Neither global village nor homogenizing commodification:
Diverse cultural, ethnic, gender and economic environments |
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.
Both short (3-5 pages) and long (10-20
pages) original papers are sought. See submissions
for information about submitting papers and formatting guidelines.
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. |