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2009-10-31 | Call For Papers - Special Issue of tripleC

posted 22 Jul 2009, 11:45 by José María Díaz Nafría   [ updated 21 Mar 2010, 05:59 ]

Information and Communication Technologies and the Current Crisis: How Are They Connected?

The Crisis that began in 2007 continues to convulse the world. Labeled by some as merely a recession, yet it is associated with dramatic changes in national and global power. Others frame the Crisis as merely a consequence of over-promoting a narrow range of financial transactions associated with subprime mortgage instruments. These were indeed overly aggressively oversold by deregulated bankers, but this was likely only an important trigger of the Crisis, not the primary cause.
  
In this special issue, we will explore the notion that much of the basis of the Crisis should be assigned to financial transactions not just made possible but also strongly afforded by use of computer technologies. Thus, those operating at the highest levels of algorithmic capacity bear substantial responsibility for the Crisis.
  
For students of technological innovation and diffusion, many questions emerge about the connection between the Crisis in general and computerization. Some of the questions involve the tight relationship between cultures of technological empowerment and financial elites. Others questions, while appearing initially to be purely economic, turn out on examination to articulate strongly with the public interest, civil society, policymaking, and public discourse more generally.
  
These in turn lead to further, perhaps quite new critical questions about the emerging relationships between capitalism, democracy and the data-information-knowledge-technology nexus. Thus, equally important for responsibility is specification of what is known within computer science about the technological dimensions of the Crisis of this crisis. Ultimately, a rethinking of the very notion of "crisis" itself may be needed.
  
Some specific questions authors may choose to address include:

  • What kind of crisis is this, how is it different from previous ones, how are these differences related to automated ICTs and the changed practices they have afforded?
  • What role do computer professionals have in the crisis?
  • Does this crisis suggest a dystopian post-human future?
  • What media theories best explain the crisis, or has the time arrived for newly radical approaches in this area?
  • How does public policy fit in the private world of computerization?
  • What historical guides are available as tools to foster better analyses of technological crisis?
  • Will the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China) be the "winners" of this crisis?
  • Are there artistic innovations that help refine political and policy responses to this crisis?
  • What new knowledge innovations are needed to understand the forces at work in this crisis and its implications for democracy?
  • What new questions need to be addressed invented to orientate research about the crisis?
  • How are the computing-, information-, and media-industries affected by this crisis? How will they develop in the future?
This special issue of tripleC is intended to feature research from both theoretical and practical perspectives. We seek contributions from any theoretical, professional, or disciplinary perspective that offers innovative analysis that promotes debate about technology and the Crisis.
  
Submission deadline: Full papers should be submitted until October 31st, 2009. All papers will be peer reviewed. The special issue will be published in spring 2010.
  
tripleC - Cognition, Communication, Co-operation: Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society (http://www.triple-c.at) promotes contributions within an emerging science of the information age with a special interest in critical studies following the highest standards of peer review.
  
Submissions should:
ISSUE CO-EDITORS:
David Hakken (dhakken@indiana.edu) and
Marcus Breen (m.breen@neu.edu)
David Hakken is professor of informatics at Indiana University. Marcus Breen is professor of communication studies at Northeastern University.
With kind regards
StefanBlachfellner
Managing Editor
tripleC - Cognition, Communication, Co-Operation
Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society
ISSN 1726-670X | peer reviewed
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