ICTs and New Social Forms

BRISBANE -- Call for papers for a special Spring 2006 issue of Information, Communication & Society edited by Dr Gerard Goggin, University of Queensland, Australia Dr Christopher Newell, University of Tasmania, Australia.

Our ideas of identity, the body, dependence and independence, welfare, and ability are undergoing rapid transformation; new social forms are emerging in which information and communications technologies (ICTs) take a central but yet little examined role.

With the growing importance of new movements - such as the disability movement, the online welfare movement, or those concerned with independent living - ICTs have become an important part of envisioning and realizing change to daily life for individuals, as well as the architecture and systems of community and society. At the present time also there are nascent associated fields of academic inquiry and policy interest, such as disability studies, theories of identity, work on social exclusion, and reconsideration of the meanings of independence.

Disability, for example, poses rich, complex questions and perspectives for thinking about identity, ICTs, and society. With greater awareness of disability and the protection given to the rights of people with disability through national legislation and international instruments, increasing attention is being given to researching and understanding the social implications of technology and disability. As governments and regulators enact new requirements for accessible technology, corporations and the 'third' sector are also grappling with how to incorporate disability and accessibility in their visions of ICTs.

At stake in these developments are important questions about identity and ICTs. Concepts of welfare have been much debated, especially under pressure from global economic and political trends. ICTs now play an indispensable role in social and political organisation online around welfare issues, in state and private administration of welfare, in processes of identity-formation concerning welfare. Whileindependent living is still to be achieved for many, there is now growing recognition of the balance between dependence and independence - and that all in society are engaged in understanding their interdependence and connectedness, something in which ICTs are offering innovative ways to understand such new social forms.

In this light, we welcome submissions on topics such as (but not restricted to):

• how thinking about disability, identity, and interdependence opens up new perspectives on understanding ICTs
• case studies of particular technologies, accessibility, & disability
• the implications of disability for ICT policy and design
• new conceptions of welfare, online welfare movements and ICTs
• independent living and ICTs
• what are the implications of ICTs for the lives of people with a diverse range of disabilities and impairments, identities, and lives?

Deadline for abstracts is 1 May 2005. Deadline for final submissions is 30 September 2005.

Potential contributors are encouraged to discuss their ideas with the editors:

Dr Gerard Goggin, Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, University of Queensland

Dr Christopher Newell, School of Medicine, University of Tasmania .