The biennial CATaC conference series continues to provide an international forum for the presentation and discussion of current research on how diverse cultural attitudes shape the implementation and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). The conference series brings together scholars from around the globe who provide diverse perspectives, both in terms of the specific culture(s) they highlight in their presentations and discussions, and in terms of the discipline(s) through which they approach the conference theme. The first conference in the series was held in London, UK, in 1998; the second conference in Perth, Australia, in 2000; the third conference in Montreal, Canada, in 2002; and the fourth in Karlstad, Sweden, in 2004.

The 1990s’ hopes for an “electronic global village” have largely been shunted aside by the Internet’s explosive diffusion. This diffusion was well described by Marx - all that is solid melts into air – and was predicted by postmodernists,. The diffusion of CMC technologies quickly led to many and diverse internets. A single “Internet,” whose identity and characteristics might be examined as a single unity, has not materialised. With the dramatic rise of women “users” in what was originally an almost entirely male domain and a diffusion of technologies among diverse cultural and subcultural groups, – much of which was driven by rapid commercialization – an initially culturally and gender homogenous “Internet” came more and more to resemble an urban metropolis. This metropolis is characterised by major commercial districts and diverse ethnic and immigrant groups (Hjarvard, 2002; cf. M. Wilson, 2002, 2004). Along the way, as CATaC’04 keynote speaker Nina Wakeford noted, in the commercialization of the Internet and the Web, “cultural diversity” gets watered down to an “aesthetic sense of pseudo-shock” that exchanges strong diversity for a homogenous interchangeability. Such diversity thereby becomes commodified and serves a global capitalism that tends to foster cultural homogenization. According to Wakeford, “Globalization depends on the exportability of difference”– resulting in a global village whose unity depends on the repression of diversity.

By the same token, especially as explored in the framework of previous CATaC conferences, many of the basic assumptions, categories, methodologies, and theories used early on to analyse the intersections of CMC, culture, and communication have likewise lost their (apparent) initial definition. For example, while our understanding of ‘culture’ vis-à-vis human interactions in CMC environments may have gained some cogency – e.g., as the frameworks of Hofstede and Hall work with some success to explain observed differences in website design (Ess, 2004) – more recent research also demonstrates severe limitations in these frameworks (McSweeney, 2004). Similarly, while ‘culture’ remains a marginal concept in much of the literature of HCI (Kamppuri and Tukiainen 2004) – the concept of ‘culture’ itself seems to become more complex and problematic.

CATaC’06 continues our focus on the intersections of culture, technology, and communication, beginning with an emphasis on continued critique of the assumptions, categories, methodologies, and theories frequently used to analyse these. At the same time, CATaC’06 takes up our characteristic focus on ethics and justice in the design and deployment of CMC technologies. We particularly focus on developing countries facilitated by “on the ground” approaches in the work of NGOs, governmental agencies, etc., in ways that preserve and foster cultural identity and diversity. By simultaneously critiquing and perhaps complexifying our theories and assumptions, on the one hand, and featuring “best practices” approaches to CMC in development work, on the other hand, CATaC’06 aims towards a middle ground between a putative “global village” and homogenizing commodification. Such middle ground fosters cultural diversity, economic and social development, and more successful cross-cultural communication online.

See conference topic themes.

There will be the opportunity for selected papers to appear in special issues of journals and a book. Papers in previous conferences have appeared in, for example, the Electronic Journal of Communication/La Revue Electronique de Communication, AI and Society, Javnost - The Public, Journal of Computer Mediated Communication and New Media and Society. A book, Culture, Technology, Communication: Towards an Intercultural Global Village, edited by Charles Ess with Fay Sudweeks, was published by SUNY Press, New York in 2001 and includes a number of papers presented at the first CATaC conference.