MCLC: East Asian Information Discourse panel--cfp

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Liu Xiao (liuxiao at berkeley.edu)
Subject: East Asian Information Discourse panel--cfp
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Dear MCLCers,

Anatoly Detwyler (Columbia, EALAC) and I are seeking co-panelists for our
proposed AAS panel on modern dispensations of "information" discourse
in East Asia.  Please see below for the abstract.  If interested,
please contact me (liuxiao at berkeley.edu) or Anatoly (ad2515 at columbia.edu)
directly with a project title and abstract of approximately 250 words, by
July 30th.

Thanks,
Xiao Liu
PhD student
University of California, Berkeley


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The Rise of "Information" in Twentieth Century East Asia

Throughout the twentieth century the concept of "information" has
opened new possibilities for the development of science, technology,
and communication, thereby ushering in new modes of interconnectivity
and labor collectively defined as the "Information Age."  Today
iterations of information and its technologies are ubiquitous.
However, histories of local discourses and practices reveal the
ambiguities and heterogeneous dynamics of this often taken-for-granted
term.  Our panel traces the historical processes by which information
came to be understood, adopted, and deployed in East Asia, as well as
its broader cultural dispensations: When and where did "information²
arise become an object of intellectual, cultural, economic, or state
attention?  In what ways was "information" translated, localized, or
contested as a modern entity?  How did such discourse precipitate new
ways of conceiving media, knowledge production, and politics?