Mobile Communication and Social Policy

New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA

October 9-11, 2009

Conference organized by the Center for Mobile Communication Studies, Rutgers University

Many topical sessions are being organized, and more will be developed out of the accepted submissions. Among the topics being considered include (but not limited to): 

• Identity and anonymity in location and communication
• Access and responsiveness of political leaders to mobile-equipped citizens
• Role of mobile communication in political activism
• Policy-making for mobiles
• First responders/crisis management/emergency notification/disaster recovery
• Issues of national integration and diasporas related to use of mobile communication
• Mobile learning
• Wellness, health and the role of the mobile
• Mobile device accessibility and integration/empowerment of handicapped people
• Mobile phone/device crimes and crime prevention Religious and spiritual activities and their implications for social practices
• Interpersonal contact services and related commercial activities

“Mobile 2.0: Beyond Voice?” (International Communication Association Preconference 2009)

Chicago, IL, USA

20-21 May 2009
Organized by LIRNasia

CFP: Mobile Communication and Social Policy

[ Call for Papers ]

Mobile communication and social policy 

New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA 

October 9-11, 2009 

Conference organized by the Center for Mobile Communication Studies, Rutgers University

Many topical sessions are being organized, and more will be developed out of the accepted submissions. Among the topics being considered include (but not limited to): 

• Identity and anonymity in location and communication
• Access and responsiveness of political leaders to mobile-equipped citizens
• Role of mobile communication in political activism
• Policy-making for mobiles
• First responders/crisis management/emergency notification/disaster recovery
• Issues of national integration and diasporas related to use of mobile communication
• Mobile learning
• Wellness, health and the role of the mobile
• Mobile device accessibility and integration/empowerment of handicapped people
• Mobile phone/device crimes and crime prevention Religious and spiritual activities and their implications for social practices
• Interpersonal contact services and related commercial activities

CFP: Special issue of New Media and Society

[ Call for Papers ]

Special issue of New Media and Society: Mobile Communication and the Developing World 

Rich Ling & Heather A. Horst, guest editors 

We are seeking papers for a special edition of the journal New Media & Society focusing on mobile communication and media, and its impact on the developing world. We are interested in papers that empirically describe the use of mobile practices as well as the convergence of mobile and other platforms in the developing world (e.g. Africa, Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe or other locations in the "global south"). Successful papers will examine the integration and use of mobile communication technology and its implications (both positive and negative) in individuals' lives. We are seeking papers that investigate the global as well as the local appropriations of mobile media use and its relationship to social change and/or development. Papers might address issues such as: 

• What are the social, cultural, gender related and political dimensions of mobile communication in the developing world? 
• What are the determinants, obstacles and implications of the adoption and use of mobile communications?
• What are the dimensions of inequalities and how does mobile communication address these inequalities?
• How does mobile communication facilitate activities such as care giving, coordination, social cohesion, money transfer, commerce, locally and globally? 

Submissions may be in the form of empirical research studies or theory-building papers and should be 5000 - 7000 words (in English). Papers must reflect new scholarship and not have been previously published (it is possible to submit revised conference papers). Authors interested in submitting to the special issue should send their 200-word abstract to either guest editor (Rich Ling or Heather Horst) on or before 1 March 2009. A sub-set of these abstracts will be selected for further development. Papers based on the abstracts that have been accepted for further consideration, will be due on 15 July 2009. Authors of papers selected for formal review may be invited to participate in a Pre-Conference Workshop at Association of Internet Research meetings on 7 October 2009 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA. 

About the editors of this NM&S special issue: 

Rich Ling (richard.ling@telenor.com) is a sociologist at Telenor's research institute located near Oslo, Norway, and a guest Professor at the IT University of Copenhagen. He has also been the Pohs visiting professor of communication studies at the University of Michigan. He is the author of the recently published book New Tech, New Ties: How Mobile communication is reshaping social cohesion as well as The Mobile Connection: The cell phone's impact on society, and along with Scott Campbell he is the editor of The Reconstruction of Space and Time Through Mobile Communication Practices. For the past fifteen years, he has worked in the research arm of Telenor and has been active in researching issues associated with new information communication technology and society with a particular focus on mobile telephony. 

Heather A. Horst (hhorst@uci.edu) is a sociocultural anthropologist at the Humanities Research Institute at the University of California, Irvine. She is the co-author (with Daniel Miller) of The Cell Phone: An Anthropology of Communication that examines the implications of mobile phones for development in Jamaica and is co-author with Mizuko Ito, et al. of a forthcoming book published by MIT Press, entitled Hanging Out, Messing Around and Geeking Out: Living and Learning with New Media She received her Ph. D. in Social Anthropology from University College London. Before joining UCHRI, she worked as a research fellow at the University of the West Indies and University College London and a postdoctoral scholar at University of Southern California, and University of California, Berkeley where her focus has been on the appropriation of new media and communication technologies in Jamaica and the United States.

Engagement and Exposure

Engagement and Exposure: Mobile Communication and the Ethics of Social Networking

Herausgegeben von Kristóf Nyíri

Reihe Passagen Philosophie
Social networking sites have in the past few years become extremely popular, and have turned the web into a markedly social medium. However, online social networking has led to concerns about privacy, as well as about possible counterproductive effects on making new realworld acquaintances. These effects are, in the short run, aggravated by permanent mobile connectivity. In the long run, however, mobile social networking might actually enhance real-world connections, with persons in your physical vicinity able to introduce themselves on the screen of your handheld. Privacy, anonymity, virtuality, friendship– the topic of mobile social networking clearly invites philosophical, and, in particular, ethical discussions. The volume contains papers by, among others, Charles Ess, Leopoldina Fortunati, Richard Harper, James E. Katz, Rich Ling, and Kurt Röttgers.

Citation:

Nyíri, K. (Ed.) (2009). Engagement and exposure: Mobile communication and the ethics of social networking. Vienna: Passagen Verlag.

Mobile Communications

Mobile Communications: An Introduction to New Media

Nicola Green and Leslie Haddon

Product Description
The mobile phone has achieved a global presence faster than any other form of information and communication technology. A global multi-billion dollar industry, this small, mundane device is now an intrinsic part of our everyday life.

This communications medium has had an immense social and cultural impact and continues to evolve. Talking, texting, photographing, videoing, connecting to a network of other media - the cellphone now seems essential. But, beyond the ways in which it has actively restructured our daily lives, the mobile has changed our sense of ourselves and the way we see the world. The relationship between public and private space, how we view time and space, how we rely on and negotiate social networks - all are increasingly centred on this small piece of technology.

Mobile Communications presents a succinct, challenging, and accessible overview of the transformations and challenges presented by this most personal, yet most overlooked technology.

About the authors
Nicola Green is Senior Lecturer in New Media and New Technologies in the Dept of Sociology, University of Surrey.
Leslie Haddon is Researcher and Associate Lecturer in the Dept of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Sciences.

Citation:

Green, N., & Haddon, L. (2009). Mobile communications: An introduction to new media. New York, NY: Berg.

Mobile Phones and Mobile Communication

Mobile Phones and Mobile Communication

Rich Ling and Jonathan Donner

Product Description
With staggering swiftness, the mobile phone has become a fixture of daily life in almost every society on earth. In 2007, the world had over 3 billion mobile subscriptions. Prosperous nations boast of having more subscriptions than people. In the developing world, hundreds of millions of people who could never afford a landline telephone now have a mobile number of their own. With a mobile in our hand many of us feel safer, more productive, and more connected to loved ones, but perhaps also more distracted and less involved with things happening immediately around us.

Written by two leading researchers in the field, this volume presents an overview of the mobile telephone as a social and cultural phenomenon. Research is summarized and made accessible though detailed descriptions of ten mobile users from around the world. These illustrate popular debates, as well as deeper social forces at work. The book concludes by considering three themes: the tighter interlacing of daily activities; a revolution of control in the social sphere, and the arrival of a world where the majority of its inhabitants are reachable, anytime, anywhere.

About the Author
Rich Ling is Senior Researcher at the Telenor Research Institute in Norway.
Jonathan Donner is Researcher for Microsoft Research India.

Citation:

Ling, R., & Donner, J. (2009). Mobile phones and mobile communication. Polity Press.