Call for Papers for volume 16, n° 1(33)/ 2024: Digital Methods and Fields: Feminist Perspectives

Guest editors:

Audrey BANEYX, Research Engineer, Médialab, Sciences Po, France, audrey.baneyx@sciencespo.fr 

Hélène BOURDELOIE, Associate professor, CIS (CNRS) & LabSIC, Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, France, Helene.Bourdeloie@univ-Paris13.fr 

Mélanie LALLET, Associate professor, UCO Nantes, Arènes, CHUS & Irméccen, France, melanie.lallet@yahoo.fr

The digital, at once instrument, method, field and object of research (Bourdeloie, 2013) renews the methods and methodologies of the social sciences (Millette et al., 2020). When combined with a feminist perspective, it also has the potential to undermine the gender "system", starting from the idea that science and the techniques that underpin it are not “pure”. The calculations involved are not neutral, and the massive amounts of data collected are no guarantee of objectivity (Venturini et al., 2014). The methodologies used have "political consequences" (Proulx, 2020). A "political and epistemic gaze" (Ibid.) on methods and methodologies sheds light on the conditions of data production, collection and analysis, in other words, on the "impure" and situated nature of knowledge (Harding, 1991). Interrogating methods and methodologies from a feminist position therefore means paying particular attention to the biases that preside over the production and interpretation of data, and turning these biases into heuristic and epistemic resources with a view to producing more "objective" research (Ibid.).

Digital technology, no longer as a method or tool but this time considered as an environment, blurs the boundaries of gender. Computer sciences, and today artificial intelligence, denounced as the "new engineering of power" (Crawford, 2021), are imbued with gender biases infused into the social body. From design to use, gender norms circulate in productions, traces, discourses and practices. The aim is to examine the new challenges posed by statistics and massive data to gender and the observation of this social relationship. Challenges are indeed posed in terms of method, as digital technology opens up new possibilities. Following on from work on feminist epistemology (Haraway, 2007; Harding, 1991), the aim of this call for proposals is to ask whether feminist research1 can enrich digital methods (Hesse-Biber, 2012), promote more inclusive approaches, escape the gender biases to which conventional methodologies expose themselves, escape the binarity of technical and investigative devices, make the identification of these biases a source of reflexivity, and make visible the words of gender and sexual minorities in data processing. Finally, from a critical perspective, we will also ask whether, in response to the concentration brought about by the Internet giants, other alternative forms of organization are possible (Dulong de Rosnay and Musiani, 2020).

Proposed themes 

Theme 1. Mixed, interdisciplinary methods and "online/offline" articulation

Theme 2. What contribution does feminist epistemology make to digital methods?

Theme 3. What challenges do big data pose for gender?

Complete Call here: http://essachess.com/index.php/jcs/announcement/view/38

Important Deadlines

• November 10, 2023: submission of the proposal in the form of an extended abstract of maximum 2 pages. The proposal must include a list of recent references and 5 keywords
• November 30, 2023: acceptance of the proposal
• February 15, 2024: full paper submission
• March 30, 2024: reviewer’s comments to be communicated to authors
•  April 30, 2024: submission of paper with final revisions (after revisions)
• July 2024: journal publication

Full papers should be between 6,000-8,000 words in length. Papers may be submitted in English or French. The abstracts should be in English or French as well (150-200 words) followed by 5 keywords. Please provide the full names, affiliations, and e-mail addresses of all authors, indicating the contact author. Papers, and any queries, should be sent to: 

essachess@gmail.com

Authors of the accepted papers will be notified by e-mail.

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