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Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 (IRC22): #Home, May 25-27
https://cis-india.org/raw/irc-22-home
<b>We are excited to announce that the fifth edition of the Internet Researchers' Conference will be held online on May 25-27, 2022.This annual conference series was initiated by the researchers@work (r@w) programme at CIS in 2016 to gather researchers and practitioners engaging with the internet in/from India to congregate, share insights and tensions, and chart the ways forward. This year, the conference brings together a set of reflections and conversations on how we imagine and experience the home —as a space of refuge and comfort, but also as one of violence, care, labour and movement-building.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Venue: Online on Zoom</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Registration: <a class="external-link" href="https://tinyurl.com/reg-irc22">https://tinyurl.com/reg-irc22</a></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Code of Conduct:<a href="https://cis-india.org/IRC22_CoCFSP" class="external-link"> Download (PDF)</a></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Conference Programme: <a href="https://cis-india.org/IRC22.Programme.Final%20" class="external-link">Download (PDF)</a></strong></p>
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<p> </p>
<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_IRCPoster2.jpg/@@images/fa92d73e-af12-492b-b55c-f06e7a661415.jpeg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="IRC Poster 2" /></p>
<p dir="ltr">The ‘home’ has been a key line of defence in efforts to curtail the spread of COVID-19. Public health recommendations and governmental measures have enforced numerous restrictions on daily living, including physical distancing and isolation, home confinement, and quarantining. These mandates to be at home have relied on the construction, and assumption, of home as a familiar, stable and safe space.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">However, home has always been a site of intense political contestation—be it through the temporal frames of belonging, ideas of citizenship and regionalism, role in the reproduction of capital accumulation, or as material signifiers of social status. Over the past 2 years, digital infrastructures have played an intensified role in the meaning making of the home. Coming to terms with the pandemic entailed an accelerated embedding of digital systems in many of our relationships. Be it with the state, educational institutions, workplaces, or each other. Solutions to the many challenges of infrastructure and mobility emerging over the last year have been sought in digital technologies. The digital mediation of the pandemic has ushered in visions of the ‘new normal’ as situated wholly in the digital.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">While the initial anxieties of living through the pandemic may have now eased, and we make forays into a changed world, the spectre of the ‘next normal’ awaits. As we continue to come to terms with, and find ways to reorient the disruption of life, being at home has acquired many new meanings. What has it meant to be at home, and what is home? What is and has been the role of the internet and digital media technologies in navigating the contours of a changing ‘normal’? How have/can digital technologies help overcome, or exacerbate existing social, economic and political challenges during the pandemic? What forms of digital infrastructure—tools, platforms, devices and services—help build, sustain and alter the notion of home?</p>
<p dir="ltr">For IRC22, we invited sessions across a range of formats and themes to explore and challenge conceptions of the home. Different people imagine and experience the home in various ways—as a space of refuge and comfort, but also as one of violence, care, labour and/or movement-building. We invited contributions that speak to these provocations through one or more of the above thematic areas. A set of 12 sessions were finalised for the conference (including 4 individual presentations), based on peer selection by teams and presenters who proposed sessions as well as an external review.</p>
<h3 dir="ltr"></h3>
<h3><strong>Sessions</strong></h3>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-waitingforfood">#WaitingForFood</a> - Rhea Bose and Nisha Subramanian</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-thismightnotbeonline">#thismightnotbeonline</a> - Kaushal Sapre and Aasma Tulika</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-identitiesvulnerabilitiesopportunitiesdissentir">#IdentitesVulnerabilitiesOpportunitiesDissent</a> - Saumya Tewari, Manisha Madhava, Dhrupadi Chattopadhyay and Aparna Bose</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-homeandtheinternet">#HomeAndTheInternet</a> - Dona Biswas, Bhanu Priya Gupta and Ekta Kailash Sonwane </p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-letsmovein">#LetsMoveIn</a> - Arathy Salimkumar, Faheem Muhammed, Hazeena T and Manisha Madapathy</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-lockdownsandshutdowns">#LockdownsAndShutdowns</a> - Michael Collyer, Joss Wright, Andreas Tsamados, Marianne Díaz Hernández and Nathan Dobson</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-identifyingtheideaoflabourinteaching">#IdentifyingtheIdeaoflLaborinTeaching</a> - Sunanda Kar and Bishal Sinha</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-homebasedflexiworkincovid19">#HomeBasedFlexiworkInCovid19</a> - Sabina Dewan, Mukta Naik, Ayesha Zainudeen, Gayani Hurulle, Hue-Tam Jamme and Devesh Taneja</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-involutejaggedseamsofthedomesticandthevocational">#Involute:Jagged Seams of the Domestic and the Vocational -</a> Akriti Rastogi, Deepak Prince, Misbah Rashid and Satish Kumar</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-digitisingcrisesremakinghome">#DigitisingCrisesRemakingHome</a> - Vidya Subramanian, Kalindi Kokal and Uttara Purandare</p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong><br /></strong></p>
<h3><strong>Individual Presentations</strong></h3>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-goinghomeconstructionofadigitalurbanplatforminterfaceindelhincr">#GoingHome: Constructions of a Digital-Urban Platform Interface in Delhi-NCR</a> - Anurag Mazumdar</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-socialmediaactivism">#SocialMediaActivism</a> - Anushka Bhilwar</p>
<p><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-transactandwhatfollowed">#TransActandWhatFollowed</a> - Brindaalakshmi K</p>
<h3><strong>About the IRC Series</strong></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Researchers and practitioners across the domains of arts, humanities, and social sciences have attempted to understand life on the internet, or life after the internet, and the way digital technologies mediate various aspects of our being today. These attempts have in turn raised new questions around understanding of digital objects, online lives, and virtual networks, and have contributed to complicating disciplinary assumptions, methods, conceptualisations, and boundaries.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The researchers@work programme at the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) initiated the Internet Researchers' Conference (IRC) series to address these concerns, and to create an annual temporary space in India, for internet researchers to gather and share experiences.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The IRC series is driven by the following interests:</p>
<ul>
<li>creating discussion spaces for researchers and practitioners studying internet in India and in other comparable regions,</li>
<li>foregrounding the multiplicity, hierarchies, tensions, and urgencies of the digital sites and users in India,</li>
<li>accounting for the various layers, conceptual and material, of experiences and usages of internet and networked digital media in India, and</li>
<li>exploring and practicing new modes of research and documentation necessitated by new (digital) objects of power/knowledge.</li></ul>
<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-e32d113c-7fff-b48f-7af4-0a47077cf4a6"> </span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The<a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc16"> first edition of the Internet Researchers' Conference</a> series was held in February 2016. It was hosted by the<a href="https://www.jnu.ac.in/SSS/CPS/"> Centre for Political Studies</a> at Jawaharlal Nehru University, and was supported by the CSCS Digital Innovation Fund. The<a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc17"> second Internet Researchers' Conference</a> was organised in partnership with the<a href="http://citapp.iiitb.ac.in/"> Centre for Information Technology and Public Policy</a> (CITAPP) at the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT-B) campus on March 03-05, 2017. The<a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc18"> third Internet Researchers' Conference</a> was organised at the<a href="http://www.sambhaavnaa.org/"> Sambhaavnaa Institute</a>, Kandbari (Himachal Pradesh) during February 22-24, 2018, and the theme of the conference was *offline*. The<a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc19-list"> fourth Internet Researcher's Conference </a>was held at <a class="external-link" href="https://digital.lamakaan.com/">Lamakaan, Hyderabad</a> from January 30 - February 01, on the theme of the 'list'.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/irc-22-home'>https://cis-india.org/raw/irc-22-home</a>
</p>
No publisherPuthiya Purayil SnehaResearchers at WorkInternet Researcher's ConferenceFeaturedIRC22HomepageInternet Studies2022-05-24T14:38:57ZBlog EntryInternet Researchers' Conference 2022 (IRC22) - Selected Sessions
https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-home-selected-sessions
<b>Here is the list of selected sessions and individual presentations for the Internet Researchers' Conference (IRC22) - #Home. IRC22 will be held online from May 25-27, 2022. The conference announcement, along with details on registration will be published in the first week of May.
</b>
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<p><strong>Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 - #Home: <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/internet-researchers-conference-2022">Call for Sessions</a></strong></p>
<p><strong>Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 - #Home: <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-sessions">List of Proposed Sessions</a></strong></p>
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<p><strong>Selected Sessions and Total Scores</strong> </p>
<p dir="ltr"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-waitingforfood">#WaitingForFood </a>- Rhea Bose and Nisha Subramanian (85.00)</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-thismightnotbeonline">#thismightnotbeonline </a>- Kaushal Sapre; Aasma Tulika (81.88)</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-goinghomeconstructionofadigitalurbanplatforminterfaceindelhincr">#GoingHome: Constructions of a Digital-Urban Platform Interface in Delhi-NCR</a> - Anurag Mazumdar (80.63)</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-covidconfessions">#CovidConfessions</a> - Indumathi Manohar (80.63)</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-identitiesvulnerabilitiesopportunitiesdissentir">#IdentitesVulnerabilitiesOpportunitiesDissent </a>- Saumya Tewari; Manisha Madhava; Dhrupadi Chattopadhyay; Aparna Bose (79.38)</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-homeandtheinternet">#HomeAndTheInternet </a>- Dona Biswas; Bhanu Priya Gupta (77.50)</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-letsmovein">#LetsMoveIn </a>- Arathy Salimkumar; Faheem Muhammed; Hazeena T; Manisha Madapathy (76.25)</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-lockdownsandshutdowns">#LockdownsAndShutdowns </a>- Michael Collyer; Joss Wright (73.75)</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-actfromhome">#ActFromHome </a>- Maya Sherman; Rai Sengupta (73.75)</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-socialmediaactivism">#SocialMediaActivism </a>- Anushka Bhilwar (69.38)</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-transactandwhatfollowed">#TransActandWhatFollowed </a>- Brindaalakshmi K (68.75)</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-identifyingtheideaoflabourinteaching">#IdentifyingtheIdeaoflLaborinTeaching </a>- Sunanda Kar; Bishal Sinha (68.75)</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-homebasedflexiworkincovid19">#HomeBasedFlexiworkInCovid19 </a>- Sabina Dewan; Mukta Naik; Ayesha Zainudeen; Gayani Hurulle; Hue-Tam Jamme; Devesh Taneja (67.50)</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-involutejaggedseamsofthedomesticandthevocational">#Involute:Jagged Seams of the Domestic and the Vocational -</a> Akriti Rastogi; Deepak Prince; Misbah Rashid; Satish Kumar (65.63)</p>
<p><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-digitisingcrisesremakinghome">#DigitisingCrisesRemakingHome </a>- Vidya Subramanian; Kalindi Kokal; Uttara Purandare (61.88)</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="discreet"> Note: The total scores were derived from anonymous peer selection by all teams and scores by a panel of external reviewers, with both processes given a 50% weightage.</span></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-home-selected-sessions'>https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-home-selected-sessions</a>
</p>
No publisherPuthiya Purayil SnehaIRC22Internet StudiesInternet Researcher's ConferenceResearchers at Work2022-04-26T07:00:30ZBlog EntryIRC 22 - Proposed Session - #COVID19VaccineDiscourse
https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-covid19vaccinediscourse
<b>Details of a session proposed for the Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 - #Home.</b>
<p><strong>Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 </strong>- # <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/internet-researchers-conference-2022">Home - Call for Sessions</a></p>
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<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p><strong>Session Type: </strong>Panel Discussion <br /><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>Session Plan</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">This panel discusses vaccine hesitancy in the Global North and the Global South as is evident through social media. It is common to talk about the differences between the Global North and the Global South regarding vaccine hesitancy (Makau, 2021). Past studies have looked at economic, social, technological and power gaps regarding the impact of COVID-19 (Makau, 2021). However, our preliminary research suggests there are several similar factors affecting public perceptions of the COVID-19 attitude to vaccines across contexts such as religious beliefs, education, age, lack of trust on public health systems, influence of opinion and religious leaders among others (ECDC, 2022; Kanozia & Arya, 2021; Arce, J.S.S. et. al., 2021).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">With the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic the notion of “home” has become a key space for individuals to feel safe and protected from the COVID-19 virus. Playing a vital role in the creation of this space is the use of social media and the ways in which it influences vaccine discourse in online spaces. The availability and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines provides people with the opportunity to return to the public space and embrace their communities outside of the physical space of home. Our concept of “home” encompasses the whole world. Though we will be discussing the similarities of the Global North and the Global South, we will be talking here of the “home” as a community space that makes us feel “home”, inclusive of the divisions that exist between the Global North and the Global South. </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">World Health Organization has emphasized the significant role of vaccines for ending the pandemic (Dror et al., 2020). Despite the availability of various vaccines globally, vaccine hesitancy has led to visible protests and resistance against vaccine mandates internationally (Kelly, 2022; Ngo, M., Bednar & Ray 2022). There is a gap in understanding how vaccines are a universal need. Questions we raise are the following: If online communication opens dialogue about vaccine hesitancy or further polarizes it, how does it open access to information regarding COVID-19 vaccine availability? Do digital spaces provide a place for discourse and discussion about these topics?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The reasons behind vaccine hesitancy may vary from place to place. Even though geographical borders seem to blur due to the interconnections in the world by the arrival of internet technology and communication, the world order is still often viewed as being dichotomous Global North and Global South to point to the global socio-economic gaps (Roberts et. al., 2015). </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">This panel plans to study relevant twitter hashtags to understand how social media has been used to drive people towards/against vaccine hesitancy. The data is scraped using computational tools such as Gephi and Netlytic to identify trends such as #antivaksin, #vaccineSideEffects and #pfizer. We will do close readings of the textual data scraped along with an examination of visible networks and clusters within to see what discursive connections emerge across contexts. We therefore identify common and/or contrasting themes across the specific regional contexts from the global south and global north.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>References:</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">Dror et al. (2020). Vaccine hesitancy: the next challenge in the fight against COVID‑19.<em>European Journal of Epidemiology,</em> pp. 775-779.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Carpentier, N. (2017). Discourse. <em>In Keywords for Media Studies. </em>Laurie Ouellette and Jonathan Gray. Ed., New York: NYU Press, pp. 59-62.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Kanozia, R., & Arya, R. (2021). Fake news, religion, and covid-19 vaccine hesitancy in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Media Asia, 48(4), https://doi.org/10.1080/01296612.2021.1921963, pp. 313–321.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Kelly, L. (2022, February 12). NZ, Australia vaccination mandates protests gain in numbers.<em> </em><span style="text-align: justify;"><em>Reuters.</em> Retrieved March 7, 2022, from https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/new-zealand-australia-vaccination-mandates-protests-gain-numbers-2022-02-12/</span></p>
<p dir="ltr">Roberts, J. Timmons, Amy Bellone Hite, and Nitsan Chorev, Eds. 2015. <em>The Globalization and Development Reader Perspectives on Development and Global Change.</em> Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Makau, W. M. (2021). The impact of COVID-19 on the growing North-South divide.<em> E-international Relations, </em>15.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">ECDC. (2022, January 31). Overview of the implementation of COVID-19 vaccination strategies and deployment plans in the EU/EEA. Retrieved from European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications-data/overview-implementation-covid-19-vaccination-strategies-and-deployment-plans</p>
<p dir="ltr">Ngo, M., Bednar, A., & Ray, E. (2022). Trucker Convoy Protesting Covid Mandates Slow Traffic Around Washington. The New York Times. Retrieved March 7, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/06/us/trucker-convoy-dc-beltway.html.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Arce, J.S.S. et. al. (2021). COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and hesitancy in low-andmiddle-income countries,<em> Nature Medicine,</em> VOL 27 1386, 1385–1394, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01454-y.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-covid19vaccinediscourse'>https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-covid19vaccinediscourse</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminProposed SessionsIRC22Internet StudiesInternet Researcher's Conference2022-03-18T10:16:55ZBlog EntryIRC 22 - Proposed Session - #IdentifyingTheIdeaofLaborinTeaching – Negotiating pedagogy at home and inside classroom(s)
https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-identifyingtheideaoflabourinteaching
<b>Details of a session proposed for the Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 - #Home.</b>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 </strong>- #<a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/internet-researchers-conference-2022">Home - Call for Sessions</a></p>
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<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p><strong>Session Type: </strong>Presentation and Discussion<br /><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>Session Plan</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">If we introspect the past two years in the context of the pandemic, techno-digital tools and methods have become a necessity from being a substitute in our daily ventures. Schools, colleges and other institutions were forced to continue with what we became familiar as ‘work from home’. Taking work spaces as case studies (offices/schools/colleges) we aim to explore how ‘home’ has transformed itself from an informal space to a forma one through the medium of digital devices and the internet. Schools, in particular have undergone a shift in the modes of their practices – onsite to online (home), which has also resulted in the transformation of spaces within which pedagogy used to navigate.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The devices and the programs which cater to platforms like Google classroom, Zoom and other have seen a revival in usage in these recent times. This execution of the digital platforms or the ‘Zooming Towards a University Platform’ (D’Souza, 2020) has however boosted the Education Technology sector since online teaching for them has always been the ‘front paw’ (D’Souza: 2020). With these platforms being increasingly used as mediums to conduct ‘classes’ from the vicinities of home, one significant issue that has come across is the issue of the space. To be more precise, the online platforms and digital devices have challenged the conventional classroom space which has resulted in the change of pedagogy and mobility of individuals – both students and educators etc. This change in the space – from brick and mortar to online interfaces can be related to the Foucauldian notion of heterotopia, which is a result of a decentralization of the physical classroom space.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Evidently, the practice of work, in this case teaching/pedagogy has also undergone changes. Interaction in a classroom was always aimed towards a broader objective carried out within a ‘public sphere’ (Habermas, 1962). With digitization owing to the pandemic the public sphere seemed to get replaced by private spaces especially homes, only to be integrated within an online (digital) space which has a temporal existence. Owing to this, academic work or labor has seen an imposed digitisation on the part of both educators and students, and the transformation of the existing space has called for a different approach towards pedagogy.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Drawing on these, we would like to seek answers for these questions:</p>
<ol>
<li>How is work or labor in the academic sectors getting reconfigured with the imposition of the digital?</li>
<li>Is the idea of space and concept of work related to each other? if so, how? Or is work specific to space? What difference lies between the space of the home and the institutional space?</li>
<li>Is space or work a characteristic of each other? Do they fulfill each other’s’ features? Given this, does the idea of the public vs private sphere in terms of teaching and learning alter the notion of separate spaces?</li>
<li>How is the classroom getting reconfigured within the home and the digital ? what role does the individual(s) and the technodigital play?</li></ol>
<div> </div>
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<div><strong>Session Team </strong></div>
<div><strong><br /></strong></div>
<div>
<div><strong>Sunanda Kar </strong>works as a research student in the department of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology, Silchar, Assam. Her research interests include Digital Humanities, Literary studies, and New Media.</div>
<div><strong><br /></strong></div>
<div><strong>Bishal Sinha </strong>works as a Junior Research Fellow in the Department of English, Assam University. His Research interests include Postcolonial Studies, Film and Media Studies and Literary Gerontology.</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div> </div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-identifyingtheideaoflabourinteaching'>https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-identifyingtheideaoflabourinteaching</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminProposed SessionsIRC22Internet StudiesInternet Researcher's Conference2022-05-19T15:16:11ZBlog EntryIRC22 - Proposed Session - #WaitingForFood
https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-waitingforfood
<b>Details of a session proposed for the Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 - #Home.</b>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 </strong>- #<a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/internet-researchers-conference-2022">Home - Call for Sessions</a></p>
<hr />
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p><strong>Session Type: </strong>Presentation and Discussion of Papers<br /><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></p>
<p><span style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Session Plan </strong></span></p>
<p><span style="text-align: justify;">“Don’t come to Burger King, let the King come to you! Order safe deliveries from our kitchen to your doorstep on Swiggy or Zomato. Stay home, stay safe”.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The above caption is from an advertisement by the popular fast food joint Burger King, during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Indeed, one would have come across many such advertisements, centering the safety of the customer, from restaurants and food delivery platforms during the pandemic. Delivery platforms also reinforced this idea of ‘safe access to food from home’ through measures such as temperature checks and vaccination status of the delivery workers, option of no-contact delivery etc. Within such a context, the idea of ‘home’ acquired a certain valence, imbued with a sense of comfort that allowed for multiplicity of food options to be delivered within a short span of time, without compromising one’s safety. In this session, we propose to explore aspects of time, space, and home in the context of food delivery in the pandemic. While we explore time through the concept of ‘waiting’, we look at space through processes of simultaneous compression and rarefaction.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">A cursory glance at any food delivery app provides the customer with a certain distribution of time- order placed, preparing order, order picked up, order delivered- all of which are significantly tied to how the process of waiting at home is approached and experienced by the customer. Additionally, the tracking option on the app with an icon of the driver mediates the waiting experience. Similarly, such processes of waiting are experienced by the delivery worker in different ways albeit through multiple delivery cycles outside of home. In any given delivery cycle, a delivery worker waits for the order to be assigned and waits for the restaurant to prepare the order. In addition to this, incentives and long distance delivery produce other forms of waiting for the delivery worker. This waiting operates simultaneously with rapid movement often required to ensure that the order is delivered to the customer who is waiting at home. These forms of waiting are integral to the order-delivery chain and they take place on multiple registers- shaped by the space of home and outside home.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Various food delivery apps also communicate to the customer the promise of delivering different cuisines from across restaurants at the tip of their fingers. Such technologies entail a collapse of space that the customer experiences which varies drastically from the spatial organization of these said options. Many aspects of the app interface are directed towards this compression- the manner in which multiple cuisines and restaurants are organized on the app, the tracking interface that signals an apparent proximity mediated by time frame. Real time experience of delivery often punctures this idea of a seemingly seamless process- glitches in the map showing faulty directions and specifically in the context of Mumbai, the space itself is characterized by traffic jams, climate events etc- reconfiguring space in specific ways.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Drawing on the above discussions, the proposed session will include two papers exploring dimensions of space, time and home. Both papers will be presented In the first paper, (presenter's name) will discuss time in the context of waiting by asking how different modalities of waiting, experienced in the food-delivery process, are linked to the space of home and outside home. In the second paper, (presenter's name) will focus on space as a concept to understand how the perception of the compression of space in the app itself is animated in the order delivery process. Through both these papers, we attempt to explore how the idea of home itself gets restructured through the discourse of ‘staying at home to be safe’. Both papers draw on an ethnographic study conducted by the discussants in Central Mumbai.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Outline of the Session</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The discussants will share a recording of their respective presentations of 15 minutes each (as stated in the call for papers). The session will begin with a short discussion between presenters for 20 minutes. This will be followed by an open floor discussion on the papers with the audience present for the subsequent 30 minutes.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Session Team </strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Nisha Subramanian i</strong>s pursuing a PhD in Anthropology at Ashoka University. Their work explores rights of forest dwelling communities and temporalities of justice and injustice within the space of the forest</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Rhea Bos</strong>e is pursuing her PhD in The School of Development Studies (SDS), TISS Mumbai. Her work looks at the intersections of cyberspace and queer theory. </p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-waitingforfood'>https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-waitingforfood</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminProposed SessionsIRC22Internet StudiesInternet Researcher's Conference2022-04-25T13:11:04ZBlog EntryIRC 22 - Proposed Session - #HomeAndTheInternet
https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-homeandtheinternet
<b>Details of a session proposed for the Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 - #Home.</b>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>Internet Researchers' Conference 2022</strong> - # <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/internet-researchers-conference-2022">Home - Call for Sessions</a></p>
<hr />
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p><strong>Session Type: </strong>Presentation and Discussion of Papers</p>
<p><br /><strong>Session Plan</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The COVID-19 pandemic left many of us stranded between homes – some were able to reach back to our natal homes while others had to make do with where we were then situated. This was a difficult journey of sudden confinement. In times like these when people ought to be with their families, many of us didn’t get the chance to be with them. There emerged new questions of what is home, where is our home.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Can there be a single home? Can people from the North Eastern belt call the mainland our home in times of crisis where racial discrimination was right on our face? Do meanings of home change for a person with psychosocial disabilities who relies on external communities for support system? What does this forced confinement inside the home bring for the queer subject for whom the public space was the only getaway to live our queer lives? </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">We understand that the pandemic opened up the canvas of ‘home’ and ‘belonging’ by offering us alternative modes of socialization, thereby building communities within social movement which may not be tied to physical interaction. The internet in this context offered a temporary escape to many of us, while also latching on to our tendencies of addictive consumption. It was the only connection we had with the world outside. Issues that were previously overlooked gained attention as they reached to the level of crisis. Not only did educational learning suddenly shift to the digital space, we also witnessed a transition of the existing social movements into the digital landscape. This was obviously exclusionary for many without access, but also opened scope for a new accessibility of these existing modes of learning which the disabled population could better adapt to.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">This session is a presentation of two papers by the three team members on the theme of home and the internet for Dalit-Bahujan and Tribal students in India along the intersections of queer, disabled and North Eastern identity-based experiences. With qualitative interviews of women and queer students, and students with psychosocial disabilities in higher education, we bring out narratives of how the pandemic has affected the idea of home for them, how their cross-cutting intersectional identities have played a role in their experience of the real and the digital space, how the burden of labour has changed for women students in these times, how the social movements took shape within the contours of the home and on the internet, and what are the mental health impacts of these experiences on these students. The papers will be partly autoethnographic as the research questions have evolved from the personal experiences of the researchers themselves. </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong style="text-align: start;">Keywords:</strong><span style="text-align: start;"> </span>Mental health, movement building, working from home, friendship, labour, discrimination, social media, internet</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><span style="text-align: start;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="text-align: start;" dir="ltr"><strong>Session Team </strong></p>
<p style="text-align: start;" dir="ltr"><strong>Bhanu Priya Gupta </strong>is a PhD scholar in Disability Studies at Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD). Her research area is mental illness among Dalit-Bahujan women in the Hindi-speaking belt of India. She is a first-generation graduate who comes from the Bhadbunja community (most backward caste) of North India. She identifies as a Bahujan queer woman, a caregiver and person with mental illness. She has previously worked at National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) as a Research Associate. She is also a writer and has published her works at Mad in Asia, Velivada, In Plainspeak, and Gaysi Family.</p>
<p style="text-align: start;" dir="ltr"><strong>Dona Biswas</strong> is a PhD candidate in Women’s and Gender Studies, studying in Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD) and Centre for Women’s Development Studies (CWDS). Her research area is social movement and women in movement, working on Bodoland Movement in Assam. She belongs to Namasudra (SC) Bengali community, migrated Agricultural labourer, in Assam. She has previously worked at Nirantar: A Centre for Gender and Education, Delhi as a Research Assistant on Early and Child Marriage in India. Her writings have been published at Feminism in India, Velivada, and Sanghaditha. </p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Ekta Kailash Sonawane</strong> belongs to Mahar (Dalit) community of Maharashtra. They did their Masters in Gender Studies from Ambedkar University Delhi wherein they wrote a dissertation on the intellectual history of class, caste and gender. They have worked as a journalist and researcher at Awaaz India TV and Institute of Human Development. Their work has been published at Dalit Camera, Indie Journal, Colour's Board, Feminist Collective. They have also published a feature article in Hindustan Times.</p>
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<div> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-homeandtheinternet'>https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-homeandtheinternet</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminProposed SessionsIRC22Internet StudiesInternet Researcher's Conference2022-05-19T15:21:27ZBlog EntryIRC22 - Proposed Session - #IdentitiesVulnerabilitiesOpportunitiesDissent
https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-identitiesvulnerabilitiesopportunitiesdissentir
<b>Details of a session proposed for the Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 - #Home.</b>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 -</strong> #<a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/internet-researchers-conference-2022">Home - Call for Sessions</a></p>
<hr />
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p><strong>Session Type:</strong> Demonstration of Research Outputs and Methods<br /><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>Session Plan</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The penetration of the internet, mobile phones, social media and multimedia has ushered in the digital revolution. The Digital society promised to be open, fluid and accessible cutting across the barriers of class, caste, gender and rigidities of social structures. It has tremendous scope and potential to contribute effectively to economic growth, social mobility and political participation, creating the possibilities of a more inclusive society across the globe. However, despite its inclusive potential, the existing gender disparities, discrimination, patriarchial structures and inequalities, faced by women has had a considerable impact on the digital gender divide, leading to the digital exclusion of women. This exclusion had further implications during the lockdowns as families were confined to their homes with access to the internet as their only window outside the home.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Global statistics betray considerable discrimination in women’s access to internet. Internet penetration in the Americas is 77.6% for men and 76.8% for women, while in Africa it is 33.8% for men and 22.6% for women. The gender gap in developing countries is 22.8 % while it is 2.3 per cent in the developed world. For the world as a whole it is 17%, as per 2020 data. In India only 85% of women have access to the internet and 58% have access to mobile internet. Access however is not the only impediment in exploiting the internet’s equalizing potential. Low levels of literacy, lack of awareness and structures of patriarchy inhibits women’s participation and mobility on the digital platform as well. The internet operates largely within the parameters of a male-dominated society favouring male access and usage. The digital space at the same time has added to the existing challenges and vulnerabilities of women. In this context the present panel proposes to deliberate on four critical themes/questions. </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The papers are based on survey findings, field notes, case studies and literature survey from an ongoing Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi, sponsored Major Research Project on “Women as ‘Digital Subjects; Participating, Vulnerabilities and Building Empowerment”. The study was conducted in two urban and peri-urban areas of Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Kolkata and Howrah. The respondents included 540 women drawn from various socio-economic backgrounds, educational status, age and religious groups. The work status of the demographics in the sample includes- students 41 per cent, salaried workers (formal and informal/ full-time and part-time) 31 per cent, homemakers 20 per cent and businesswomen or entrepreneurs 8 per cent. 46 per cent of these women reported a total family or household income of two to five lakhs per annum. The survey was conducted in the lockdown months of January to May 2021, which gave a new meaning to home- as a workplace and as a social space - through a questionnaire, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with targeted groups especially home-based women entrepreneurs in Kolkata and Mumbai.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> The data analysis from the survey will be posted prior to the session for the audiences. The themes of the panel aim to answer the following questions: </p>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Who are the women who inhabit the social media driven digital space? Is it possible to speak of ‘women’ on the Net or are there ‘many voices of many women’? How do women perceive the internet and how do they seek to employ it? This question becomes critical in view of the unequal access to internet and internet enabled devices, not only on account of lack of digital literacy but also on account of existing social structures that deny women the agency. Moreover, lockdowns restricted people to their homes, leaving the digital spaces as the only means for social as well as economic interactions. In this situation, how did the digital spaces play out for providing opportunities to women?</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">What is the process and modalities of identity construction? What are the frames of reference for women in the process of new identity construction? Are these identities different from that of the ones in the real world? Are women re imagining their identities on the internet or constructing new ones? How are women creating new opportunities for themselves through the use of social media and the internet, given the flexibility of ‘working from home’ or ‘home-based’ ventures? Are these opportunities or are they compromises? In the process how are they using the internet to negotiate with the existing social structures that restrict their mobility and confine them to their homes? </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">What is the nature of women’s identities and expression in the virtual world? Can marginalized women use digital spaces to voice dissent? The flexibility of the digital media helps the marginalized create a space and alternative languages of dissent. How does this medium help Dalit women’s voices be transmitted in various forms? </li><li style="text-align: justify;">Are women’s vulnerabilities in the digital world different from that of the real world? How do women negotiate these vulnerabilities? What does women’s vulnerability mean in the context of the internet? Do these vulnerabilities limit women’s access and participation?</li></ol>
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p dir="ltr">The panel includes four papers relating to the four themes: </p>
<p><strong>I. Urban Woman and the Digital Media: Access, Preferences and Challenges</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This paper will present the main findings about Indian urban women’s access, participation and the purpose of their usage of the digital media. It is based on a survey that was conducted under the ICSSR’s major research project “Women as ‘Digital Subjects; Participating, Vulnerabilities and Building Empowerment” at the Department of Political Science, SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai. The survey was conducted among 540 women respondents from Mumbai and Kolkata and their peri-urban areas.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The survey data will showcase their demographic profiling and socio-economic status in the form of age groups, education levels, social groupings such as caste and religion, occupations and household level incomes, asset ownership and living spaces. </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The access to devices, internet costs and preferences in usage of social media platforms and apps will also be shown. Women’s perceived advantages and limitations to uses of digital media in their personal and/or professional lives will be revealed.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Further, the data will show their perceptions about their digital identities, realisation of gendered vulnerabilities in digital spaces and assessment of potential economic opportunities in world outside their physical world -the digital world.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The paper will conclude by pointing out the gendered nature of digital media-driven opportunities, with a focus on home-based entrepreneurship, and the need for intervention at the social level and policy frameworks to enhance the negotiating power of these aspiring women in three broad sections. </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>
<p><strong>II. Women, Identity and the Digital Media: Re-imagination or Re- negotiation?</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The impact of the internet has been exponential. On a very fundamental level, the internet has changed the way society interacts and connects with each other. This became more apparent and conspicuous during the pandemic as the social world moved to the internet and offline communities were formed by families, neighbourhoods, communities and societies. One of the particularly engaging aspects of this new modality of communication through the internet is its ability to support user-generated content in an interactive and ubiquitous manner. Within the digital world, this leads to the creation of new contacts which lead to assertion of 'new identities’. </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Based on a survey of 540 women in Mumbai and Kolkata and in-depth interviews of the lived experiences of home-based entrepreneurs on the use of social media for Entrepreneurship, this sub-theme will throw light on the access to the internet and online platforms and the opportunities that it has created for entrepreneurship among homemakers during the pandemic.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">In the light of these, the paper seeks to examine the women’s perception about the gendered nature of the internet, its potential in reconfiguring their identities, the possibilities of multiple identities on the internet and the intersectionality and divergence of such identities. The paper explores the dynamics of the process of identity creation by women in the digital space through the use of social media platforms namely Facebook and Whatsapp by examining and situating the life experiences of women. The paper argues that the digital spaces are geared towards reconfiguring existing identities vis-a-vis the digital platforms that women use or are part of. </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </p>
<p><strong>III. Gendering the Digital Dalit Dissent: Reading Thenmozhi Soundararajan’s Transmedia Art</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The digital medium with its unique forms of engagement and the possibility of inhabiting several mediational spaces allows the marginalized Dalit women to voice the dissent in multiple tongues. This paper argues that the language of dissent of Dalit women in the digital medium can be distinguished distinctly from their peers in the textual medium. These voices are marked by not only an insistence of dismantling the hierarchies of textual production and its complementary codes of participation but inventing multiplicities of form of expression that traverses various languages and forms. In doing so it invents a language of dissent that critically engages with but significantly departs from a range of Dalit feminist discourses that has essentially framed an alternative Dalit ‘canon’.The paper further argues that the digital Dalit feminist discourse changes the optics of engagement by re-inventing the understanding of ‘difference’ as an essentially polymorphous category. Thus is further accentuated in terms of how the Dalit Diaspora re-inscribes 'home' as a site of negotiations of caste invisibility. </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The paper will particularly focus on the transmedia art of Thenmozhi Soundararajan as an incentive to place this understanding of dissent firmly within the overlapping categories of ‘engaged art’ and ‘engaged activism’. </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>
<p><strong>IV. Gendered Vulnerabilities in the Digital Spaces: Some Insights</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Vulnerability is a concept that is often used in the literature on victimization. Vulnerability can be seen as the intersection between two axes: risk and harm and any given individual may be plotted in respect of his or her level of risk of being victimized and the amount of harm the victimization experience may cause.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The dimensions of vulnerabilities that women are subject to in digital spaces include go beyond inequity of access to the internet or devices, lack of digital literacy, cyber bullying / harassment, cyber crime and financial frauds. Based on survey findings of 540 women respondents in Mumbai and Kolkata, and their peri-urban areas, this paper argues that the internet is innately male-oriented, elitist and to a large extent undemocratic. These create inbuilt obstacles for women digital users and therefore require their tremendous effort. The greater problem however lies in normalizing such vulnerabilities creating the possibilities of transforming the digital space into mirror images. </p>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> <strong>Keywords:</strong> Internet, Digital Media, Women on Digital Media, Women</div>
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<div><strong>Session Team </strong></div>
<div>
<div><strong>Manisha Madhava </strong>PhD (Jadavpur University) is an Associate Professor and Head of, Department of Political Science, SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai. Her areas of research interest include Parliamentary Democracy in India with special reference to Lok Sabha, state parties in India, and social media and politics. She is the author of State Parties in India: Parliamentary Presence & Performance (Gyan, 2020) and co-editor of Indian Democracy: Problems and Prospects (Anthem, 2009). She is currently working on an ICSSR Sponsored Major Research Project on Women as ‘Subjects’ in Digital Media; Participating, Vulnerabilities and Empowerment.</div>
<div> </div>
<div><strong>Dhrupadi Chattopadhyay i</strong>s an Assistant Professor at the Department of English, SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai. She has been trained in literary studies at Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and Ruprecht Karls Universitat, Heidelberg. Post-colonial studies, culture studies, Digital humanities and emerging literatures are her areas of interest.</div>
<div> </div>
<div><strong>Aparna Bose </strong>is an independent researcher and visiting faculty at the Department of Political Science, SNDT Women’s University with an interest in International Politics, Foreign Policy Analysis, Area studies (mainly Africa), and Human Rights. Based in Mumbai, India, she has taught Political Science and International Relations courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels at different institutions in Mumbai. She holds a PhD in African Studies from Mumbai University. </div>
<div> </div>
<div><strong>Saumya Tewari </strong>(PhD in Development Studies, TISS, Mumbai) is an independent researcher with an interest in comparative politics, reforms, transparency & accountability and gender. Currently based in Lucknow, India, she has taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Public Policy and Political Science at different institutions in Mumbai and at Kumaun University in Nainital. She has worked as a policy writer with IndiaSpend, tracking public policy concerns in health, education, governance, election data and gender. She also holds a PG Diploma in Public Policy from ISS, The Hague and is an honorary fellow at the Centre for Multilevel Federalism, Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi.</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-identitiesvulnerabilitiesopportunitiesdissentir'>https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-identitiesvulnerabilitiesopportunitiesdissentir</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminProposed SessionsIRC22Internet StudiesInternet Researcher's Conference2022-05-24T14:42:54ZBlog EntryIRC22 - Proposed Session - #CovidConfessions: An internet art project
https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-covidconfessions
<b>Details of a session proposed for the Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 - #Home.</b>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Internet Researchers' Conference 2022</strong> - #<a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/internet-researchers-conference-2022">Home - Call for Sessions</a></p>
<hr />
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Session Type:</strong> Online Interactive Exhibit/Individual Presentation/<span style="text-align: justify;">Demonstration of research outputs and methods</span></p>
<p><strong>Session Plan</strong></p>
<div> </div>
<div>Featuring anonymous stories of resilience, wisdom, and joy, in Kannada, Hindi, & English</div>
<div> </div>
<ol>
<li dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>Background: </strong>Over the past 2 years, digital infrastructures have played an intensified role in the meaning making of the home. As the internet offers up access to work, play, and social contact it also mediates our relationships with our own identities, our successes, and failures. In the anonymity of the online community (for those who are privileged enough to have access to the internet and personal hardware like a smartphone or laptop), physical markers of belonging, material signifiers of social status can become irrelevant. For many who don’t have stable home environments, online communities can become a home that their own physical dwellings cannot.</p>
</li>
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<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>Questions: </strong>How can anonymity construct a stable and safe space? How can sharing anonymously via digital technologies help overcome mental health stresses caused by prolonged isolation? Can one find refuge and comfort in the stories and experiences of others? How can online safe spaces be curated as a tool for healing?</p>
</li>
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<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">#<strong>CovidConfessions: </strong>This session is an internet art experiment. The goal is to create an archive of anonymous covid confessions to share in the form of illustrations, voice overs, and animation, with the world. <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JzIidOwfMdz_vJCjUfnfCjEYNIogLjw2/view?usp=sharing">Here is a reference to the art style</a>. This is a long-form story, but I’m looking to create long-form, as well as single-slide bitesized multi-media pieces for social media. I know that there are similar confession style online spaces like <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/coronavirus-confessions-share-your-anonymous-stories-time-covid-19-n1166556">this one</a> but I’m looking to take these words one step further and create art that can be a healing.</p>
</li>
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<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>Accessibility:</strong> In order to be accessible to non-English speakers, I’d like to gather and include stories in Hindi and Kannada: #कोविडकहानी #CovidKahani #ಕನ್ನಡಕಥೆ #CovidKatha</p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>Gathering Stories</strong>: Stories will be collected through digital platforms like LinkedIn/Twitter/Instagram and personal networks like WhatsApp/Signal/Telegram, via <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1y3Lo_zd-PlddKfbbemKPHCrSKzblUDSOpFXmjclGjBE/edit">a google sheet like this one</a>. I will need this translated into Hindi and Kannada. I will reach Kannada speakers through Telegram and WhatsApp, English speakers through instagram, and Hindi speakers through Instagram and WhatsApp. Would love inputs on how to do this better.</p>
</li></ol>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Marginalised Voices: The internet is inherently a privileged space, and given that online confessions are given anonymously and without physical intervention, I don't see how I can reach out to non-internet users for stories at this point without compromising their anonymity <span style="text-align: justify;">— including them is out of the scope of this project. I acknowledge that it's very difficult to centre marginalised voices in this project <span style="text-align: justify;">— would love inputs on how to tackle that.</span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Session Type</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">An asynchronous online interactive exhibit, running from April 27 to May 27. <br />The internet is asynchronous, so we should make space for exhibit style projects which are not tied down to particular live “session.” This is an ongoing project that everyone can participate in. This project will be hosted on a microsite, linked to the IRC website, and shared on the instagram handle: @covid.confessions.project.<br />However, if I were hard pressed to choose one of the four formats, I would pick format 3 “Demonstration of research outputs and methods.” I can speak about what has been successful and what hasn’t worked with the project, what the reach and impact has been, and whether it answered any of the questions I began with.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Presenter</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Indumathi Manohar </strong> came to a career in design via theatre, dance, and scuba diving. Currently Communications Designer at CIS, she works on making research publications, annual reports, podcasts, events, and op-eds, more accessible to a larger audience through visual design— whether it be through layout design, infographics, social media creatives or web banners. You can find her work here.</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-covidconfessions'>https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-covidconfessions</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminProposed SessionsIRC22Internet StudiesInternet Researcher's Conference2022-04-25T13:16:53ZBlog EntryIRC22 - Proposed Session - #TransActandWhatFollowed - Access to care for transgender persons during the COVID-19 pandemic
https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-transactandwhatfollowed
<b>Details of a session proposed for the Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 - #Home.</b>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 -</strong> #<a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/internet-researchers-conference-2022">Home - Call for Sessions</a></p>
<hr />
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p><strong>Session Type: </strong>Individual Presentation</p>
<p><br /><strong>Session Plan</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">This session will be an individual presentation by Brindaalakshmi.K. Transgender persons were among the most severely affected during COVID-19 pandemic. The government of India made no special efforts to address the concerns of the transgender community during the lockdowns. Further hampering the access to their rights, the Government of India issued the rules for the new law, Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019 while the world was under a global lockdown. Transgender persons have had to go back to living in severely transphobic and abusive environments with their natal families. Access to healthcare and COVID-19 vaccination has also been a challenge for many transgender persons due to the lack of valid identification documents. Digitisation of the process to change the name and gender on identification documents has made the situation worse for a historically silenced population group. The digital process has widened the gap in accessing healthcare and other support systems during the pandemic. </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Under the theme of violence and care, this paper will explore the systemic violence faced by the transgender community during the COVID-19 pandemic and their struggles and challenges in accessing healthcare and other relief. The intent is to explore the role of technology in both enabling better access and also widening the access gap for transgender persons and also the data gap further perpetuating the erasure of transgender persons. The widening access gap will be understood by focusing on the digital process to change ID documents while the positive aspects of the use of technology will be explored by looking at some of the community driven online campaigns to raise funds and other support for transgender persons during the lockdowns. </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">This session will be based on the initial findings from the qualitative research study, Gendering of Development Data in India: Post-Trans Act 2019 by Brindaalakshmi.K for the Centre for Internet & Society as part of the Our Voices, Our Future project supported by Association for Progressive Communications. For the purpose of this study, qualitative interviews were conducted with NGOs, activists and lawyers to cover the rights related challenges faced by transgender persons. Apart from gender, different intersections of their identity such as caste, religion, urban/rural and disability were also covered in these interviews. Some of the findings will be shared during this presentation. </p>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>Presenter </strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>Brindaalakshmi. K</strong> is Co-Lead, Queer & Digital at Point of View. They are authoring the study, Gendering of Development Data in India: Post-Trans Act 2019 for the Centre for Internet & Society, India as part of the Our Voices Our Future project supported by Association for Progressive Communications. They previously authored the study, Gendering of Development Data in India: Beyond the Binary for the Centre for Internet & Society, India as part of the Big Data for Development Network (2020). They are a queer rights activist and peer supporter working with the LGBTIQA+ community in India. </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-transactandwhatfollowed'>https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-transactandwhatfollowed</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminProposed SessionsIRC22Internet StudiesInternet Researcher's Conference2022-05-19T15:12:46ZBlog EntryIRC22 - Proposed Session - #“Going Home”: Constructions of a Digital-Urban Platform Interface in Delhi-NCR
https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-goinghomeconstructionofadigitalurbanplatforminterfaceindelhincr
<b>Details of a session proposed for the Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 - #Home.</b>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>Internet Researchers' Conference 2022</strong> - # <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/internet-researchers-conference-2022">Home - Call for Sessions</a></p>
<hr />
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p><strong>Session Type:</strong> Individual Paper Presentation<br /><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>Abstract</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">My ongoing fieldwork with taxi drivers in Delhi-NCR suggests that the “go-home” feature and its equivalent in platform apps such as Uber and Ola have generated a lot of interest. This feature matches drivers with rides to their preferred destinations – usually allowing drivers to choose one or two destinations of their choice in a working day (Uber India Help nd). In an environment of algorithmic governance where drivers feel a considerable loss of control and autonomy, this feature offers a semblance of control over their conditions of survival and mobility. Departing from the enthusiasm generated among platform taxi drivers, this paper explores what “home” signifies for platform cultures with specific attention to the social and material infrastructures that enable and contest “going home.” The “home,” as in other instances, conveys familiarity, comfort and (intimate) knowledges. How and why (if so) do platforms as an urban-digital-labour-capital interface rely on or negate these constructions? Does this arrangement offer an incremental step of negotiating interlocking conflicts and if so, how? In summary, this paper provisionally suggests that “home,” as a feature and as an idea, may have been introduced by platform companies but its possibilities are not circumscribed by their designs.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Cited</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">Uber India (nd): “Set a Driver Destination,” Uber India Help, viewed on 9 March 2022, <a href="https://help.uber.com/driving-and-delivering/article/set-a-driver-destination?nodeId=f3df375b-5bd4-4460-a5e9-afd84ba439b9">https://help.uber.com/driving-and-delivering/article/set-a-driver-destination?nodeId=f3df375b-5bd4-4460-a5e9-afd84ba439b9</a> </p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Presenter </strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong></strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Anurag Mazumdar</strong> is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Geography & GIS, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. </p>
<div> </div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-goinghomeconstructionofadigitalurbanplatforminterfaceindelhincr'>https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-goinghomeconstructionofadigitalurbanplatforminterfaceindelhincr</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminProposed SessionsIRC22Internet StudiesInternet Researcher's Conference2022-04-25T13:04:02ZBlog EntryIRC22 - Proposed Session - #SocialMediaActivism
https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-socialmediaactivism
<b>Details of a session proposed for the Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 - #Home.</b>
<p><strong>Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 </strong>- # <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/internet-researchers-conference-2022">Home - Call for Sessions</a></p>
<hr />
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p><strong>Session Type: </strong>Individual Presentation/Demonstration of Research Outputs and Methods</p>
<p><br /><strong>Session Plan</strong></p>
<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-de385f6c-7fff-07a0-15d4-2ae85ecdbd7c"> </span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The said session is based upon the author’s original study on social media as a means of protest in the new digital age. Based on the study “Social Media and Protest: A Case Study on Anti CAA Protest in India” and updating it to “Social Media and Protest: A Case Study of Protest in India during COVID-19” through this session the aim is to bring in light the new ways how dissent or movements of resistance are being navigated. “Home” as being the theme of the conference becomes central point of view in this study and to understand how resistance movement can be participated from home and the impact it makes. This study can be beneficial to understand the socio-political movements in India and usage of digital technologies in mass participation in these movements – these range from amplification of resources, organizing gatherings etc. </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The theme social media and modern activism has recently taken the limelight in study of liberal arts. Researchers and universities are now taking social media as a tool to understand modern activism. The proposed study was originally presented in the International Conference on Advanced Research in Social Sciences, Oxford, United Kingdom. The session aims to discuss the findings of the said paper vis-à-vis Anti CAA protest in India as the case study. However, in regards to new developments around global and national politics, the author would also like to bring in perspective new case studies. And highlight the role of social media for dissent in India since 2019, followed in the Farmer’s Protest and much more. </p>
<h3><br /></h3>
<p><strong>Abstract</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Social Media and Protest: A Case Study of Protest in India during COVID-19 </strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The study aims to understand the role of social media in the current chain of events of various activist protests that have happened in the 21st Century or are going around the world. It specifically focuses on the role of social media in mitigating the protest in India. Role of social media thus was recognized as one of the major influences in organizing and facilitating these protests across the country. A special emphasis has been levied upon how the role of social media and how it was changed during the COVID-19 timeline. Understanding how physical interaction was limited how did people still participate in the resistance movement and helped in amplifying the cause. For instance, the Farmers Protest of 2020 is an example of Pandemic, resistance and social media – using this as an example an attempt is being made to understand how the pandemic has severely use of social media among young audience. </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In this study we unfold the active role of Social Media Apps such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram into creating awareness about the issue, advocating for one’s rights and organizing protests. Thus, looking at a new narrative of activism through online means or to say emergence of “Online Activism" and shift in resistance movements to digital spaces. </p>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Keywords</strong>: social media, Activist Protest, COVID-19, Farmers Protest 2020, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Resistance, Digital Spaces, Online Activism </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Presenter </strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Ms. Anushka Bhilwar </strong>(pronouns: they/she) are a student of MPP (Masters in Public Policy) at the University of Stirling, Scotland and an alumnus of Ambedkar University, New Delhi. Their research expands to AI and tech-policies to contemporary political thought and conflict studies. Currently, she works as a freelance writer and storyteller for Glasgow Women’s Library, Glasgow, United Kingdom and a contributing writer at People’s History of South Asia. In their previous endeavours they have worked within the capacity of a Research Associate and Technical Writer with United Nations Development Programme, New Delhi and Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi.</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-socialmediaactivism'>https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-socialmediaactivism</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminProposed SessionsIRC22Internet StudiesInternet Researcher's Conference2022-04-25T13:01:47ZBlog EntryIRC 22 - Proposed Session - # ActFromHome
https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-actfromhome
<b>Details of a session proposed for the Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 - #Home.</b>
<p> </p>
<p>Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 - # <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/internet-researchers-conference-2022">Home - Call for Sessions</a></p>
<hr />
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p><strong>Session Type:</strong> Workshop or Collaborative Working Session<br /><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>Session Plan</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Objectives of the Session</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, nations across the world instituted a range of public health measures that limited mobility in many areas, while confining families to homes for indefinite periods of time. Poverty, unemployment and other forms of inequality rose - both within and outside the home. Further, angst against various issues rose- worsening climate injustices, racial violence, gender discrimination, arbitrary layoffs across workplaces, and silencing of minority voices. In a pre-pandemic era, such issues would have elicited physical protest movements by the groups concerned, but with limited mobility - the digital space has become an arena for home-based protests and movements.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">This workshop seeks to answer a fundamental question: “Can democracies under crisis survive the home based protests across digital platforms?” It will highlight the role of emerging technologies in shaping the role of home-based digital protests across nations and cultures, with a specific focus on perspectives from Israel and India. Further, it will analyse the immense opportunities and pitfalls of driving home-based social movements on digital platforms. Moreover, the workshop will investigate the ambiguous positioning of online government surveillance and content moderation on collective human rights, with a specific focus on human rights within the home. In addition, it will examine the impact of digital home-based protests upon the aptness and scope of modern democratic regimes.</p>
<p><strong>Course of the Session and Work Division</strong></p>
<ol><li>Overview on the role of digital spaces and emerging technologies in promoting the role of the home as a space for protest</li><li>Thought exercise involving participants in analysing the merits and demerits of digitising home-based social movements.</li><li>Discussion on government surveillance and content moderation </li><li>Discussion on the impact of digital home-based protests </li><li>Group work involving participants in designing a digital social movement for a given cause (from a range of causes including climate action, gender equality, vaccine nationalism etc.) </li></ol>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<div><strong>Session Team </strong></div>
<div><strong>Maya Sherman</strong> is an Israeli Weidenfeld-Hoffmann leadership Scholar and MSc student of Social Sciences of the Internet at the Oxford Internet Institute, exploring the aptness of digital surveillance policies in democratic regimes. At Oxford, she was selected to represent the university in the Europaeum Policy Seminar, discussing data governance and stargu in the EU, as well as serving as one of 100 promising young leaders in the Global Leadership Challenge 2021. Maya is currently leading several research and policy projects and teams of AI for Good, cooperating with big tech companies as Dell and Microsoft in the UK.</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<div><strong>Rai Sengupta</strong> is currently pursuing an MSc in Evidence-Based Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation at the University of Oxford. She is the recipient of the prestigious Weidenfeld Hoffmann Scholarship, a</div>
<div>prestigious full scholarship to Oxford which is granted to 35 scholars globally, in a bid to cultivate the leaders of tomorrow. While at Oxford, Rai is working as a consultant with the Asian Development Bank, helping to</div>
<div>integrate Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) considerations across the national statistical infrastructure of 5 Asian nations.</div>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-actfromhome'>https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-actfromhome</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminProposed SessionsIRC22Internet StudiesInternet Researcher's Conference2022-04-25T12:46:10ZBlog EntryIRC 22 - Proposed Session - #LockdownsAndShutdowns
https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-lockdownsandshutdowns
<b>Details of a session proposed for the Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 - #Home.</b>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 -</strong> # <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/internet-researchers-conference-2022">Home - Call for Sessions</a></p>
<hr />
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p><strong>Session Type:</strong> Workshop or Collaborative Working Session<br /><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>Session Plan</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Internet shutdowns are a form of censorship which can have substantial economic and human rights implications. Despite the potential negative consequences, shutdowns are still used across the globe, and many social perspectives on shutdowns remain under-researched and poorly understood. For example, the relationship between internet shutdowns and one’s sense of safety and freedom at home. This connection is pertinent given the COVID19 pandemic and government recommendations to work from home, which emphasised the importance of the internet and the ability to connect with others freely. By connecting with others online, we create a sense of digital community. While many are spending more time at home, shutdowns continued despite the increasing need for online communication. This session aims to understand community perspectives surrounding shutdowns and other forms of censorship, specifically focusing on one’s “home”. Shutdowns are a common tool to curb forms of collective action (such as protests), and some public spaces have had reduced availability due to COVID19. Therefore, the importance of the internet in enabling social movements, like protests, cannot be understated. Thus, this session will touch upon many essential topics and encourage others to think about shutdowns and the increased importance of the internet in allowing social movements from within one’s home.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The session will last a total of 60 minutes. The first 5 minutes will provide an overview of the session’s structure and why this topic is important. We will then move into a semi-structured format consisting of 3 x 15-minute mini-sessions, with each mini-session touching upon a different question. Example questions may cover topics such as the unique role of the internet in enabling online social movements in times of a lockdown or if shutdowns during lockdowns merit a different moral threshold. The prompt questions will encourage interdisciplinary discussion so that participants from diverse backgrounds can make meaningful contributions. We envisage that this session will be organic and open in a large roundtable format. The last 10 minutes of the session will consist of an open-style discussion so that any remaining thoughts, opinions, and reflections from participants may be shared.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>Session Team </strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>Michael Collyer</strong> is an OTF Senior Fellow in Information Controls and a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Oxford. His research interests are information controls, Bayesian statistics, machine learning, and natural language processing.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>Joss Wright </strong>is the Co-Director of the Oxford EPSRC Cybersecurity Doctoral Training Centre; Co-Director of the Oxford Martin Programme on the Illegal Wildlife Trade; and Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute. His work focuses on computational approaches to social science questions, with a particular focus on technologies that exert, resist, or subvert control over information.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>Andreas Tsamados i</strong>s a doctoral researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute focusing on human control over AI/ML applications within national security and defence. He is also developing the Algorithmic Resistance Cookbook, a guide to using data-driven tools and techniques to practice resistance against intrusive and repressive aspects of present-day algorithmic culture.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>Marianne Díaz Hernández </strong>is a #KeepItOn Fellow at Access Now. Marianne is a Venezuelan lawyer, digital rights activist, and fiction writer, currently based in Santiago, Chile. Her work focuses mainly on issues regarding online freedom of speech, privacy, web filtering, internet infrastructure and digital security. She founded the digital rights NGO Acceso Libre, a volunteer-based organization that documents threats to human rights in the online environment in Venezuela. Before joining Access Now, Marianne worked as a public policy analyst for the Latin American NGO Derechos Digitales. She’s volunteered for Global Voices, particularly for the Advox project, since 2010. She has also published several fiction books, and co-founded the small press Casajena Editoras. In 2019, she was recognized with the “Human Rights Hero” award, granted by Access Now, for her “research and leading advocacy efforts against invasive measures taken by the Maduro government in Venezuela. She’s currently working towards a Master’s Degree in Narrative Writing at Alberto Hurtado University.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>Nathan Dobson </strong>is a Postdoc at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Oxford. He has a PhD in Anthropology from the University of California, Irvine. His current research is on internet shutdowns in relation to elections and violence in Africa. He has a background in African Studies and has worked at the University of Florida, USA, and the University of Birmingham, UK. </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-lockdownsandshutdowns'>https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-lockdownsandshutdowns</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminProposed SessionsIRC22Internet StudiesInternet Researcher's Conference2022-05-19T15:05:42ZBlog EntryIRC 22 - Proposed Session - #MetaverseInquilab
https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-metaverseinquilab
<b>Details of a session proposed for the Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 - #Home.</b>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 - </strong># <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/internet-researchers-conference-2022">Home - Call for Sessions</a></p>
<hr />
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Session Type:</strong> Presentation and Panel Discussion </p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Session Plan</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">This session will begin with a general overview of various social movements during the pandemic and how they were affected by it. For instance, the Farmer’s Protests and Anti-CAA Protests in India, BLM in America and other environmental, anti-globalization and LGBTQ global movements.</p>
<p dir="ltr">A cursory Google search on the term ‘Social Movements’ suggests -</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">“A social movement is a loosely organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a social or political one. This may be to carry out, resist or undo a social change. It is a type of group action and may involve individuals, organizations or both.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">The broad objectives of this session are -</p>
<ol>
<li>To reimagine the idea of social movements, not just as flash points but consistent, collective, coordinated efforts for effective social transformation over time and,</li>
<li>To broaden its ambit by reimagining spaces for protests, borrowing from “Yunus Berndt’s people-less protests”.</li></ol>
<p style="text-align: justify;">If geographically distributed work environments are now possible (courtesy of COVID), why not virtually launched DAO based social movements? We are living in unprecedented times. Today, the internet is not just facilitating social movements from home but also allowing many possibilities for more inclusive and democratic participation of communities, collaborative mobilizing and transparent funding mechanisms. The internet has made it possible for all of us to become citizen-activists and imagine create better future(s).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The metaverse is a 3D immersive participatory internet experience that makes use of AR and VR technologies. Combined with the blockchain and DAOs, this trifecta could potentially show the way for everlasting high-impact citizen-led social movements. The advantages of meta-activism include:</p>
<ol>
<li>Transparency - traceable trail of docs</li>
<li>Greater Reach - beyond borders - greater collabs</li>
<li>Efficient - low mobilization cost</li>
<li>Harder to Censor by Govts - cannot delete info on the blockchain</li>
<li>Liberating - use of avatars and pseudonymized identities (free from pre-existing structural inequalities and traditional markers individual, offering a clean slate)</li>
<li>An opportunity to Build New Decentralized Worlds with different (direct) governance structures - shifting human behaviour towards better outcomes</li>
<li>No Hierarchy - shared responsibilities, leaderless movements - reimaging leadership</li>
<li>Egalitarian Decision Making - Decision making occurs when conversations turn into proposals that are voted upon by members of the collective. No action is taken without recorded collective consent.</li></ol>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> However, new technology by itself cannot fix all societal problems. We will need to put in place consensual principles that enable us to do so. It is precisely this area that excites both of us. How do we create meaningful digital publics? How do we ensure greater inclusion, participation and voice in such digital political spaces? Thus, in the session, we will elucidate on the ways in which citizen-activists can launch and lead sustained future movements on the metaverse:</p>
<ol>
<li>Hacks</li>
<li>Mass Migration from the State’s Central Registries</li>
<li>Social movements as Repositories of Truth - Ex: Farmer NFT & Museum</li>
<li>DAOs to Redeploy Cooperative Wealth</li>
<li>Peace Initiatives that Obliterate Borders - Ex: Aghaz-e-Dosti</li>
<li>Funding Mechanisms for Transparency - Ex: CryptoRelief</li></ol>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> Regarding session format, we’d like to present the key points from our joint paper followed by a panel discussion with the members of prominent social movements cited above, ending with a Q&A with the audience. Additionally, our paper will exist in the metaverse for people to come and read and engage with us further. We are in touch with the organizers of the Farmer’s Protests and founding members of Aghaz-e-Dosti. We will be contacting members from other social movements as well if our proposal is selected.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-metaverseinquilab'>https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-metaverseinquilab</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminProposed SessionsIRC22Internet StudiesInternet Researcher's Conference2022-03-18T13:01:11ZBlog EntryIRC 22 - Proposed Session - #LetsMoveIn
https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-letsmovein
<b>Details of a session proposed for the Internet Researchers' Conference 2022 - #Home.</b>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>Internet Researchers' Conference 2022</strong> - # <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/internet-researchers-conference-2022">Home - Call for Sessions</a></p>
<hr />
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Session Type:</strong> Workshop/Collaborative Working Session</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Session Plan</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This is a collaborative session designed in the form of a workshop to understand the implications on social movements because of the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Movements of many kinds have moved geographies from public spaces to within the private space of the home. Not only has the nature of movements changed because of this, but we have seen the idea of home being transformed and gaining novel meanings like never before on a global scale. This metamorphosis had to undergo the collapse of inside and outside of home as two separate spaces which we often used to refer to. We were forced to shift most of our ‘outside’ lives to ‘inside’ breakout rooms. We want to collectively understand through this workshop, the different manifestations that movements have taken through digital media devices and its implications on the idea of home. This session seeks to understand the implications of ‘reterritorialized’ home from an entry point of movements through a participatory dialogue which we hope will bring the multifaceted experiences to the forefront of discussion. In doing so, we would like to engage with broader questions of what transformations have happened to movements when we had to navigate ourselves mostly in the digital arena, how people reciprocate to this transformation, how gender, caste, class etc. shape the digital movements landscape, how digital [dis]enable the possibility of protesting in and from home, etc. Some of the concepts that we want to explore through the activities are spaciality, materiality, agency, public/private dichotomy, sociality, mediation, etc. We would like to use storytelling and role playing as activities to engage with these concepts and find more personal meanings to them. </p>
<div style="text-align: justify;"> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div><strong>Session Team </strong></div>
<div> </div>
<div><strong>Arathy Salimkumar</strong> is a research scholar in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Calicut University Campus. She is engaged in a research project mapping the emergence and furtherance of Identity politics in Indian Cinema. She is interested in the questions of political identity and the movements and struggles emerging in association with it in contemporary India.</div>
<div> </div>
<div><strong>Faheem Muhammed </strong>is a research scholar in the Department of Electronic Media and Mass Communication, Pondicherry University. His work explores the role of digital technologies in resolving as well as exacerbating the status quo. His research interests include critical media studies, techno-culture, and social theories and policies, with an insight into theories of race, gender, colonialism, and social inclusion and exclusion.</div>
<div> </div>
<div><strong>Hazeena T</strong> is a research scholar in the Department of Communication, University of Hyderabad. Her research interests include social change communication and politics of knowledge. She is interested in understanding the dynamics of knowledge politics in grassroots initiatives and its implications for communities involved. </div>
<div> </div>
<div><strong>Manisha Madapathi </strong>is a research scholar in the department of communication, in the University of Hyderabad. Her thesis project focuses on the phenomenon of internet shutdowns in India and the implications it has on the several stakeholders involved. She is interested in the processes of congregation and assembly during movements, and what channels enable it. </div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-letsmovein'>https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-letsmovein</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminProposed SessionsIRC22Internet StudiesInternet Researcher's Conference2022-05-19T14:54:24ZBlog Entry