[FoME] CFP: Data Power 2017

[olohok at gmail.com]

DATA POWER 2017

A two-day, international conference
Dates: 22nd & 23rd June 2017
Venue: School of Journalism & Communication, Carleton University,
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Data Power 2017 builds on the successful Data Power 2015 Conference
held in Sheffield.

Increasingly pervasive in our daily lives, data are constituted
through converging technologies and practices such as the internet of
things, smart cities, drones and precision agriculture; global
finance, credit scoring and data brokerage firms; surveillance,
predictive policing and customer relation management systems, to name
a few. Data are also generated by and flow through applications,
software, platforms, and infrastructures that reshape how we play,
work, eat, socialize, see ourselves, and know the world. In an era of
data power, data have become agentic, especially when input into
black-boxed algorithms and systems whose outputs are used to profile
and sort us, influence the political economy, and for purposes for
which no consent was given. Is this a 'fait accompli'?

To answer this question, the Data Power 2017 conference asks: How can
we reclaim some form of data-based power and autonomy, and advance
data-based technological citizenship, while living in regimes of data
power? Is it possible to regain agency and mobilize data for the
common good? To do so, which theories help to interrogate and make
sense of the operations of data power? What kind of design frameworks
are needed to build and deploy data-based technologies with values and
ethics that are equitable and fair? How can big data be mobilized to
improve how we live, beyond notions of efficiency and innovation?

This conference creates a space to reflect on these and other critical
issues relating to data’s ever more ubiquitous power. To date, the
following keynote speakers and commentators on data power have been
confirmed:

* Paul Edwards, University of Michigan, author of A Vast Machine: The
Atmosphere of Big Data (2010);
* Stefania Milan, University of Amsterdam, author of Social Movements
and Their Technologies: Wiring Social Change (2016), and PI of the
DATACTIVE project;
* Helen Nissenbaum, New York University, author of Privacy, Big Data
and the Public Good (2014), and PI of the Values in Design project;
* Frank Pasquale, University of Maryland, author of The Black Box
Society: The Secret Algorithms that Control Money and Information
(2015).

Papers and Sessions are invited on the following - and other relevant - topics:

* The political economy of data
* Data and journalism
* Theorizing data
* The politics of data visualization
* Data labour
* The social life of data and data-driven methods
* The politics of open and linked data
* Data-driven governance, surveillance and control
* Data, discrimination and inequality
* Social, ethical and legal issues
* Data citizens
* Data activism, citizen engagement and advocacy
* Data, genealogy and power
* Data power and violence
* Critical cultural and feminist approaches to data
* Resistance, agency and appropriation.

Information/details

* Whilst we welcome papers and sessions of all kinds, please note that
this conference focuses on critical questions about data’s power and
also papers that are critical and/or reflective with regards to the
social and cultural consequences of the rise of data's power.
* Please submit 250 word paper proposals, using the following online
submission system:
https://ocs.library.carleton.ca/index.php/datapower/datapower2017.
* The deadline for paper proposals is Friday 25th January 2017.
* The conference fee is $225 (CAD) for all, and $90 (CAD) for students.
* The organising committee will select papers for a special issue on
Data Power in the following peer reviewed journals: The Canadian
Journal of Communication and Online Information Review.
* Ottawa is Canada’s Capital, and is celebrating its 150th Anniversary
in 2017. The City is home to numerous international museums and
galleries, and Carleton University is set along the beautiful Rideau
River and the Rideau Canal.

Best wishes,

The Data Power Conference team

Tracey, Helen, Jo, Ganaele, Ysabel & Merlyna
datapower2017 at gmail.com

Tracey P. Lauriault & Merlyna Lim, Carleton University, Canada
Helen Kennedy & Jo Bates, University of Sheffield, UK
Ganaele Langlois, York University, Canada
Ysabel Gerrard, University of Leeds, UK