<unlike-us> Civic Participation in the Datafied Society, 28-29 May 2020, Cardiff, UK

[arne at zeromail.org]

Civic Participation in the Datafied Society

Date: May 28-29, 2020
Location: Cardiff University in Cardiff, UK.
Host: Data Justice Lab

As the generation, collection and analysis of data continues to  
transform key aspects of our society across economics, politics and  
culture, the question of participation has rarely been so pertinent.  
Democratic processes and traditional avenues for participation are  
facing challenges as state-citizen relations are increasingly shaped  
through data analytics and automation at the same time as alternative  
visions for participatory democracy and decision-making have  
proliferated. As citizens, we are said to be both coerced and active  
participants in this shift, both liberated and exploited in the use of  
digital tools, both more visible and more obscured in data-driven  
systems. How, then, should we understand civic participation in the  
datafied society? In what ways are we positioned as citizens in the  
advancement of datafication? How are decisions made, governance  
carried out, and systems created? What possibilities exist to  
intervene in, influence, create and resist power? Who gets to  
participate and on what terms? How might our institutions and  
government practices need to change? What are strategies for  
democratising the emergent datafied society? And what are avenues for  
enhancing citizen and community participation?

This two-day event explores the relationship between datafication and  
participation. Hosted by the Data Justice Lab at Cardiff University’s  
School of Journalism, Media and Culture (JOMEC), it will bring  
together international scholars, practitioners, activists, and  
community groups to discuss the possibilities and challenges of civic  
participation in a datafied society. Speakers include:

Carly Kind (Ada Lovelace Institute)
Mark Andrejevic (Monash University, Australia)
Nanjira Sambuli (World Wide Web Foundation)
Natalie Fenton (Goldsmiths, University of London, UK)
Rashida Richardson (AI Now)
Tawana Petty (Detroit Digital Justice Coalition)

The conference will include both scholarly contributions and workshops  
with civil society, practitioners and impacted communities in order to  
facilitate and advance knowledge exchange. We therefore welcome  
alternative formats and ideas. Themes for submissions include (but are  
not limited to):

- Citizen juries, assemblies and audits
- Participatory data governance and oversight
- Data commons and co-operatives
- Data activism and resistance
- Participatory design and design justice
- Digital and human labour in data
- Participation, exploitation and coercion
- Geopolitics of participation


Submissions

Deadline for 500-word abstracts: 15th of December, 2019
Submit via EasyChair: https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=datajustice2020

All submissions must include a title, author name(s), institutional  
affiliation(s) and full contact information (mailing address, email  
address). If you propose a workshop or practical demonstration, please  
provide a clear statement of purpose and a detailed description of  
activities, as well as any infrastructure requirements. Please note  
that time-slots for sessions are 90 minutes. If more is needed, please  
include an explanation.


How to get there

Cardiff is a 2-hour train journey west of London and Heathrow airport.  
The closest airports are Cardiff and Bristol.


Conference fee

Full fee: £75 (early bird) / £100
Reduced fee for students and civil society: £50 (early bird) / £75

Conference organizing committee: Lina Dencik, Arne Hintz, Joanna  
Redden and Emiliano Treré (Data Justice Lab, Cardiff University, UK)

For information about the Data Justice Lab, see: http://www.datajusticelab.org
Online CfP: https://datajusticelab.org/data-justice-2020/
Hashtag: #DataJustice2020
Contact for further information: https://datajusticelab.org/contact/