Date: Tue, 22 Sep 98 14:29:37 CDT
From: Charles Ess <DRU001D@VMA.SMSU.EDU>
Subject: call for papers - AI & Society
Colleagues:
Please copy and distribute as appropriate - apologies for cross-postings!
***
Call for Papers
Special Issue for AI and Society Journal on
Cultural Attitudes towards Technology and Communication
Over against the presumption that technology - including hardware and
software - is culturally neutral, mounting evidence suggests that
technologies may embed and convey specific cultural values and
communicative preferences. In this light, the rapid spread of CMC
technologies such as the Internet and the World Wide Web may issue less
in a utopian, democratic electronic global village and more in a
homogenized "McWorld" which threatens to override local cultural values
and communicative preferences. On the other hand, striking examples of
localization - of reshaping hardware and software systems to more
closely reflect specific cultural values and preferences - also exist.
Successful localization suggests that specific cultures _can_ resist
the tendency towards technological homogenization.
For a special issue of AI and Society, we invite papers which explore
the intersections between culture, communication, and technology so as
to address such questions as:
* what is "culture," and how does culture/s shape the
development and use of communication technologies?
* what is "communication", and how do communicative practices influence
the development and use of communication technologies or vice versa?
* how does gender - as defining specific roles in different cultures -
interact with patterns of technological implementation and use?
* what theoretical frameworks - postmodern, hermeneutic, technology-diffusion,
social construction, etc. - best describe and predict what is known of the
appropriation and use of communication technologies?
* how can software and hardware designers and users develop systems
more readily adaptable to a variety of cultural and communicative
preferences?
* what can be done to improve access to information and communication
technologies in developing countries, particularly in respect to cultural,
communication, cognitive, religious and philosophical issues?
(See the CATaC'98 conference web site for additional information and
overview essays: <http://www.arch.usyd.edu.au/~fay/catac/index.html>)
ABOUT THE JOURNAL
AI and Society is a refereed international journal, established in
1987, focusing on the issues associated with the policy, design and
management of information, communications and media technologies, and
their broader social, economic, cultural and philosophical implications.
SUBMISSION
Papers - preferable in electronic format - will be accepted until
January 2, 1999. Submissions will be PEER reviewed by an international
and multi-disciplinary committee.
The special issue is scheduled to appear in late 1999.
Please forward submissions and inquiries to the co-editors:
Charles Ess (ejcrec@lib.drury.edu)
Fay Sudweeks (fays@arch.usyd.edu.au)
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