[Sigifp-l] FW: ICA Workshop CFP: Administrative v. Critical Research: Implications for Contemporary Information Policy Studies

[Unsworth,Kristene]

This does look really interesting. I'm not sure if any of our members will be able to attend, but if you are considering it please let me know!
Kris

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kristene Unsworth, PhD.
Assistant Professor
ASIS&T SIG-IFP Chair

The College of Computing & Informatics
Drexel University
3141 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Tel: 215.895.6016  |  Fax: 215.895.2494
Drexel.edu/cci 


-----Original Message-----
From: Carla Basili [mailto:c.basili at ceris.cnr.it] 
Sent: Friday, November 07, 2014 9:18 AM
To: Unsworth,Kristene
Subject: Re: [Sigifp-l] FW: ICA Workshop CFP: Administrative v. Critical Research: Implications for Contemporary Information Policy Studies

Of GREAT interest to me, but unfortunately too expensive to attend!!!

Many thanks,


Carla Basili,

Information Policies in Science project, scientific-responsible
http://www.ceris.cnr.it/Basili/information_policies_in_science.htm   
(last update September 2013)



Il giorno 14/ott/14, alle ore 15:49, Unsworth,Kristene ha scritto:

> OF interest to some I'm certain!
>
> Kristene Unsworth, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor
> ASIS&T SIG-IFP Chair
> The College of Computing and Informatics Drexel University
> 3141 Chestnut Street
> Philadelphia, PA 19104
> Tel: 215.895.6016  |  Fax: 215.895.2494 Drexel.edu/cci
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Air-L [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of 
> Richard Denny Taylor
> Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2014 7:55 AM
> To: Air-L at listserv.aoir.org
> Subject: [Air-L] ICA Workshop CFP: Administrative v. Critical
> Research: Implications for Contemporary Information Policy Studies
>
> Administrative v. Critical Research: Implications for Contemporary 
> Information Policy Studies
>
> An ICA pre-conference co-hosted by the Journal of Information Policy, 
> the Institute for Information Policy at Penn State, the Department of 
> Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and 
> Political Science, the LINKS-ICORE project at the Department of 
> Communication Studies at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the 
> ICA Communication Law and Policy Division
>
>
>
> Tensions, disagreements, differences and disputes of both a 
> methodological and theoretical nature have always been an attribute of 
> communication policy studies. One of the major contributions to this 
> debate is Paul Lazarsfeld's seminal piece "Remarks on Administrative 
> and Critical Communication Research."* The Journal of Information 
> Policy ( <http://www.jip-online.org> www.jip- online.org), the 
> Institute for Information Policy at Penn State, the Department of 
> Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and 
> Political Science, the LINKS-ICORE project at the Department of 
> Communication Studies at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the 
> ICA Communication Law and Policy Division are holding a pre-conference 
> in which the relevance of the distinction between "administrative" and 
> "critical" scholarship in light of Lazarsfeld's analysis will be 
> tested when applied to today's information society and the research 
> questions contemporary information policy raises.
> The Journal will publish a special issue dedicated to the 75th 
> anniversary of this essay in 2016.
>
> The pre-conference will be held on May 21, 2015 at one of the two ICA 
> hotels in San Juan.
>
> Administrative research, according to Lazarsfeld, which takes its name 
> from the corporate or government funding that supports it, emanates 
> from the notion that the media are "tools handled by people or 
> agencies for given purposes" and therefore the studies themselves 
> focus on making the
> "tool(s) better known, and thus to facilitate (their) use." Critical 
> research, on the other hand, is guided by the notion that "the general 
> role of our media of communication in the present social order should 
> be studied." Lazarsfeld saw "administrative" research as being focused 
> on questions such as "Who are the people exposed to different media? 
> What are their specific preferences? What are the effects of different 
> methods of presentation?" and "critical"
> research as asking a different set of questions, such as "How are 
> these media organized and controlled? How, in their institutional 
> set-up is the trend toward centralization, standardization and 
> promotional pressure expressed? In what form, however disguised, are 
> they threatening human values?" Administrative research, explains 
> Lazarsfeld, is criticized for solving only "little problems, generally 
> of a business character, when the same methods could be used to 
> improve the life of the community if only they were applied to forward 
> looking projects related to the pressing economic and social problems 
> of our time." Critical research, however, is opposed by those who 
> believe "that so much of its effort is spent on what might be called 
> 'showing up'
> things, rather than fact-finding or constructive suggestions."
>
> Self-described as one "whose interests and occupational duties are in 
> the field of administrative research," Lazarsfeld called for the 
> development of critical policy research, since he believed it could 
> "contribute much in terms of challenging problems and new concepts."
>
> Contemporary society stands, 75 years later, at the same crossroads.  
> The media may have changed, they have assumed new names, they are 
> "digital"
> and "social", interactive and mobile; however, the social challenges 
> they raise are similar. While media are accessible as never before, 
> the divide among their users is more complex, and on many more levels, 
> than could have been fathomed three quarters of a century ago. The 
> increased pace of technological change also implies that it has become 
> more difficult to undertake the sort of anticipatory "reimagining" of 
> media potentialities with which critical research was tasked. Instead, 
> many of the most radical innovations capitalizing on the affordances 
> of new technologies are taking place in entrepreneurial contexts. 
> Governments, ideologically disinclined or unable to undertake 
> regulation preemptively (as witnessed in the net neutrality debates), 
> are allowing greater play for market forces in media environments. Is 
> there a role for critical research in this new scenario?
> Further, many policy issues now go well beyond the boundary of 
> nation-states and need to be addressed at the international, the 
> regional or even the global levels. Would a debate originated in the 
> U.S. context shed light on those issues in the age of networked power 
> and global governance?
>
> What direction is communication policy research taking? Is it driven 
> by researchers focused on the "tools" or on the context in which the 
> tools are used? What kinds of research should drive policy? How can 
> media researchers, who now have access to vastly improved sources of 
> data and research methods, compared to those in Lazarsfeld's time, 
> most effectively conduct administrative research? What ethical 
> questions are raised by the use of consumer data for administrative 
> research? Should research focus on understanding the media of 
> communications, what they are capable of doing and what their effects 
> may be, or should it focus on the social implications of access or 
> lack of access to these media?
>
> This Call for Papers invites submissions that identify the tension 
> between administrative and critical research as it pertains to 
> information and communication policy studies in both national and 
> global contexts.
> Submissions may focus on, but are not limited to, addressing the 
> following
> questions:
>
> .         What are the normative foundations of administrative  
> research?
>
> .         Can administrative research ethically inform information  
> policy?
>
> .         How can policy research be made more democratic?
>
> .         What, if any, is the role of the moral imagination in policy
> research?
>
> .         Can empiricism/positivism engage ethical/moral values?
>
> .         How can scholarly policy researchers (of any kind) avoid  
> being
> compromised by the dominant agents of influence?
>
> .         Should critical research have a greater presence in forums
> directed to administrative research?
>
> .         Can critical scholarship inform policy?
>
> .         Is critical scholarship utilized enough by policymakers?
>
> .         What is and what should be the relationship of social  
> activism
> to scholarship?
>
> .         What current policy issues heighten the tension between
> administrative and critical research?
>
>
>
> Case studies, which combine these questions with specific examples of 
> contemporary policy issues, are encouraged as well.
>
> Abstracts of between 400-500 words and a short bio of the author(s) 
> should be sent to  <mailto:pennstateiip at psu.edu> pennstateiip at psu.edu 
> by December 19, 2014. Please write IIPCLAPWS:
> YOUR NAME in the subject line. Abstracts not sent according to the 
> above instructions will not be reviewed. Authors will be notified of 
> their acceptance before January 14, 2015.  Up to 8 abstracts will be 
> accepted to the workshop and full papers are expected by May 14, 2015. 
> Each paper will be assigned a respondent, and discussed at length at 
> the workshop in order to help the author develop a paper to be 
> submitted to the Journal of Information Policy.
>
> Authors presenting at the pre-conference will be invited to submit 
> their completed papers for review in a special issue of the Journal of 
> Information Policy ( <http://www.jip-online.org/> www.jip-online.org
> ) to be published in 2016 highlighting the 75th anniversary of 
> Lazarfeld's essay. Now in its 5th year, the JIP is an open-access 
> peer-reviewed journal dedicated to timely policy research that 
> addresses contemporary challenges and connects researchers to 
> policymakers. This pre-conference is the 10th workshop of the "Making 
> Policy Research Accessible," project organized by the Institute for 
> Information Policy at Penn State.
>
> * Lazarsfeld, P. (1941). Remarks on administrative and critical 
> research.
> Studies in Philosophy and Social Science, 9, 2-16.
>
>
>
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