Center on Digital Culture and Society: International Conference & Ph.D. Course

“Technology in Movement, Movement in Technology”

Photo Credit: Matthew Henry / Unsplash

Rapidly emerging technologies have become a crucial component of movement and contention, ranging from strikes and protests to riots and civil disobedience to revolution and war. We have witnessed the widespread use of digitally mediated communication during large-scale political protests in promoting social justice like Black Lives Matter and the #MeToo movement, but also intelligence and information warfare that contribute to precise strikes, effective surveillance, and reconnaissance in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Interest in this field endures, while interrogation of the role of technology in movement proliferates. Still, contestation over the nature and degree of effectiveness of technology in movement and contention remains. And theoretical and methodological reflections are badly needed to identify challenges and opportunities for advancing the field. 

This international conference seeks to address and advance such discussion. We look for original, rigorous, and creative contributions and reflections that examine technology and movement/contention. Submissions can be primarily theoretical or based on empirical studies but may also include innovative suggestions for overcoming methodological challenges. In all forms, the submissions should make explicit, original, and substantial contributions to the relevance and implications of the role of technology in movement.

The Ph.D. course

An international Ph.D. course with the same theme on technology and movement will be offered in the conference. The participant will receive 3.8 European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) for participation in all three days including giving a paper presentation, or 2.3 ECTS (for participation in all three days).

Further detailed information on the Ph.D. course is available at the Ph.D. School at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen.

There are limited places for the Ph.D. course. To be considered to enroll into the Ph.D. course, the applications must follow the requirement from the Ph.D. school at the Faculty of Humanities and submit a document specifying the presentation and the motivation and expectation of the Ph.D. course. Further information will be available soon. For the submission to the Ph.D. course, please indicate “Submission to the Ph.D. course” in the email title.

Further inquiry please contact Jun Liu (liujun@hum.ku.dk) and Christina Neumayer (christina.neumayer@hum.ku.dk).

Submissions

Submissions may engage with the following questions:

• Theoretical developments in the sociology of technology in movement
• The historical, social, and political contingency of the role of technology in movement
• Technology and gender, sexuality, feminism, and LGBTQI issues in movement
• Technology and class, social, and digital inequalities in movement
• Big data and computational approaches to studying technology and movement (as well as critiques of these approaches)
• Safety and security issues of technology and movement
• Comparative empirical analyses of technology and movement across (a) historical eras and/or (b) countries, regions, and societies
• Legal, social and ethical issues of technology and movement
• Promise and peril of technology and movement

Abstracts of 300-500 words excluding references must be sent to techinmovement@ku.dk before the deadline. For submission to the Ph.D. course, please indicate “Submission to the Ph.D. course” in the email title.

Confirmed Keynote Speakers

• Professor Donatella della Porta, the Scuola Normale Superiore, Italy.
• Professor W. Lance Bennett, the University of Washington, the U.S.
• Professor Hazem Kandil, Cambridge University, UK.
• Professor Guobin Yang, the University of Pennsylvania, the U.S.

Timeline

• Deadline for submission of abstracts: Dec. 15, 2022
• Notification of acceptance: Jan. 31, 2023 (the acceptance letter for the Ph.D. course will be sent separately)
• Deadline for registrations: February 28, 2023
• Conference: May 8-9, 9-17 (CEST), 2023
• Ph.D. seminar: May 10, 9-17 (CEST), 2023

This conference is co-organized by the Independent Research Fund Denmark - Sapere Aude Starting Grant Project “To Use or Not to Use? A Relational Approach to ICTs as Repertoire of Contention”, the ECREA Communication & Democracy Section, and The Center on Digital Culture and Society, Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.