CFP:Japan in the Digital Age

Japan in the Digital Age
Call for Papers for a one-day Symposium
Saturday 28th October, 2017
The Shed, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester

Keynote Speakers
Prof. Ian Condry, Professor of Japanese Cultural Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Mr. Kazuhito Gen-I (?? ??), award-winning media practitioner, working on 2.5 Dimension project (theatre adaptation of anime, manga and videogame)

Japan has been a place of fascination throughout the years, particularly to those interested in media and popular culture, business, science and technology, and other related areas such as transport and tourism. Yet surprisingly, there is little sustained discussion on how contemporary Japan is situated within the rapidly changing landscape of digital technologies in the New Millennium. How has digitisation changed Japanese aesthetics and values? Have mobile phone technologies altered the way Japanese business language is used? How does 'tradition' shape Japanese digital cultures? Such questions need urgent attention as currently, there are a number of significant and innovative digital initiatives in Japan which have impacted on Japanese culture and arts, technology, business and society, but are little known outside of Japan.

We invite academics, PG students, industry researchers and practitioners for contributions which examine the transformation of Japan in the Digital Age, and the transformation of the Digital Age through Japanese culture, practice, politics, technologies, industries and beyond. The overall aim of the Symposium is to provide a supportive and inspiring environment to encourage cross-disciplinary and cross-sector dialogues, to learn about innovative digital projects in Japan, and to build a network of those engaged with Japan through their work and lives.

Suggested topics include:

• Digital technologies and Japanese popular culture (e.g. anime/manga, games, fashion)
• Japanese digital identity, politics and society
• Digital communications, Japanese language and business
• Innovative Japanese digital design and technologies

Please submit a 250-word abstract to e.miyake@mmu.ac.uk by 4th August 2017, using the following format: title + abstract; name of author(s); affiliation; email; key words. For any enquiries, please get in touch with Dr. Esperanza Miyake (e.miyake@mmu.ac.uk)?

CFP: Social Media & Social Order

Social Media & Social Order
International Conference
Oslo, Norway
30 November-2 December 2017

Keynote speakers: Chris Bail (Duke University), Nick Couldry (LSE) and Stefania Milan (University of Amsterdam)

This international conference will investigate how social media re-inscribe social order-asserting established ways in which social groups are assigned their proper place in the city or the nation. Social media are frequently imagined as vectors of transformation and disruption, and as a result very little existing research considers the continuities and conservative schemas that are reproduced by these platforms. The conference will make up for this blind spot by placing the symbols, institutions, rituals, socially induced emotions and everyday social interactions mediated and produced by digital media at the center. When, how and why do social media serve to reproduce rather than to challenge the existing order? Under which conditions, and on what levels, can challenges to the social order occur? What difference does it make to regard social media not just as a conduit but also as a site of social order?

The conference will pursue these questions by considering cases and identifying mechanisms through which social media both re-inscribe and challenge social order. These will range across several fields, including urban life, public debate, social movements, community dynamics, and religious or cultural conflict. The conference will also reflect on methodological issues in studying the social media-social order nexus, such as the relationship between computational and qualitative approaches. We will also consider the relative merits of various theoretical perspectives, including mediatisation, actor-network, figurational and practice theories.

The conference will feature reports from Cultural Conflict 2.0, a three-year project on digital media and cultural conflict funded by the Research Council of Norway based at the University of Agder, Norway, and the University of Amsterdam.

Presentations can deal with the following topics under the broader conference theme of Social Media & Social Order (but are not restricted to them):

• Racialized, classed and gendered ordering through social media
• How do social media impinge on local community relations?
• Memes, fake news and the far-right ascendancy
• Building alternate and activist social media to challenge social order
• The puzzle of aesthetic homogeneity and conformity on social media
• How hierarchy is established in digital networks
• Negotiating online and face-to-face encounters
• The relationship between 'legacy' and social media in the structuring of social order
• The logic of mutual affirmation in global/online vs. local/offline interactions

Abstracts are due by 1 August 2017. For further details and instructions for how to submit, please visit the conference website: https://social-media-and-social-order.neocities.org

If you have any questions about this call, don't hesitate to contact the organizers at cc2@uia.no.

CFP: Social Media Technology Conference & Workshop

Social Media Technology Conference & Workshop

Call for Papers, Workshops and Panels
October 5-6, 2017
Howard University
Washington, D.C.

Conference Theme – Social Media: Culture and Identity

The 7th Annual Social Media Technology Conference & Workshop is a two-day intensive conference combining panel discussions, paper presentations and workshops designed to enlighten attendees about new scholarship, professional practices and pedagogical approaches to teaching. Interested individuals can send in papers, workshop ideas and panels proposals that address a myriad of topics surrounding the theme – Social Media: Culture and Identity. This year’s theme focuses on dissecting how social media work to celebrate and heighten cultural differences and practices as well as provide a space for individuals to shape or have their identities shaped by social media usage. The goal is to bring scholars and professionals together to share their perspectives on how social media are utilized by various individuals, groups, cultures or entities to create agency, share voices and impact cultures and identities.

The deadline for submissions of papers, panels and workshops is on June 30, 2017. For more details, visit our official website at www.socialmediatechnologyconference.com. You can also email Dr. Tia C.M. Tyree at ttyree@howard.edu. Connect with us on Twitter and Facebook @smtechconfwork.

Sponsor

The National Communication Association, which advances Communication as the discipline that studies all forms, modes, media, and consequences of communication through humanistic, social scientific, and aesthetic inquiry. NCA serves the scholars, teachers, and practitioners who are its members by enabling and supporting their professional interests in research and teaching. Dedicated to fostering and promoting free and ethical communication, NCA promotes the widespread appreciation of the importance of communication in public and private life, the application of competent communication to improve the quality of human life and relationships, and the use of knowledge about communication to solve human problems.