[kictanet] Call for Abstracts: IT for Change-IDRC Round Table

Tue May 20 09:04:12 EAT 2014

Dear All,

A Round Table on 'Inclusion in the network society- mapping development
alternatives, forging research agendas' is being organised by IT for Change
and IDRC, from 29th September to 1st October, 2014.

The round table will bring together around 25 participants - leading
scholars, development practitioners and thinkers, who are interested in the
theoretical and policy aspects of equity, inclusion and participation in
the 'ICTs and development' domain.

This open call is to invite abstracts from young development researchers
and practitioners who can contribute to the debate. There is a limited
number of travel fellowships for authors of selected full-length essays, to
participate in the round table. For further information, please read the call
for abstracts<http://www.itforchange.net/sites/default/files/ITfC/Call%20for%20Abstracts.pdf>(also
enclosed below) and the concept
note<http://www.itforchange.net/sites/default/files/ITfC/Concept%20Note.pdf>
.

Last date for submissions of abstracts is *31st May, 2014*.

We request you to please share this with your networks. If you have
received this email more than once, please accept our apologies.

Regards,
IT for Change team

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Call for Abstracts

Round table:

*Inclusion in the network society*
- *mapping development alternatives, forging research agendas*

 *Bangalore, India*

* 29th September - 1st October 2014 *

The experience of first-generation initiatives in the field of 'ICTs and
development' has clearly demonstrated that the question of inclusion in the
network society cannot be reduced merely to that of access to technological
artefacts or infrastructures. In a globalised social order, the mechanisms
of networked, global systems - production chains, finance, scientific and
research processes, and the media - structure the rules of inclusion. They
determine who has the ability to substantively participate in, and benefit
from, the dominant networks of information, knowledge, production, and of
cultural and resource flows.

Today, as we witness what has been somewhat glibly labelled the 'mobile
revolution', alongside a momentous surge in the use of social media
technologies - especially by young populations in developing countries -
newer frames to interpret social equity, inclusion and participation become
critical for the agenda of development. How does the diffusion of ICTs
connect to the democratisation of information, knowledge and culture? Does
it offer new pathways for the socially marginalised to have greater control
over knowledge and wealth? International Development Research Centre
(IDRC), along with IT for Change, will host a round table between 29th
September - 1st October, 2014, bringing together leading development
scholars and practitioners to contribute to the ongoing dialogues on ICTs
and development - particularly from the vantage point of equity and
inclusion.

In September 2009, IDRC had initiated a similar dialogue with Nobel
Laureates Amartya Sen and Michael Spence, as well as other leading
thinkers, at the Harvard Forum on ICTs, Human Development, Growth and
Poverty Reduction. Building on the key debates of the Harvard Forum, the
round table will explore if, and how, opportunities in the emerging network
society are, and can be, 'programmed' into the structures of technological
networks. Another key objective of the round table is to build a research
agenda that is contemporary enough to tackle the future of the ICTs and
development question in the Global South.

Key issues

The round table will focus on the following issues:

1. What is the emerging structural-institutional ecology framing inclusion
in the network society? What readings of the current paradigms of ICT
diffusion, use, production and policy allow us to trace power and
exclusion?

2. How do we map continuities and disjunctures in development practice when
technology meets society, to build a 'new' narrative in which all people
matter?

3. Under what conditions can digital technologies bring about 'equitable
inclusion' in the network society? What kind of a structural-institutional
ecology can facilitate efforts for 'equitable inclusion' in the network
society?

4. What broad questions and specific themes would comprise a pertinent
research agenda on networks, development and inclusion? What research
methodologies would be appropriate in this regard?

Outcomes

The round table envisages the following outcomes:

* Field-building that deepens theoretical inquiry on 'inclusion and equity
in the network society'.

* Research agenda-setting on themes at the intersection of networks,
development and inclusion.

* Network building to explore possibilities for further work to build a
systematic body of knowledge.

* Knowledge products in the form of papers/essays, that can be the basis of
a special journal issue.

The event is designed to bring together around 25 participants - leading
scholars, development practitioners and thinkers, as well as young
researchers and practitioners in the sector who are interested in the
theoretical and policy aspects of equity, inclusion and participation, in
the 'ICTs and development' domain.

This open call seeks to identify young development researchers and
practitioners who can contribute to the debate. Interested individuals need
to submit an abstract of 1000 words that will become the basis for an
analytical essay, in case it is short-listed for the round table. There is
a limited number of travel fellowships for authors of selected full-length
essays, to participate in the round table. Selection criteria include a
minimum of five years of experience in the development sector, preferably
with a focus on ICTs, and two publications. (Criteria may be relaxed on a
case-by-case basis).

Submission deadlines

Abstracts must be received by* 31st May 2014*. Full essays are due by *15th
August 2014.*

Please send all submissions and queries to:
networkinclusion at gmail.com<mailto:networkinclusion at gmail.com>

More details at: www.itforchange.net

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