[WebCultures] Call for Proposals- Privacy Camp 2019: Platforms, Politics, Participation

[Imge Ozcan]

Privacy Camp 2019: Platforms, Politics, Participation

Privacy Camp will take place on 29 January 2019 in Brussels, Belgium, just before the start of the CPDP<https://www.cpdpconferences.org/> conference. Privacy Camp brings together civil society, policy-makers and academia to discuss existing and looming problems for human rights in the digital environment.

Call for Proposals: Platforms, Politics, Participation

Privacy Camp 2019 will focus on digital platforms, their societal impact and political significance. Due to the rise of a few powerful companies such as Uber, Facebook, Amazon or Google, the term “platform” has moved beyond its initial computational meaning of technological architecture and has come to be understood as a socio-cultural phenomenon. Platforms are said to facilitate and shape human interactions, thus becoming important economic and political actors. While the companies offering platform services are increasingly the target of regulative action, they are also considered as allies of national and supranational institutions in enforcing policies voluntarily and gauging political interest and support. Digital platforms employ business models that rely on the collection of large amounts of data and the use of advanced algorithms, which raise concerns about their surveillance potential and their impact on political events. Increasingly rooted in the daily life of many individuals, platforms monetise social interactions and turn to questionable labor practices. Many sectors and social practices are being “platformised”, from public health to security, from news to entertainment services. Lately, some scholars have conceptualised this phenomenon as “platform capitalism<https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Platform+Capitalism-p-9781509504862>” or “platform society<https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-platform-society-9780190889777?cc=be&lang=en&>”.

Privacy Camp 2019 will unpack the implications of “platformisation” for the socio-political fabric, human rights and policy making. In particular, how does the platform logic shape our experiences and the world we live in? How do institutional actors attempt to regulate platforms? In what ways do the affordances and constraints of platforms shape how people share and make use of their data?

Participate!

We welcome panel proposals relating to the broad theme of platforms. Besides classic panel proposals we are also seeking short contributions for our workshop “Situating Platforms: User Narratives”.

1. Panel proposals

We are particularly interested in panel proposals on the following topics: platform economy and labour; algorithmic bias; democratic participation and social networks.

Submission guidelines:


•      Indicate a clear objective for your session, i.e. what would be a good outcome for you?

•      Indicate other speakers that could participate in your panel (and let us know which speaker has already confirmed, at least in principle, to participate).

•      Make it as participative as possible, think about how to include the audience and diverse actors. Note that the average panel length is 75 minutes.

•      Send us a description of no more than 400 words.

2. “Situating Platforms: User Narratives” submissions

In an effort to discuss situated contexts with regard to platforms, we will have a session on lived practices and user narratives. Individuals, civil society groups or community associations are welcome to contribute in the format of a short talk or show & tell demonstration. Details and the online submission form are here: https://framaforms.org/your-platform-story-1539768957

Deadline

The deadline for all submissions is 18 November. After the deadline, we will review your submission and let you know by the end of November whether your proposal can be included in the programme. It is possible that we suggest merging panel proposals if they are very similar.

Please send your proposal via email to privacycamp(at)edri.org!

If you have questions, please contact Kirsten at kirsten.fiedler(at)edri(dot)org or Imge at imge.ozcan(at)vub(dot)be.

For more details about Privacy Camp, please visit https://privacycamp.eu/


Imge Ozcan

Doctoral Researcher
Research Group on Law, Science, Technology & Society (LSTS)
Vrije Universiteit Brussel



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