PLEASE FORWARD. APOLOGIES FOR CROSS-POSTINGS.
<br>_________________________________________
<br>
<br>Dear Colleagues,
<br>
<br>We wish to invite you to submit an abstract proposal to the panel
<br>Surveillance infrastructures or open platforms? Aid and control of vulnerable
<br>populations through digital data (track 12) at the 8th STS Italia Conference
<br>Dis/Entangling Technoscience: Vulnerability, Responsibility and Justice,
<br>University of Trieste, Italy, 18-20 June 2020.
<br>
<br>Information about the conference can be found at this link
<br>https://www.stsitaliaconf2020.com/call-for-abstracts. Abstract must be
<br>submitted by February 9th.For any questions please email
<br>lorenzo.olivieri3@unibo.it
<br>
<br>
<br>Best regards,
<br>
<br>Lorenzo Olivieri and Annalisa Pelizza
<br>__________________________________________
<br>
<br>Track 12: Surveillance infrastructures or open platforms? Aid and control of
<br>vulnerable populations through digital data
<br>
<br>Convenors:
<br>
<br>Annalisa, Pelizza, University of Bologna,annalisa.pelizza2@unibo.it
<br>
<br>Lorenzo, Olivieri, University of Bologna,lorenzo.olivieri3@unibo.it
<br>
<br>
<br>Panel description:
<br>
<br>The multiple ways in which data infrastructures and digital platforms can
<br>shape the organisation of society are clearly revealed when it comes to
<br>vulnerable populations like refugees, minors, the elderly, to name a few.
<br>There seems to exist a division of labour in this field, between data
<br>infrastructures conceived of as control tools and platforms as selfempowering
<br>resources. On the one hand, data infrastructures are obligatory passage points
<br>at any step of the processing of vulnerable populations, both by governmental
<br>and humanitarian actors. On the other hand, the semantic richness and
<br>ambiguity of the term platform allows attracting users, clients and
<br>advertisers by promising an open, neutral and egalitarian space. Facebook,
<br>Whatsapp and Twitter, for example, play an increasingly important role in the
<br>movement of migrants and asylum seekers, enhancing their possibilities of
<br>sharing information. Yet closer attention shows a more articulated landscape.
<br>While institutional data infrastructures allow controlling people and
<br>mobility, they also give access to welfare services like healthcare and
<br>shelter. While commercial platforms allow bottom-up coordination and
<br>selfmanagement, they exert a role on delicate issues such as privacy, mobility
<br>tracking, identitybuilding. They represent a further source of control
<br>available to governments and European agencies. In addition, private companies
<br>analyse the data and meta-data of their users for commercial purposes,
<br>eliciting a further tension between vulnerable-people-as-everydayconsumers and
<br>vulnerable-people-as-such. Within this context, the technical affordances of
<br>each platform are decisive in determining uses. For example, migrants choose
<br>to use Whatsapp chats because they are encrypted. Minors communicate in
<br>Facebook closed groups to avoid parental control. Tailored platforms - like
<br>InfoMigrants.net or WatchTheMed, anonymizations techniques and zero
<br>knowledge architectures might become a crucial factor in the management and
<br>protection of vulnerable people. This panel invites presentations discussing
<br>the two-fold dimension inherent to data infrastructures and platforms: how do
<br>they allow empowering innovations in the communications strategies of
<br>vulnerable people? How do they on the contrary produce novel or exacerbate
<br>already existing vulnerabilities? How is the modern distinction between
<br>government, business and civil society de facto reshuffled as a consequence?
<br>
<br>Contributions are expected to address, but are not limited to:
<br>
<br> Development and use of tailored platforms in the humanitarian sector or by
<br>local, bottom-up communities
<br> Co-optation of private companies in surveillance and risk analysis
<br> Accessibility, privacy and vulnerability issues at stake in the use of
<br>platforms by migrants and infrastructures about migrants
<br> Inscription of migrants identities in interfaces, classifications and
<br>ontologies.
<br>
<br>________________________________________
<br>
<br>Kind regards,
<br>Anna Melnyk
<br>_______________________________________________
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