[FoME] CFP Data Power 2017 Conference, 22nd & 23rd June 2017 in Ottawa, ON Canada

[olohok at gmail.com]

https://ocs.library.carleton.ca/index.php/datapower/datapower2017

A two-day, international conference organized by Carleton and
Sheffield Universities following the successful Data Power 2015
Conference held in the UK.

CALL EXTENDED until Feb. 3.

Dates: 22nd & 23rd June 2017

Venue: School of Journalism & Communication, Carleton University,
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Call for abstracts:

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, socialise, 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:

Helen Nissenbaum, New York University, co-author of Obfuscation: A
User’s Guide to Privacy and Protest with Finn Brunton (2015), and PI
of the Values in Design project;
Paul N.Edwards, University of Michigan, author of A Vast Machine:
Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming
(2010);
Stefania Milan, University of Amsterdam, author of Social Movements
and Their Technologies: Wiring Social Change (2016), and PI of the
DATACTIVE 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 session proposals 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.
250-300 word abstract
The deadline for paper proposals is Friday 27th 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