Strüver, Tanja Ertl).
Deadlines and contact information
• Initial abstracts (max. 300 words) and a short biographical note
(max. 100 words) are due on: November 15, 2021
• Authors will be notified by November 29, 2021, whether they are
invited to submit a full paper
• First draft papers (1500-2000 words) as starting point for the
discussion are due: January 30, 2022
• Author’s Workshop (online): February 7-8, 2022
• Full papers are due on: April 15, 2022
• Notification to authors of referee decision: July 15, 2022
• Final version due on: October 15, 2022
• Final notification: December 15, 2022
This issue is edited by David Waldecker, Tim Hector, Niklas
Strüver and Tanja Ertl. Please send your abstract and short
biographical note (1–2 sentences) directly to them
(
niklas.struever@uni-siegen.de).
--
Konstantin Aal
Research assistant and PhD student
pronouns: he/him/his
Information Systems and New Media
SFB 1187 "Medien der Kooperation"
University of Siegen
Kohlbettstr. 15, 57072 Siegen
Raum. US-E-102
Tel. +49 (0)271 / 740 3383
Mob. +49 (0)176 / 30 780 007
http://www.uni-siegen.de/fb5/wirtschaftsinformatik/index.html.en?lang=en
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