MCLC: Asiascape: Digital Asia

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Schneider, F.A. <f.a.schneider at hum.leidenuniv.nl>
Subject: Asiascape: Digital Asia
***********************************************************

Here's an announcement that might be of interest to the MCLC community. We
are now accepting abstracts for the conference that will flank the launch
of the new Leiden-based journal "Asiascape: Digital Asia". Should any of
our list members be interested in "Revisiting the Emancipatory Potential
of Digital Media in Asia", they will find the full announcement and
call-for-papers here:

Kind regards

Florian Schneider

===========================================================

Source: 
http://www.politicseastasia.com/research/digital-nationalism/international-
conference-call-for-papers-revisiting-the-emancipatory-potential-of-digital
-media-in-asia/
 

ASIASCAPE DIGITAL ASIA (DIAS) LAUNCH EVENT
23-25 JANUARY 2014 AT LEIDEN UNIVERSITY

The academic journal Asiascape – Digital Asia
<http://www.politicseastasia.com/research/digital-nationalism/the-challenge
-of-studying-digital-asia/> (DIAS), in collaboration with the Goto-Jones
VICI project “Beyond Utopia” <http://www.asiascape.org/beyondutopia.html>
funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO)
<http://www.politicseastasia.com/partners-view/nwo/>, welcomes scholars
from the area studies, communication sciences, cultural studies,
humanities, and social sciences, as well as from multi-disciplinary
backgrounds, to this international conference on digital media in Asia.

Abstract

Over the past decade, new forms of information and communication
technologies have shaped the way people relate to each other, engage in
social activities, conduct commerce, and participate in political
processes. The inception of so-called Web 2.0 services such as Facebook in
2004, Youtube in 2005, and Twitter in 2006, has introduced a degree of
interactivity to communication processes that surpasses that of previous
technologies.

Numerous companies from around the world have since imitated the success
of these large networking, video-sharing, and micro-blogging sites. The
popularity of such interactive digital media has meanwhile generated much
debate regarding the emancipatory potential of these tools – a debate that
has largely focuses on American and European experiences, and that in its
extreme revolves on the one hand around the arguments of liberal scholars
like Clay Shirky 
<http://www.ted.com/talks/clay_shirky_how_the_internet_will_one_day_transfo
rm_government.html> or Yochai Benkler
<http://www.ted.com/talks/yochai_benkler_on_the_new_open_source_economics.h
tml>, who emphasize the potential of such technologies to empower
citizens, and on the other hand around the concerns of cultural critics
like Evgeny Morozov
<http://www.ted.com/talks/evgeny_morozov_is_the_internet_what_orwell_feared
.html> or Sherry Turkle
<http://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together.html>, who see
these innovations as exploitative, domineering, and potentially damaging.
This international conference moves such debates to Asia, and confronts
them with the realities of digital media usage in this vibrant region. How
does citizen journalism work in countries like China, Malaysia, or
Singapore, where citizens have constructed information networks through
blogs and tweets that run parallel to official mainstream media, and where
states and ruling parties attempt to control such processes through
sophisticated information and communication technologies? What are we to
make of citizen consultation in light of the Indonesian case, where
politicians use social media to shore up support from online communities
by prompting them to take over social responsibilities that were
originally part of the state’s social service portfolio? How should we
assess the contentious nature of digital media in light of Indian
examples, where such media help coordinate anti-corruption movements while
at the same time entrenching the middle-class interests that inform these
movements? Meanwhile, in Japan how do we gauge the political and social
impact of alternative forms of journalism and novel forms of protest
facilitated by digital media in the wake of the March 2011 triple
disaster, as well as the subsequent use of social media as a platform for
revisionist politicians? In South Korea, how do youth groups come together
on international social networking sites and on local alternatives like
Cyworld or me2day as they develop alternatives to mainstream Korean
culture, and what role do smartphones and other mobile technologies play
in these processes?

By analysing such cases, this conference critically asks how we can
overcome dichotomies such as emancipation vs. domination in the study of
digital media, and how we can instead explain the transformative role of
such media in all its complexity.

Conference ThemesThe conference will address the questions regarding the
emancipatory potential of digital media in Asia by focusing in particular
on issues such as:

* Citizen journalism in the forms of blogs and micro-blogs,
* Social and political participation through global as well as local
social networking services,
* Coordination of cultural and political activities through new ICT, such
as smartphones, tablet computers, portable gaming devices.
* Knowledge construction, information sharing, and social bookmarking
through wikis and media sharing,
* Social and political critique in digital networks,
* Social and political control through Web 2.0 architecture.

DIAS particularly encourages contributions that approach these issues from
a theoretically informed and empirically grounded perspective, and that
use digital methodologies to study these digital issues.

Deadlines for Abstracts and PapersScholars working in the above-mentioned
fields are invited to submit abstracts of proposed papers along with a
short biographical note by 1 October 2013. The organizers will inform
applicants of their decision by mid-October. Conference papers should be
submitted by 6 January 2014, and should not exceed 8000 words, including
notes and references.

Publication:Papers that distinguish themselves through their academic
rigor may later also be submitted for peer-review and publication in
Asiascape: Digital Asia. For submissions, please visit the DIAS editorial
management system <http://www.editorialmanager.com/dias/>.
ContactFor questions and submissions, please contact the conference
organizer Dr. Florian Schneider
<mailto:f.a.scheider at hum.leidenuniv.nl?subject=DIAS%20launch%20conference>
or the conference manager Mrs. Esther Truijen
<mailto:E.P.W.Truijen at hum.leidenuniv.nl?subject=DIAS%20launch%20conference>
. For more information on Chris Goto-Jones’ VICI project “Beyond Utopia”,
see the project description on Asiascape.org
<http://www.asiascape.org/beyondutopia.html>.

Registration and TravelWhile DIAS does not subsidize travel and
accommodation, conference registration fees will be waived for paper
presenters.
For registration and up to date conference information, please visit the
DIAS conference page <http://www.asiascape.org/diasconference.html>. Feel
free to also download the pdf version of this call for papers
<http://www.politicseastasia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/CfP-DIAS-Confer
ence-2014.pdf> for your files.