Call for Papers: The Politics of Surveillance, May 8-10, 2014

Universityof Ottawa

The organizers are seeking written paper contributionsfrom scholars and activists who are working in areas closely related to thequestion of how thegovernmental and corporate surveillance might best bechallenged, regulated, resisted or reversed. Abstracts due 10 January 2014.

EventSponsor: The New Transparency, a SSHRC Major Collaborative Research Initiative
EventHost:University of Ottawa

Thoughcivil society advocates, politicians and surveillance scholars have beendebating the issue for years, the revelations of Edward Snowden have broughtpublic attention to a powerful yet questionableinternational surveillance apparatus.The extraordinary growth of this system appears in conjunction with theexpansion of our online and mobile device-driven lives. How can users andcitizens protectthemselves in the face of a surveillance system that is bothconcealed and omnipresent? To what extent can the surveillance apparatus be resistedor democratically determined? Facilitating and achievingdemocratic oversightof an international surveillance system is a considerable challenge, and onethat raises old questions about the role of representative governance, nowrevisited in the context of digitalterrorist networks and the ‘Internet ofthings.’

Thisworkshop willdebate thevarious political, legal, social and technological strategies for challengingthe surveillance apparatus in Canada and internationally. The workshop focuseson means andstrategies, rather than threats and risks. It coincides withthe publication of the report “Transparent Lives: Surveillance in Canada.” Forfurther information see the Politics of Surveillance website:
www.digitallymediatedsurveillance.ca/home/politics-of-surveillance-workshop-may-2014

The workshop will discuss significantexamplesof advocacy and activismand address some of the most importantquestions facing surveillance activists, such as:
· To what extent canwe render surveillance activities more transparent?
· How can the mediacontribute to surveillance activism?
· Iscurrent law an effective advocacy tool?
· Whatmakes a good privacy education initiative?
· How can we promoteusable/effective privacy-enhancing/anti-surveillance ICTs?
· What makes a goodanti-surveillance campaign?
· To what extent canthe surveillance apparatus be democratically governed?

Concrete outcomes of the workshop willinclude:
· Sharing lessons about effectivecounter-surveillance advocacy strategies, and
· Strengthening an emerging network of Canadianand international surveillance activists and scholars

Call for Papers

The organizers are seeking written paper contributionsfrom scholars and activists who are working in areas closely related to thequestion of how thegovernmental and corporate surveillance might best bechallenged, regulated, resisted or reversed.

Abstracts of 300 words(maximum) should be submitted no later than 10 January 2014.Send abstracts to: Jonathan Obar atjonathan.obar@utoronto.ca.Authors will be informed regardingacceptance/rejection for the workshop no later than 1 March, 2014.Each abstract should describe the focus ofthe paper, and its explicit connection to the broad theme of the workshop, the“politics of surveillance”, as well as to atleast one of the panel themes.

The authors of selected papers will beincluded in the interdisciplinary workshop program that will also involvenon-governmental organizations, mediarepresentatives, privacy professionalsand others. There are limited funds to support participants to presentthe results of their research at this workshop. Plansfor the publicationof the selected papers are dependent on levels of interest, and availableresources

For informal queries, please contact Andrew Clement,andrew.clement@utoronto.ca