Call for Papers
Digital cities and re-mediation of global civilization
Cities are forms of civilization. Human beings now inhabit a planet of cities. In 2014, the UN claimed that over half of the world’s population resided in cities. For them, faster global distribution of exotic commodities, more frequent encounter of strangers, and the constant re-configuration of symbolics have become the everyday experience they now live. Following the remarks of Levfevre in his “Urban Revolution”, cities have become a distinctively modern mode of human experience and global civilization. Media technologies, broadly conceived as the communicative power to connect, transform and converge the old and the new, the actual and the virtual, the immediate and the mediated, the afar and the near, drive the re-making of global civilization
Digital cities epitomize the coincidence between urbanization and the boom of digital media. In contrast to mass media in industrial society, digital technologies link human actors with a much larger diversity of intelligent non-human agents; automatize critical processes that set one’s chances of survival; support novel forms of mobilities; and re-shuffle the temporal-spatial parameters of social, political and business interactions that constitute cities. Digital cities remediate economic, social, cultural and political civilizations on a global scale. Economically, the best practices of global business communication, the automatized networks of inter-city logistics and the re-distribution of global capital among global cities have changed. Socially, participation in glocal communities, encounters with cultural/ethnic/political others in cities, coping with disasters, or the yawning divides of resources between groups have also transformed. Culturally, imageries of global cities, narratives about urban memories/place identity and even the daily lexicon of city dwellers have been re-wired. Politically, the role of state and the fluctuation of international relations have been re-formulated. Whether we can adequately understand, explain and criticize this emerging form of global civilization shapes the collective future of human beings.
Against this backdrop, this special issue explores how digital media re-mediate/create a novel form of civilization in global cities. In particular, we focus on the intersection between digital cities and the remediation of global economic, political, cultural and social civilizations. Discussion may start from the mediation perspective. Investigations about the impact of emerging technologies, such as algorithm, platform, digital infrastructure, sensor networks and big data on city lives are welcomed. Cross-disciplinary dialogues on digital city and global civilizations as well as comparative analyses are encouraged. We welcome submissions about the following topics:
1- Digital cities, media and transformation of civilizations
a) Relations between media, global cities and civilization as a whole
b) How digital technologies transform the development of civilizations
c) World civilizations re-mediated via global cities
d) Reconfiguration of the world system in the era of digitization and urbanization.
2- Digital city and re-mediation of global economic order
a) Global city branding on new media
b) City images on digital platforms
c) Digitization of marketing procedures and its impact on cities
d) Case studies and best international business practices in global cities
3- Digital city and the networking of global culture
a) Digitized urban memories and cultural legacies in different cities
b) Digital popular culture in cities
c) Digitized fans communities and practices in cities
4- Digital city and the remediation of sociality
a) The rise of digital communities in cities
b) Digital media art and the encounters of strangers in global cities
c) Civic engagement, public participation and trust in digital cities.
d) Digital divide between/in cities all over the world and its consequences
5- Comparative analysis of digital cities and re-mediated civilization
a) Comparison of digital cultural practices in different cities
b) Comparison of performance of different cities in coping with natural disasters and pandemic
c) Cross-national comparisons of everyday life in digital cities
d) Comparison of city marketing practices in new media era
e) Comparison of urban culture and lifestyles
6-Reflecting on the relations between technologies and global cities
a) Smart cities and its critiques
b) Readable cities, media technologies and architecture
c) The digital transformation of traditional media in different cities
d) Development of digital infrastructure and its consequences
e) Re-mediated mobilities and logistic media in cities
Submissions about other topics related to digital city and global civilization are also sought.
For inquiries, please contact:
Dr. Pan Ji
Email: panji@fudan.edu.cn
Deadlines:
Abstract submission: By Jan 1, 2023
Please submit extended abstracts (at least 250 words) to Dr. Pan Ji at panji@fudan.edu.cn
Full text submission: By March 1, 2023
Please submit full paper at OMGC’s submission portal at:
https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/omgc