[Ci4cg-announce] Call for papers: AI & Society Special Issue on Cultural Diversity and Community Technology Design

[Aldo de Moor]

We invite contributions to a Special Issue on Cultural Diversity and
Community Technology Design, to be published by the AI & Society
Journal of Culture, Knowledge and Communication (Springer)
http://link.springer.com/journal/146.

AI & Society is the premier journal for publishing interdisciplinary
research on the interplay between society, culture and technology. We
particularly welcome contributions which, acknowledging the
fundamental impact that culture has on technology design, promise to
contribute original, forward-looking thinking that will advance
scholarship on the topics treated and signal new directions in
research.

This special issue is inspired by discussions and exchanges during the
CulTech 2015 workshop on Cultural Diversity and Technology Design
https://cultech2015.wordpress.com/, held at the 7th International
Conference on Communities and Technologies (C&T’15)
http://comtech.community/, in Limerick, Ireland.

IMPORTANT DATES

- Abstract submission: Feb 1, 2016
- Manuscript submission: March 1, 2016
- Notifications: June 1, 2016
- Submission final versions: September 15, 2016
- Target publication date: December 2016

SPECIAL ISSUE THEMES

Communities are a building block of society. Culture plays a
significant role in community technology design and usage. Artefacts
of culture, such as information technology, are not designed in a
culturally neutral way, but are encoded with the designer’s implicit
(and often subconscious) cultural values. While the design of
technology reflects an encoding of the designers’ implicit cultural
values, technology usage reflects the end user’s decoding from their
own cultural reference frame. As such, culture influences how end
users perceive and use information technology. Since technology
adoption is more likely when the end users’ values match the implicit
cultural values embedded in artefacts during the design stage, it is
crucial for the research community to better understand the role
culture plays in community technology design and usage.

This special issue engages with these issues and invites proposals
that explore the role of cultural diversity in potentially informing,
supporting, challenging or impacting the design of Information and
Communications Technology (ICT) within and across community contexts.
To delve into this complex and multi-faceted space, we welcome
submissions that 1) engage broadly with the role of culture within
technology design and usage for, with and by communities, as well as
2) proposals for approaches, tools, conceptual and methodological
frameworks, case studies and best practices in community-based design
that exploit cultural diversity as asset and seek to encourage
intercultural interactions.

Our goal is to offer an interdisciplinary coverage of the area
explored, by bringing together perspectives from different domains
such as computer science, design studies, cultural anthropology and
social sciences. In particular, we welcome contributions that explore
the following themes:

- Theoretical and reflective engagements with the role of culture and
cultural difference in community-based (participatory) design and
technology appropriation across cultures

- Frameworks, tools, and conceptual engagements tackling inclusion in
(participatory) design; The role of technology and technology design
in mediating or supporting societal inclusion

- Means (methods, tools, frameworks) for cross-cultural
transferability of community design and design processes

- Limits of transferability and situated, emergent design practices in
community contexts

- Empirical studies exploring cultural differences in community
technology usage and formulating design implications

- Metrics, tools, and frameworks for examining cultural differences in
community technology usage

- Conceptual papers that problematize design, re-framing community
design processes from cultural studies and intercultural communication
frameworks (e.g. design as a process of encoding values and meaning in
artefacts)

- Uses, benefits and limitations of ethnography and data-intensive
research methods in community-based design

- Local community knowledge management and knowledge conversion
processes and tools

- Building common ground and aligning intentions in multicultural
community design projects

- Case studies, approaches and best practices in community-based
design that explore or engage with issues of connectedness and
community cohesion, facilitating intercultural

- Awareness, communication and collaboration, and stimulating
intercultural interactions across diverse cultural groups

CONTRIBUTION TYPES

We welcome contributions across two formats:

- Original Papers: contribute original thinking underpinned by
carefully laid out conceptual, methodological or philosophical
premises. Within this category, we welcome papers on novel
technologies and applications, design or evaluation methods, case
studies on existing applications and systems, evaluation studies, and
conceptual papers that bring a substantial contribution to advancing
knowledge on the aforementioned topics. Original papers mainly address
the academic community and future-looking practitioners in the
industry. These papers are double blind peer-reviewed by two reviewers
and the editorial team.

- Open Forum contributions: may include discussion papers, case study
articles, work in progress papers, opinion forming and opinionated
articles, and articles on emerging and non-established research. They
address academic and industrial communities, but equally the average
reader, and should be written in a style which makes them accessible
and comprehensible for these various audiences. Papers for the Open
Forum will be double blind peer-reviewed by one reviewer and the
editorial team. These papers are the best format for putting forth
controversial or thought-provoking ideas relating to communities,
culture and ICTs.

ABOUT THE AI & SOCIETY JOURNAL

AI & Society  is an International Journal which publishes refereed
scholarly articles, position papers, debates, short communications and
reviews. Established in 1987, the journal focuses on the issues of
policy, design, applications of information, communications and new
media technologies, with a particular emphasis on cultural, social,
cognitive, economic, ethical and philosophical implications.

AI & Society is broad based and strongly interdisciplinary. It
provides an international forum for 'over the horizon' analysis of the
gaps and possibilities of rapidly evolving 'knowledge society', with a
humanistic vision of society, culture and technology.

SUBMISSION FORMATTING

Interested candidates are asked to submit a paper between 10 and 25
pages in the AI & Society’s manuscript format. You can find more
information about formatting under the section "Instructions for
Authors" http://www.springer.com/computer/ai/journal/146.

For inquiries and to submit your abstract and manuscript, please send
an email to: cultech2015 at gmail.com

SPECIAL ISSUE EDITORS

- Nemanja Memarovic, Department of Informatics, University of Zurich,
Switzerland
- Amalia Sabiescu, School of Media and Performing Arts, Coventry
University, United Kingdom
- Aldo de Moor, CommunitySense, The Netherlands

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Aldo de Moor, PhD
CommunitySense - for working communities
Cavaleriestraat 2, 5017 ET Tilburg, the Netherlands
e-mail: ademoor at communitysense.nl
mob: +31-6-47011400, tel/fax: +31-13-4564126
site: www.communitysense.nl             KvK: 18088302
blog: communitysense.wordpress.com   ___twitter: ademoor___
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