Special Issue of New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia: Cultures in Virtual Worlds (Nov 2011)

Guest-edited by Jeremy Hunsinger and Adrienne Massanari
Website: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/journal.asp?issn=1361-4568linktype=44
Deadline for submissions: 11 Nov 2011

Virtual worlds (VW) embody cultures, their artefacts, and their praxes; these new and old spaces of imagination and transformation allow humans to interact in spatial dimensions. Within these spaces, culture manifests with the creation, representation, and circulation of meaningful experiences.  But virtual worlds are not novel in that regard, nor should we make the mistake to assume that they are novel in themselves.  Virtual experiences have been around in some respect for hundreds of years, and virtual worlds based in information technology have existed for at least 40 years.  The current generation of virtual worlds, with roots over four decades old in studies of virtual reality, computer supported cooperative work (CSCW), sociology, cultural studies, and related topics, provide for rich and occasionally immersive environments where people become enculturated within the world sometimes as richly as the rest of their everyday lives.

We seek research that encounters and investigates cultures in virtual worlds in its plurality and in its richness. To that end, we invite papers covering the breadth of the topic of cultures in and of virtual worlds.

Technology, the Arts, and Industrial Culture (Jul 2012, Barcelona)

Location: Barcelona, Spain
Dates: July 10 - 14, 2012
Deadline for submission: Jan 31, 2012
Website: http://www.icohtec.org/annual-meeting-cfp.html

The International Committee for the History of Technology’s 39th Symposium in Barcelona, Spain, 10 – 14 July 2012

The aim of the symposium is to examine technology in a multidisciplinary  framework. The key questions are how technological development has interacted with design, architecture, the arts as well as popular culture and whether we can regard industrial culture as a melting pot of various influences. Reflecting on the theme of the previous conference we hope also to explore the role of consumers in this dialogue.

Popular Culture Association & American Culture Association’s (PCA/ACA) (Apr 2012, Boston)

Dates: 11-14 April 2012
Location: Spring Conference Boston
Website: http://www.pcaaca.org
Deadline for abstract submissions: 15 December 2011

Fashion, Style, Appearance, Consumption & Design is seeking paper proposals for oral presentation at the annual conference.

Please join us in Boston April 11-14, 2012 for the National Conference. We will be staying at the fantastic Copley Place Marriott
in downtown Boston. The PCA/ACA is highly regarded in the academy with well over 5,000 academic oral presentations given internationally, two top-tier journals (The Journal of American Culture and Journal of Popular Culture), and over 3,000 members. This year’s Boston conference should be exciting with papers on an enormous array of subjects. The deadline for proposing papers will be December 15, 2011.

New book: The Entrepreneurial Principles of the Cultural and Creative Industries (Aug 2011)

New book: The Entrepreneurial Principles of the Cultural and Creative Industries
Deadline for abstract: 1 August 2011
Website: http://www.ccaa.nl/page/52331/nl

Submissions are invited for a forthcoming special book to be published in early 2012, entitled The Entrepreneurial Principles of the Cultural and Creative industries, compiled by Prof. Dr. Giep Hagoort (Utrecht University/Utrecht School of the Arts), assoc. Prof. Dr A. Thomassen (Auckland University of Technology) and Drs. R. Kooyman (Ars Nova).  The book will be published by Publishing House Eburon – in cooperation with University of Chicago Press – in March 2012 as part of the IACCE: International Academic Council for Cultural Entrepreneurship (which was founded in 2010 during the first International Research Seminar at Utrecht School of the Arts and Utrecht university in the Netherlands). This special book invites contributions from across Europe as well as the wider global research community. It will comprise academic articles that address theory, research and practical issues related to the current entrepreneurial principles of cultural and creative industries ranging from socio-economical research, to the cultural dimensions of creativity and innovation, and the entrepreneurial dimension of Cultural and Creative Industries.

Please send a 250-word abstract with a preliminary bibliography (APA Ref.) by August 1st 2011 to Giep Hagoort  (University Utrecht/School of the Arts, giep.hagoort@ke.hku.nl ). Our plan is for all 4000-word commissioned papers to be due by November 15, 2011.

More information on specific objectives can be found at: http://www.ccaa.nl/page/52331/nl.

Special Issue of New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia: Cultures in virtual worlds (Nov 2011)

A special issue of the New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia: Cultures in virtual worlds
Guest-edited by Jeremy Hunsinger and Adrienne Massanari

Virtual worlds (VW) embody cultures, their artefacts, and their praxes; these new and old spaces of imagination and transformation allow humans to interact in spatial dimensions. Within these spaces, culture manifests with the creation, representation, and circulation of meaningful experiences. But virtual worlds are not novel in that regard, nor should we make the mistake to assume that they are novel in themselves. Virtual experiences have been around in some respect for hundreds of years, and virtual worlds based in information technology have existed for at least 40 years. The current generation of virtual worlds, with roots over four decades old in studies of virtual reality, computer supported cooperative work (CSCW), sociology, cultural studies, and related topics, provide for rich and occasionally immersive environments where people become enculturated within the world sometimes as richly as the rest of their everyday lives.

We seek research that encounters and investigates cultures in virtual worlds in its plurality and in its richness. To that end, we invite papers covering the breadth of the topic of cultures in and of virtual worlds.

8th Intl Conf on Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability (Jan 2012, Vancouver Canada)

EIGHTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENVIRONMENTAL, CULTURAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
10-12 January 2012
http://www.SustainabilityConference.com
Deadline for abstracts: 19 May 2011

This year’s Sustainability Conference will take place in Vancouver, Canada at the University of British Columbia, Robson Square. A satellite campus of the University of British Columbia, UBC Robson Square is located in downtown Vancouver.  The largest city on Canada’s west coast, Vancouver is dedicated to incorporating sustainability in all of its practices, making it the ideal city to discuss the themes of the conference.

MPCA 2011 Conf: Ethnography and Popular Culture (Oct 2011, Milwaukee)

Website: http://www.mpcaaca.org
Dates: October 14-16, 2011
Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Hilton Milwaukee City Center
Deadline for submissions: April 30, 2011

The Ethnography & Popular Culture area of the MPCA invites proposals (or abstracts) for papers on any aspect of the intersection of ethnography and popular culture.  All topics, approaches, and perspectives related to ethnography and popular culture are welcome.  For example, papers may address: ethnographic methods in popular culture studies; popular culture in ethnographic research; and/or the relationship between ethnographic studies and popular culture studies.  Papers may include presentations of ethnographic research involving popular culture, and/or address theoretical, methodological, or historical issues related to ethnography and popular culture.

Knowledge/Culture/Social Change Intl Conf (Nov 2011, Sydney)

Knowledge/Culture/Social Change International Conference
Dates: 7-9 November 2011
Location: Sydney, Australia
Deadline for proposals/abstracts: 3 June 2011
Website: http://www.uws.edu.au/centre_for_cultural_research/ccr/events_and_news/kcsc_conference

The humanities and social sciences today struggle to come to terms with the explosion of knowledge in increasingly complex, diverse and networked societies. Which forms of knowledge work best for managing, challenging orengaging with rapid social change? Do new kinds of information play anincreasing role in economic and social management? Do these changes raisequestions about what ‘knowledge’ is, or is to become? What are the new rulesfor engagement between academic and other knowledge practices and institutions?

2nd Intl Symp on Culture, Creativity, and Interaction Design (July 2011, Newcastle UK)

Website: http://ccid2.wordpress.com/
Location: Northumbria University, Newcastle UK
Dates: July 4-5, 2011
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 1 May 2011

Held in conjunction with BCS HCI 2011, CCID2 is a two-day symposium cultural approaches to HCI and interaction design, emphasizing the intersections between critical theory, the arts, creativity, aesthetics, and felt experience and computing.

In the past decade, HCI¹s cultural research agenda has stabilized as an important sub-domain of the field. Approaches include disciplinary inputs beyond the social sciences, including literary theory, critical theory, aesthetic philosophy, feminism, performance theory, film studies, hermeneutics, postmodernism, fine arts, queer theory, and post-colonialism. Following on the success of 2006′s First International Symposium on Culture, Creativity and Interaction Design (CCID), CCID2 seek to strengthen the connections among the diverse disciplines contributing to culture, creativity, and interaction design research. It will explore critical and reflective approaches to the design and analysis of interactive technology.

Special Issue of Asia Design Journal: “Smart Asia” (Mar 2011)

Korean Design Research Institute (KDRI) Invites Papers for ASIA DESIGN JOURNAL (ADJ) 2011.
ADJ hopes to explore new Asian concepts each year through papers on multi-interdisciplinary topics, including culture, social science, literature, engineering, management, liberal arts and design, which deal with Asian culture and design.

The theme of ADJ in 2011 is ‘Smart Asia’. We are living in a digital world now. The digital technology has soaked into our life all around, making our living much easier. Likewise, contemporary Asian design which has been developed on the basis of the artisan’s spirit and traditional culture stands out prominently as its traditional sagacity is appreciated. Based on the expanded concept of ‘smartness’ along our digital time, on the 6th issue of ADJ in 2011 we would like to explore such themes: the sensible way of Asia discovered from Asian culture and design, the unique and wise design interpretation and method of Asia which is been developed along with the Smart Age, and the social system for the clever Asian way of living.