[Asis-l] Call for abstracts - Data Power Conference 2017 (Ottawa, Canada, 22-23rd June 2017)

[Jo Bates]

Dear all,

The following call for abstracts may be of interest to list members.

Call for abstracts for *Data Power 2017*

   - Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada), June 22, 2017 – June 23, 2017
   - Please submit a 250 word abstract by *Friday 3rd February*:
   https://ocs.library.carleton.ca/index.php/datapower/datapower2017
   <https://ocs.library.carleton.ca/index.php/datapower/datapower2017>

Following the successful Data Power 2015 Conference
<http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/socstudies/datapower> held in Sheffield, Data
Power 2017 will take forward critical debates relating to data’s ever more
ubiquitous power.

The following keynote speakers have been confirmed:

   - Helen Nissenbaum <http://www.nyu.edu/projects/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 <http://pne.people.si.umich.edu/>, University of
   Michigan, author of A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and
   the Politics of Global Warming (2010);
   - Stefania Milan <https://www.stefaniamilan.net/about-me>, University of
   Amsterdam, author of *Social Movements and Their Technologies: Wiring
   Social Change* (2016), and PI of the DATACTIVE project;
   - Frank Pasquale
   <https://www.law.umaryland.edu/faculty/profiles/faculty.html?facultynum=984>,
   University of Maryland, author of *The Black Box Society: The Secret
   Algorithms that Control Money and Information *(2015).

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

   - The political economy of data
   - Data and journalism
   - Theorising data
   - The politics of data visualisation
   - 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

If you wish to submit an abstract, please visit the following website:
https://ocs.library.carleton.ca/index.php/datapower/datapower2017.

Best wishes,
The Data Power Conference team
*Tracey, Helen, Jo, Ganaele, Ysabel *&





* Merlyna Tracey P. Lauriault and Merlyna Lim, Carletion University Helen
Kennedy and Jo Bates, Sheffield University Ganaele Langlois, York
University Ysabel Gerrard, Leeds University *

DataPower2017 at gmail.com


-- 
Dr Jo Bates
Lecturer in Information Politics and Policy
Co-Editor of Online Information Review
<http://www.emeraldinsight.com/loi/oir>
Digital Societies Research Group
Information School, The University of Sheffield, Room 236, Regent Court,
211 Portobello, Sheffield, S1 4DP
+44 (0)114 222 2648


<http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is>

Find us on Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/ischoolsheffield>, follow us
on Twitter <http://www.twitter.com/infoschoolsheff>, read our latest news
on our Blog <http://information-studies.blogspot.co.uk/> and join our
community on LinkedIn
<http://www.linkedin.com/company/university-of-sheffield-information-school?trk=tyah&trkInfo=tas%3Auniversity+of+sheffield+in%2Cidx%3A1-2-2>