"International Wave at Surveillance Day", 16 August

Alright, the blog has been rather quiet (not to say: abandoned) over the past couple months. For me personally, this was due to wrapping up one research project, starting two new grants and making the final push of writing my PhD - hopefully that's a good enough excuse! :) Nonetheless, here we are back on track, and with a neat little note: apparently, on 16 August, it's the 4th "International Wave at Surveillance Day!"

So let's not discuss the fact that most of the greeting actions likely won't ever seen by a human operator (but vanish in automated algorithmic video analytics instead), and just smile at a CCTV camera - turning the fact of being under surveillance into a playful pretense of an ol' times panopticon. Whatever the rationale behind this might be (I'm still trying to figure it out...), here's the announcement!

Springer Handbook on Internet Research

Just in case your writing schedule is not yet stacked to the maximum - here's another call for authors! Springer is looking to put together a second volume of their "International Handbook of Internet Research" and they need contributors. Here's the full details:

After the remarkable success of the first International Handbook of Internet Research (2010), Springer has contracted with its editors to produce a second volume. This new volume will be arranged in three sections, that address one of three different aspects of internet research: foundations, futures, and critiques. Each of these meta-themes will have its own section of the new handbook.

SAGE Encyclopedia on Surveillance

Right, so the blog has been quiet for some time now, but this one is in fact core business for our interests: SAGE is putting together an encyclopedia on surveillance, security and privacy. Sounds like an all-encompassing approach and they are still looking for contributors. Here's the full announcement:

Although surveillance has been dominating headlines with revelations by Edward Snowden that the NSA has been tracking phone calls worldwide, surveillance of citizens by their governments actually has been conducted for centuries.

CFP: Big Brother - Big Data

The calls for the EASST 2014 conference in Torun are up! And here's the first call relevant to surveillance & STS (on Big Data!). To submit a paper, visit the conference website.

CfP: Questioning security devices

Security dialogue is putting together a special issue on security technologies in the broader sense of devices used for security purposes (including paper files). I don't know the journal too well, but the call does seem perfect for folks working at the intersection of STS and security/surveillance. Deadline for abstracts is February 15, 2014. Here's the original call:

CPDP14 - a surveillance recap

After the recent flurry of Calls, here's another conference recap with relevance to STS and surveillance studies. This year's edition of CPDP, which took place in Brussels last week, was indeed heavily coined by the “Snowden revelations” and the ensuing international political debates on PRISM, Upstream, and whatnot. Thus, while CPDP13 had its main scope on the (still ongoing) reform of the European data protection framework, this year it was all about the relationship between privacy (and data protection) and security and surveillance. Highly intriguing! [oh, and just to respond to an emerging theme of the STSS repository: there was pleasantly little explicit talk of “Big Data” - however it was of course always implicitly present as the specter that haunts contemporary discourses on privacy and data protection :)]

CRISP doctoral school

The Centre for Research into Information, Surveillance and Privacy (CRISP) will have its second doctoral school on June 16-24 in Milton Keynes, UK. Francisca, Matthias and I had the pleasure to go last year. It was fantastic, because beyond discussing our doctoral research, it also inlcuded sessions on publishing, funding, and engagement with the media, as well as a bunch of lovely people. The deadline for applications is March 14. Here's a list of activities this year's doctoral school will include, and you can find out more on their website: