CALL FOR PAPERS
Fourth International Conference on CULTURAL ATTITUDES TOWARDS TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATION (CATaC'04) 27 June-1 July 2004 Karlstad University, Sweden www.it.murdoch.edu.au/catac/
Conference theme: Off the shelf or from the ground up? ICTs and cultural marginalization, homogenization or hybridization
The biennial CATaC conference series provides a continuously expanding
international forum for the presentation and discussion of current
research on how diverse cultural attitudes shape the implementation and
use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). The conference
series brings together scholars from around the globe who provide diverse
perspectives, both in terms of the specific culture(s)they highlight in
their presentations and discussions, and in terms of
the discipline(s) through which they approach the conference theme. The
first conference in the series was held in London in 1998, the second in
Perth in 2000, and the third in Montreal in 2002.
Beginning with our first conference in 1998, the CATaC conferences have
highlighted theoretical and praxis-oriented scholarship and research from
all parts of the globe, including Asia, Africa, and the Middle-East. The
conferences focus especially on people and communities at the developing
edges of ICT diffusion, including indigenous peoples and those outside the
English-speaking world.
Understanding the role of culture in how far minority and/or indigenous
cultural groups may succeed - or fail - in taking up ICTs designed for a
majority culture is obviously crucial to the moral and political
imperative of designing ICTs in ways that will not simply reinforce such
groups' marginalization. What is the role of culture in the development of
ICTs "from the ground up" - beginning with the local culture and
conditions - rather than assuming dominant "off the shelf" technologies
are appropriate? Are the empowering potentials of ICTs successfully
exploited among minority and indigenous groups, and/or do they rather
engender cultural marginalization, cultural homogenization or cultural
hybridization?
Original full papers (especially those which connect theoretical
frameworks with specific examples of cultural values, practices, etc.)and
short papers (e.g. describing current research projects and preliminary
results) are invited.
Topics of particular interest include but are not limited to:
- Culture: theory and praxis - Culture and economy - Alternative models for ICT diffusion - Role of governments and activists in culture, technology and communication - ICTs and cultural hybridity - ICTs and intercultural communication - Culture, communication and e-learning
Our conference themes provide a range of approaches to the questions raised.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Nina Wakeford, Foundation Fund Lecturer in Sociology and Social
Methodology. For her DPhil at Nuffield College, Oxford, Dr Wakeford
studied the experiences of mature students using a sociological conception
of risk. Before coming to the University of Surrey in September of 1998,
she spent three years studying "Women's Experiences of Virtual
Communities", funded by an ESRC Post-Doctoral grant. The last two years of
this Fellowship she conducted fieldwork in and around Silicon Valley while
based at the University of California, Berkeley.
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