[Air-L] CFP AoIR Flashpoint Symposium 2024 - Constructing the Digital: Working from the Global South

[Michelle, Association of Internet Researchers]

The Department of Communication, University of Hyderabad (UoH), India, and
the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Hyderabad, invite
submissions for a one-day symposium on the theme “Constructing the Digital:
Working from the Global South <https://aoirhyd2024.github.io/>” to be held
on April 13 2024, Hyderabad.

This Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) <https://aoir.org/>
Flashpoint Symposium will explore forms and structures of labour
contributing to digital infrastructures, content, and systems, and presents
an extensive opportunity for emerging and senior scholars, members of the
digital/platform labour rights advocacy and activist community in the
region to connect around critical questions related to the theme.

In addition to two keynote panels, this one-day symposium will feature
three thematic panels dealing with the labour behind the construction of
the digital—as platform, infrastructure, device, content, environment, or
medium, with particular emphasis on experiences and perspectives from
underrepresented groups.

Submissions to these panels could explore cultures of production and
digital mediation, from data annotation and content moderation to platform
and gig workers to creators of various kinds, addressing some of these
themes:

   - Visibility and invisibility in the digital and platform economy
   - Engineering digital infrastructure–who does it, where, and on what
   terms?
   - Gigs behind and beyond platforms
   - Intersectional understandings of worker rights
   - Skilling, de-skilling and valuation of labour
   - AI as enabler and threat
   - The possibilities of collectivisation
   - The enfolding of labour into the private sphere
   - New infrastructures of/for work–who and what do they privilege?
   - The place of digital labour in life–health, leisure, education, etc.

Abstracts must be no longer than 500 words outlining a clear research
question, methodology, results or emerging results if it is a work-in
-progress, and implications or outcomes from research. *Deadline for
submission of abstracts is January 30, 2024*; Communication of acceptance
February 28 2024. Please submit your abstracts here
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScrhmI4ZTPRQfMnEZ-PcvvLrI-oz6N4dnytb4_b1kQNNxsyeQ/viewform?usp=sharing>.
Bursaries are available to cover domestic travel for presenters from within
India to attend the conference. Priority will be given to graduate students
and Early Career Scholars. While the conference will primarily feature
in-person presentations, the committee will consider including a small
number of online presentations from scholars based outside the country.

Organising Team
*Co-chairs:*
Usha Raman, Professor Department of Communication, University of Hyderabad
Nimmi Rangaswamy, Professor Kohli Centre for Intelligent Systems, IIIT
Hyderabad
*Core organizing committee*
Aman Trehan, Lead Project Manager, Mobility IIIT-H iHub Data IIIT Hyderabad
Chinar Mehta, PhD Candidate, Department of Communication, University of
Hyderabad Manisha Madapathi, PhD Candidate Department of Communication,
University of Hyderabad Anuja Premika, PhD Candidate, Department of
Communication, University of Hyderabad Rahul Garg, Masters Candidate Kohli
Centre for Intelligent Systems, IIIT-Hyderabad
Tanmay Goyal, Masters Candidate Kohli Centre for Intelligent Systems,
IIIT-Hyderabad