[acc-cca-l] Call for Papers - Special Issue - Expanding the Boundaries of Digital Inclusion

[Rob McMahon]

[△EXTERNAL]


Call for Papers - Social Inclusion<https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/index> - Special Issue

Title:
Expanding the Boundaries of Digital Inclusion: Perspectives from Network Peripheries and Non-Adopters

Editors:
Rob McMahon (University of Alberta), Nadezda Nazarova (Nord University), and Laura Robinson (Santa Clara University)

Timeline:
Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 July 2022
Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 January 2023
Publication of the Issue: July/September 2023

Information:
The design and deployment of the globalizing network society tend to follow a logic that extends from centres of power out to more peripheral areas that are drawn into the dominant system. This logic is reflected in discourses of digital inclusion, which seek to integrate marginalized individuals, groups, and territories in existing digital infrastructures and systems. Starosielski (2015, pp.10–11) notes in her study of the undersea cable network that “centralizing forces continue to permeate and underpin the extension of networks,” while at the same time surfacing the “conflicts, contestations, and negotiations that shape systems on the ground” (Starosielski, 2015, p. 82). The process of digital inclusion involves tensions and contradictions grounded in the conditions of groups and individuals located at the nodes of globalizing networks. As Baym (2015, pp. 51–52) writes, “machines can and do accelerate certain trends, cultural weaknesses, and fortify certain social structures while eroding others.” Furthermore, researchers have long identified embedded values in the design, development, and implementation of digital technologies and infrastructures, many of which inadvertently threaten to perpetuate existing hierarchies and introduce new forms of domination and inequality in areas such as class, race, gender and so on (e.g., van Deursen & van Dijk, 2013). In short, struggles between hegemonic ontologies of inclusion and the agency of socially marginalized groups are present in digital inclusion projects situated in a variety of “hard to reach” terrains: from spatially dispersed communities to those which remain metaphorically “disconnected,” sometimes by choice.

In this thematic issue we invite research that contests, challenges, and reimagines what digital inclusion is and what it should be. We welcome submissions on any facet of this topic writ large. In addition, we are also interested in diverse “non-adopters” of digital technologies, with the goal of learning from them about the potential and limitations of existing forms of digital inclusion. Pursuant to Dutta (2020, p. 333), who argues that “the principle of communicative equality shapes the solidarities in the actual work of building communicative infrastructures that are anchored in subaltern voices, guided by subaltern logics and owned by subaltern communities,” we invite authors to consider ways to think about network ontologies from the perspectives of non-adopters. We encourage authors to probe new ways to consider social and digital inclusion from understudied vantage points such as non adopters who wish to remain disconnected. We also anticipate submissions from geographically dispersed communities to learn from groups who are working to connect themselves. Finally, we welcome work that foregrounds values and design choices that can inform understandings of how to shape digital initiatives in more inclusive directions, as well as work that joins agency with critical analysis, pointing us to ways to conceptualize emergent digital networks as active mediating forces in relations of social inclusion.

Instructions for Authors:
Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system (here<https://www.cogitatiopress.com/abstracts>). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Social Inclusion is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).

Open Access:
The journal has an article publication fee to cover its costs and guarantee that the article can be accessed free of charge by any reader, anywhere in the world, regardless of affiliation. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and advise them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication fees. Institutions can also join Cogitatio's Membership Program at a very affordable rate and enable all affiliated authors to publish without incurring any fees. Further information about the journal's open access charges and institutional members can be found here<https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/about/editorialPolicies#publicationFees>.

Link: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/pages/view/nextissues#DigitalBoundaries


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Associate Professor | Media and Technology Studies
Department of Political Science | University of Alberta
Email: rob.mcmahon at ualberta.ca<mailto:rob.mcmahon at ualberta.ca>
http://FirstMile.ca<http://firstmile.ca>
http://DigitalNWT.ca
http://SweetgrassAR.ca

The University of Alberta is located in ᐊᒥᐢᑿᒌᐚᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ (Amiskwacîwâskahikan) on Treaty 6 territory, traditional lands of First Nations and Métis people.
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