MCLC: 12th Chinese Internet Research Conference--cfp

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Anne Henochowicz <anne at chinadigitaltimes.net>
Subject: 12th Chinese Internet Research Conference--cfp
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Call for Papers – 12th Chinese Internet Research Conference (CIRC)
19-21 June 2014
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

ABSTRACTS DUE BY JANUARY 1, 2014

Situated Practices on China's changing Internets:
From the users of mobile ICTs and Apps to Weibo posters and Social
Networkers

Website: http://myweb.polyu.edu.hk/~circ12/

Introduction
CIRC was started in 2003, when less than 25 million people had access to
the Internet in China, to study the impact this new technology might have
on China's still somewhat isolated society, culture, and politics. By July
2013, the Internet in China had grown to almost 600 million Chinese
Internet users whose activities have influenced Chinese society and
culture in many different ways. Meanwhile, the CIRC continued to
investigate and discuss these exciting developments in annual conferences
held most recently at Peking University (2010), Georgetown University
(2011), University of Southern California (2012), and the University of
Oxford (2013).

As an interdisciplinary conference, CIRC has profited from the exchanges
between researchers from diverse academic and disciplinary traditions, as
well as the inclusion of experts from outside academia. Academics,
journalists, market researchers, industry analysts, legal practitioners,
business leaders and others come together at the conference to discuss the
latest developments of the Internet in China.

In June 2014, the Chinese Internet Research Conference will return to the
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, a place both inside and outside
China, with the world's fastest broadband Internet next to the world's
most openly censored one. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University will host
CIRC 12 (June 19-21) as well as a related postgraduate student
pre-conference (June 18 and 19), in the centre of the Hong Kong and just
45 minutes by train from the physical and digital borders with Mainland
China.

CIRC 12 wishes to continue the proud tradition of past Chinese Internet
Research Conferences in challenging researchers to take a fresh look at
the Chinese Internet by recognizing the complexity of the Chinese digital
media ecology and focusing on the lived practices of Chinese Internet
users and the embedding of the Internet into their lives. CIRC 12
encourages papers that go beyond studies of the interactions between
netizens and the state to look more closely at the rich variety of
practices that have evolved on China's digital media platforms in its
enforced distance from the global Internet.

Some of the many questions papers could address in this context are:
- How are different people in China using their mobile phones or computing
devices to access networked services, and how is this affecting their
work, leisure, relationships, families, studies, etc?
- Where and when are people in China accessing the Internet and what is it
they are accessing?
- How are mobile phones and computing devices affecting businesses and the
work or study environment in China?
- How do people in China describe 'the Internet' and their online
practices, as well as their feelings and attitudes towards cyberspace?
- How have individual social networks in China been affected by the rise
of networked services?
- How has the Internet affected China, and how has China affected the
Internet?
- How has the Internet affected Chinese culture and vice versa?
- What is Chinese about the Internet in China?
- Who are the users of the Chinese Internet?
- What are the differences, if any, between Internet use in China and
elsewhere, in particular in different parts of the Chinese-speaking world,
e.g. Hong Kong, Taiwan, overseas Chinese?
- How do everyday practices on the Chinese Internet intersect with
discourses – circulating both inside and outside China – on the Internet?
- How are practices on the Chinese internet related to policy?

Paper and Panel Proposals
The organising committee invites proposals for paper presentations or
panels that address one or more of the questions above or related issues
concerning the Internet in the Chinese-speaking world. Proposals should be
written in English and should not exceed 500 words for individual papers,
or 1000 words for panel proposals. Proposals and enquiries should be sent
to circ12 at polyu.edu.hk

Deadlines
Proposals for panels and papers should be submitted by 1 January, 2014.
The organising committee will provide feedback on the proposals and full
versions of the accepted papers of up to 8,000 words including references
should be prepared by 1 May 2014 and sent via email to the organising
committee.

Graduate Student Pre-Conference and Paper Competition
CIRC 12 will include a graduate student pre-conference 18-19 June 2014
that will focus on methodology and ethics of Internet research in the
People's Republic of China, both of which pose particular problems, which
are often not discussed in sufficient depth. It is hoped that the
pre-conference will promote a greater discussion of some of the
difficulties new researchers face in analysing the Internet in China.

The pre-conference will consist of two master classes and postgraduate
students are encouraged to submit paper proposals of up to 500 words
focussing on methodology and/or ethics to the pre-conference, while papers
for the main conference should focus on thematic issues.
The main conference continues to welcome graduate student papers, and
submissions FOR THE MAIN CONFERENCE will be considered for CIRC's annual
graduate student paper competition. Please note that only papers without
faculty co-authors are eligible for the competition.

Organising Committee
Chair
David Kurt HEROLD, Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Social
Sciences (APSS), HK Polytechnic University

Members
CHENG Chungtai, Teaching Fellow, APSS, HK Polytechnic University
Rodney CHU, Assistant Professor, APSS, HK Polytechnic University
Alex COCKAIN, Teaching Fellow, APSS, HK Polytechnic University
Patrick LAW, Assistant Professor, APSS, HK Polytechnic University


CIRC Steering Committee
ANG Peng Hwa, Director, Singapore Internet Research Centre, Nanyang
Technological University, Singapore
William H. DUTTON, Professor of Internet Studies, OII, University of Oxford
HU Yong, Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Communication,
Peking University
Randy KLUVER, Exec. Director, Global Partnerships and Projects, Associate
Professor, Department of Communication, Texas A&M University
Monroe PRICE, Director, Center for Global Communication Studies and
Adjunct Full Professor, Annenberg School of Communication, University of
Pennsylvania
Jack Linchuan QIU, Associate Professor, School of Journalism and
Communication, the Chinese University of Hong Kong
Ernest J. WILSON III, Dean and Walter H. Annenberg Chair in Communication,
USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism
Peter K. YU, Kern Family Chair in Intellectual Property Law, and founding
director of the Intellectual Property Law Center at Drake University Law
School