[liberationtech] CfP: Weber & Digital Divide: Class, Status, & Power in Digital Age

Tue Feb 4 10:00:07 PST 2014

From: Ragnedda at gmail.com 

My colleague Glenn Muschert (Miami Univ.) and I are editing a special 
collection of articles on Max Weber and the Digital Divide. We are 
organizing a special journal section for the International Journal of 
Communication (http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc), which will examine how Max 
Weber’s theories may be used in studying digital inequalities. Indeed, this 
project builds (in part) on some of the ideas explored in our previous 
volume on The Digital Divide: The Internet and Social Inequality in 
International Context (Routledge 2013): 
http://books.google.com/books?id=OgYx8URCnU4C.

Please see the attached Call for Proposals for details on the scope, 
timing, and mechanics of this project.

Also, please feel welcome to post this call for papers widely and to 
forward it to interested colleagues and students. We hope to see some 
proposals from many of you, and for now, please feel welcome to be in 
contact if you have any questions for us.

Call for Proposed Abstracts for a Special Section on

“Weber and the Digital Divide: Class, Status, and Power in the Digital Age”

International Journal of Communication - http://ijoc.org

Special Editors: Massimo Ragnedda, Northumbria Univ. (UK) & Glenn W. 
Muschert, Miami Univ. (USA)

Much of the literature on stratification in the digital sphere (i.e., 
digital divides) has focused on the fundamentalmaterial relations of 
inequality present in the digital divide, often relying on Marxist/conflict 
schools of thought. To broaden the scope, the current project turns to Max 
Weber for new perspectives on stratification in the digital sphere. The 
project will stimulate scholarly exchange about how social stratification 
in the digital age is reproduced not only based on class dynamics (economic 
aspects), but also by status/prestige (cultural aspects), and in group 
affiliations (political aspects). Access to the economic means of 
production can indeed limit digital participation; however, Weber also 
posits that the process of stratification expresses itself in two other 
forms, namely “status” and “party.”Potential contributors are invited to 
explore the importance of status and political influence in a liquid 
society, such as the importance of prestige in digital participation (or 
exclusion), or the influence of political affiliation upon digital divides. 
Papers may be theoretical and/or analytical in nature, and should examine 
digital divides in relation to dynamics social class (lifestyle and 
culture), social status (prestige and market influence), and/or power 
(political impact/legitimacy). Submissions are welcomed from scholars at 
all stages of their careers, and from various relevant disciplines 
(sociology, communications, media studies, etc.). Possible topics for 
articles include, but are not limited to:

· Interplay among economic (class), cultural (status), and/or political 
(party) factors of digital divides.

· The role of digital participation/exclusion on individual and/or group 
life chances.

· The relevance of skills (digital literacy), certifications, and and 
legitimating credentials in digital divides.

· The role of status and prestige hierarchies in digital 
participation/exclusion (or vice versa).

· Cultural meanings (including religious and/or secular value systems) and 
digital divides.

· Political life (i.e., power relations) and dynamics of digital 
inclusion/exclusion.

· Bureaucratic/institutional relationships and digital divides.

· Forms of rationality in the digital (e.g., Zweckrationalität 
vs.Wertrationalität / ends vs. means rationality).

· The influence of worldview (Weltanschauung) on digital 
participation/exclusion.

Submissions should be in the form of extended abstracts of around 750 words 
in MS Word, sent as an email attachment to Massimo Ragnedda (
ragnedda at gmail.com) and Glenn Muschert (muschegw at MiamiOH.edu).

The deadline for submissions is 1 April 2014.

Abstracts will be judged on criteria of relevance and originality of topic.

Notification of initially-approved abstracts will be announced in 
mid-April, after which contributors will be asked to move forward to the 
peer-review submission phase. Contributions of 7000 words (maxi mum 
including abstract, footnotes, tables/figures with captions, references, 
and appendices, if any) will be due 1 July 2014. All submissions must 
adhere to APA (6th edition) formatting to include:

· Any endnotes should be converted to footnotes.

· Authors must include their profile, including affiliation and rank, when 
submitting a manuscript.

· All articles should include an abstract of 150 words.

· All articles must include a bibliography at the end that conforms to the 
most current APA style.

· All spellings must be rendered in American English. To change British or 
Commonwealth spellings to their

American equivalents, please see the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary.

· Only one submission per author will be considered at a time.

Contributions will be subject to double-blind peer review, and to encourage 
coherence in the special section, all contributors will be requested to act 
as a peer reviewer for at least one other article. After all necessary 
revisions and editing, the special section is scheduled to publish in 2015.

Also, please feel welcome to post this call for papers widely and to 
forward it to interested colleagues and students. We hope to see some 
proposals from many of you, and for now, please feel welcome to be in 
contact if you have any questions for us.

With best regards,

Massimo Ragnedda and Glenn Muschert
--
Massimo Ragnedda
Lecturer in Mass Communication
Northumbria University (Newcastle, UK)
mragnedda.wordpress.com
http://notizie.tiscali.it/opinioni/Ragnedda/184/
skype: massimo.ragnedda

http://northumbria.academia.edu/MassimoRagnedda
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