Call for Papers: Civic Life in    
Digital Age

CfP: Civic life in digital age. Mapping the impact of big data and social media

(Guest editor: Mirko Tobias Schäfer)

The Journal of Computer Supported and Cooperative Work will publish a special issue on how datafication, big data and social media affect civic life, participation and labour.

Information technology affords that almost all aspects of our lives can be translated into data, data that are used for forecasting, assessment, real-time tracking, targeted advertising and polling. The practice of digitization and the role of electronic information media technology affects in various degrees almost all aspects of everyday life. This 'datafication' affects our public sphere as much as our consumption behaviour. A datafied public sphere changes the game of opinion polling, political debate and civic action. As a result our understanding of citizenship, democracy, public sphere and public space is fundamentally transforming.

This special issue investigates to what extent datafication transforms governance, labour and civic participation. We solicit contributions that address the emerging algorithmic governance through public administrations and corporations: the availability of digital records from birth certificate to curricula vitae, the assessment of work performance, financial transactions, communication records, travel data, health data have contributed to shaping novel forms of managing the population of citizens.

Datafication and algorithmic governance affects many areas of everyday life. We, therefore invite a broad spectrum of contributions to provide a broad overview of appropriate case examples and an apt presentation of relevant issues and ongoing discussion. 

Topics could include:

• Big data and its relation to governance and civic participation
• Big data and surveillance
• Social media monitoring
• Social media and public opinion
• Campaigning through social media
• Public opinion and polling in age of social media
• Impact of data analysis & visualization on decision making
• Labour & leisure transformed through big data
• Digital labour
• User/citizen participation
• Open data and civic participation
• Security issues in big data
• Civic rights, surveillance and security
• Algorithmic curation and content moderation
• Social physics
• User management and user monitoring
• Politics of nudging

Terms and deadlines

Proposals
Please submit a 400-600 word proposal outlining theoretical framework, empirical data and argument of the proposed paper.

Deadline for submitting proposals: 20.November 2014 - Please submit your proposal to mts@mtschaefer.net

Note of acceptance: 20 December 2014 with request for submitting full paper by 30 February 2015.

Publication date is planned for fall 2015

About the Journal

Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) is a 25 year old journal that disseminates innovative research results and provides an interdisciplinary forum for the debate and exchange of ideas concerning theoretical, practical, technical, and social issues in CSCW. The journal encompasses the diverse nature of research within the field and its related areas. Coverage ranges from ethnographic studies of cooperative work to reports on the development of CSCW systems and their technological foundations. The journal is published by Springer Computer Science: http://www.springer.com/computer/journal/10606

Image credit: Artistic Bokeh