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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif'>I am just reposting this from another list. The call cover email is below, and under that I pasted the actual text of the CFP as attachments don’t always work well on the list. Tom<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif'>Von: </span></b><span style='font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif'>eurograd--- via Eurograd <<a href="mailto:eurograd@lists.easst.net">eurograd@lists.easst.net</a>></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif'>Betreff: [EASST-Eurograd] CfP: Science as Culture Forum on "Big Tech"</span></b><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif'>Datum: </span></b><span style='font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif'>20. Oktober 2020 um 22:08:51 MESZ</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif'>An: </span></b><span style='font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif'>"<a href="mailto:eurograd@lists.easst.net">eurograd@lists.easst.net</a>" <<a href="mailto:eurograd@lists.easst.net">eurograd@lists.easst.net</a>></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif'>Antwort an: </span></b><span style='font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif'><a href="mailto:eurograd@lists.easst.net">eurograd@lists.easst.net</a></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>APOLOGIES FOR CROSS-POSTINGS<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Dear all,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>I thought you might be interested in the attached call for papers. It's for a Forum on "Big Tech" in<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><i>Science as Culture</i>. These Forums are meant to be a faster form of special issue on current topics; they involve shorter papers refereed by the journal editors rather than peer reviewers. Full papers are welcome too, but they would have to go through the normal review process.<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Here's an example of a previous Forum I edited on "Techno-Economic Assumptions":<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/csac20/26/4">https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/csac20/26/4</a><span class=apple-converted-space> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The point of this Forum is to turn an STS lens onto Big Tech. It's primarily motivated by an interest in trying to analyse the techno-economic dominance of Big Tech and the backlash this has engendered. For more, see the attached CfP.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Please forward to anyone you think might be find it of interest.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>If you have any questions, then please feel free to email me.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Thanks!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Kean<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif'>Kean Birch</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif'> </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif'>Graduate Program Director,<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a href="https://sts.gradstudies.yorku.ca/" target="_blank" title="https://sts.gradstudies.yorku.ca">Science & Technology Studies Program</a></span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif'>Associate Professor,<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a href="https://euc.yorku.ca/faculty-profile/birch-kean-d/" target="_blank" title="https://euc.yorku.ca/faculty-profile/birch-kean-d/"><span style='font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change</span></a></span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif'>Co-Editor,<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><i><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/csac20" title="https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/csac20">Science as Culture</a></i></span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif'>Series Editor,<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><i><a href="https://www.academia.edu/42689541/Technoscience_and_Society_Book_Series_University_of_Toronto_Press_" title="https://www.academia.edu/42689541/Technoscience_and_Society_Book_Series_University_of_Toronto_Press_">Technoscience & Society Book Series</a></i>, University of Toronto Press</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif'>Editorial Board Member,<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><i><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/home/sth" title="https://journals.sagepub.com/home/sth">Science, Technology, & Human Values</a></i></span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif'>Editorial Board Member,<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/tsep20/current" title="https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/tsep20/current"><i>Social Epistemology</i></a></span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'> <span class=apple-converted-space> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif'><a href="https://twitter.com/keanbirch" title="https://twitter.com/keanbirch">Twitter</a><span class=apple-converted-space> </span></span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>|</span><span class=apple-converted-space><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif'> </span></span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif'><a href="http://www.keanbirch.net/" title="http://www.keanbirch.net/">Website</a></span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif'>Tel.: (+1) 416-736-2100, ext. 30126</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change | York University</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif'>4700 Keele Street Toronto ON, Canada M3J 1P3</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=Default><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=Default><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=Default><b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Science as Culture </span></i></b><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>(SaC) Forum on “Big Tech” </span></b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default><b><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>Forum Editor: Kean Birch </span></b><span style='font-size:11.5pt'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>Big Tech is in the spotlight. Usually defined as Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google/Alphabet, and Facebook, “Big Tech” has become a watchword for corporate surveillance, monopoly, and market power. Arguably, they are the defining institutions of our day, dominating our political economies, societies, and polities as Big Oil or Big Banks did in their time. Criticism of Big Tech is increasingly evident as well, cutting across popular books, academic work, film, and journalism: examples include, Shoshana Zuboff’s 2019 book <i>The Age of Surveillance Capitalism</i>; recent documentaries like <i>Social Dilemma </i>and <i>Agents of Chaos</i>; and regular column inches in print media like the <i>Financial Times </i>and <i>The Economist</i>, this being particularly notable as these two are intellectual bastions of capitalism. Furthermore, Big Tech has been the subject of critical political investigations, like the recent US Congressional Hearings on Online Platforms and Market Power, or the International Grand Committee on Big Data, Privacy and Democracy. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>Although Big Tech is facing the glare of negative publicity, there is a notable absence of discussion about it in science and technology studies (STS), with some exceptions (e.g. Birch et al. 2020a, 2020b; Fourcade and Kluttz 2020; Geiger 2020; Sadowski 2020). Cognate fields – like information science, communication studies, law, algorithm or data studies, and so forth – have engaged with particular aspects of Big Tech or its antecedents (e.g. Gillespie 2014; Pasquale 2015; Roseblat and Stark 2016; O’Neil 2017; Noble 2018). For example, in analyses of how digital platforms and technologies reinforce social discrimination or disrupt political process. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>But STS as a field has not engaged analytical or empirically with ‘Big Tech’ as a specific and perhaps still emergent configuration of contemporary, technoscientific capitalism underpinned by monopoly and market power (Birch 2020; Birch and Muniesa 2020). Such configurations entail the techno-economic measurement and management of social relations and action, performatively driven by a particular techno-economic logic. For example, research on digital data illustrates the configuring of organizational practices by an “imperative to collect as much data as possible” (Fourcade and Healy, 2017). These data are necessarily scored and ranked in particular ways (e.g. individually), thereby re-configuring organizations in the process (ibid.). Similar techno-economic assumptions have been analysed for innovation more generally (Birch, 2017). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>Here, STS scholars are ideally placed to unpack and explore the techno-economic assumptions and knowledge claims, measurement tools and standards, organizational practices and expertise, innovation and business strategies, and policy debates underpinning the ascendance of Big Tech. All such aspects are normative as much as they are constitutive, reflecting key public debates right now about Big Tech’s monopoly or market power derived from digital network effects, threats to privacy in its collection of personal data as an asset, and role in generating new political-economic inequalities through automation, algorithms, and platforms. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>This <i>SaC Forum </i>seeks to engage scholars in an STS analysis of Big Tech, especially their role in science, technology, innovation, and expertise more generally. Submissions should address questions like the following: <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default style='margin-bottom:1.35pt'><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>- What are the different ways to analyse Big Tech as a techno-economic configuration? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default style='margin-bottom:1.35pt'><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>- In what ways are digital technologies different – or not – from other technologies in configuring market power? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default style='margin-bottom:1.35pt'><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>- How do some digital components (e.g. technologies, platforms, networks) become monopolistic? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>- In what ways is digital data – personal, health, etc. – a key constituent of Big Tech’s dominance? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default><span style='font-size:11.5pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=Default style='page-break-before:always'><span style='font-size:11.5pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=Default style='margin-bottom:1.35pt'><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>- What technoscientific and economic knowledges, expertise, and organizational practices underpin Big Tech? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default style='margin-bottom:1.35pt'><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>- How might digital technologies have politics or political economy (Winner 1980)? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default style='margin-bottom:1.35pt'><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>- What role does and should Big Tech have in society? In ethics? In politics? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default style='margin-bottom:1.35pt'><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>- What alternatives are there to Big Tech? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>- In discussing the above questions, how should we define Big Tech? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default><span style='font-size:11.5pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=Default><b><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>Details </span></b><span style='font-size:11.5pt'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default style='margin-bottom:1.35pt'><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>- Deadline: end of February 2021. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default style='margin-bottom:1.35pt'><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>- Length: flexible, ranging between 2k-6k words. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default style='margin-bottom:1.35pt'><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>- Format: author’s contact details (postal address and email address) should be at the top of the file; articles should contain an Introduction and Conclusion, but are otherwise flexible. Forum pieces have key words but no Abstracts, so the Conclusion should summarise the overall argument. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default style='margin-bottom:1.35pt'><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>- Contact: please email Kean Birch (keanbirch@gmail.com) with queries about suitability or abstract proposals. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default style='margin-bottom:1.35pt'><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>- Submission: send submissions to both Les Levidow (L.Levidow@open.ac.uk) and Kean Birch (keanbirch@gmail.com); forum articles will be reviewed by both Les and Kean, but will not be sent out for peer review. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>- Full-scale papers (10k words maximum) are also welcome. But these would need to follow the SaC editorial guidelines and undergo the normal referee procedure through the online system. If not ready in time for the Forum, they will be published in a later issue. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default><span style='font-size:11.5pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=Default><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>See </span><span style='font-size:11.5pt;color:navy'>https://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/authors/csac_edit_guidelines.pdf <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default><b><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>References </span></b><span style='font-size:11.5pt'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>Birch, K. (2017) Guest Introduction: Techno-economic assumptions, <i>Science as Culture </i>26(4): 433-44; special issue, </span><span style='font-size:9.0pt;color:navy'>https://www.tandfonline.com/action/doSearch?AllField=economic+assumptions&SeriesKey=csac20 <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>Birch, K. (2020) Automated neoliberalism? The digital organisation of markets in technoscientific capitalism, <i>New Formations </i>100-101: 10-27. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>Birch, K. and Muniesa, F. (eds) (2020) <i>Assetization: Turning Things into Assets in Technoscientific Capitalism</i>, Cambridge MA: MIT Press. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>Birch, K., Chiappetta, M. and Artyushina, A. (2020a) The problem of innovation in technoscientific capitalism: Data rentiership and the policy implications of turning personal digital data into a private asset, <i>Policy Studies </i>41(5): 468-487. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>Birch, K., Cochrane, D.T. and Ward, C. (2020b) Data as (intangible) asset? Unpacking the governance and valuation of digital personal data in Big Tech firms, unpublished manuscript. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>Fourcade, M. and Healy, K. (2017) Seeing like a market, <i>Socio-Economic Review </i>15(1): 9-29. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>Fourcade, M. and Kluttz, D. (2020) A Maussian bargain: Accumulation by gift in the digital economy, <i>Big Data & Society</i>, doi: 10.1177/2053951719897092 <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>Geiger, S. (2020) Silicon Valley, disruption, and the end of uncertainty, <i>Journal of Cultural Economy </i>13(2): 169-184. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>Gillespie, T. (2014) The Relevance of Algorithms, in T.Gillespie, P.Boczkowski, and K.Foot (eds), <i>Media Technologies</i>. Cambridge MA: MIT Press. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>Noble, S. (2018) <i>Algorithms of Oppression</i>. New York: New York University Press. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>O’Neil, C. (2017) <i>Weapons of Math Destruction</i>, New York: Broadway Books <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>Pasquale, F. (2015) <i>The Black Box Society</i>, Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>Rosenblat, A. and Stark, L. (2016) Algorithmic labor and information asymmetries: A case study of Uber’s drivers, <i>International Journal of Communication </i>10: 3758-3784. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>Sadowski, J. (2020) The internet of landlords: Digital platforms and new mechanisms of rentier capitalism, <i>Antipode </i>52(2): 562-580. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=Default><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>Winner, L. (1980) Do Artifacts Have Politics?, <i>Daedalus </i>109(1): 121-136. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.5pt'>Zuboff, S. (2019) <i>The Age of Surveillance Capitalism</i>, New York: Public Affairs.</span><o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>