The Journal of Critical Globalisation Studies is now accepting abstracts for a special issue on the politics of simulation. Deadline is November 15, 2013.
From their site:
The forthcoming issue of the Journal of Critical Globalisation Studies on Modelling Worlds: The Politics of Simulation will be the journal’s most ambitious special issue to date. We aim to be the first interdisciplinary journal to examine politically the repercussions of models and computer simulations, and will be launching the issue at a panel hosted by the JCGS at the International Studies Association annual conference in Toronto, 29 March 2014.
Frequently held in suspicion by critical scholars, modelling and simulation techniques are nevertheless increasingly difficult to ignore. Utilised by international bodies, governments, financial firms, and large corporations, models do not only reflect how the world works but also, as is now well documented, “perform it”. However, the issues raised by this development remain under-explored by academic literature. The way in which such techniques can engender new and unpredictable sociological realities has, in particular, not received sufficient attention as an eminently political problem. Crucially, the simulation technologies now trickling down from government and high-finance to large and medium-sized firms may herald changes in global behavioural patterns, raising profound questions about the politics of simulation. The questions animating this issue thus include: In what ways might simulation techniques affirm the status quo merely by dressing up dominant ideologies in technical drapery? What novelty may their political possibilities introduce, and what limits might be encountered? And is it possible to utilise simulation techniques for critical purposes, such as proposing new economic alternatives?
In the first instance, please send an abstract to editor-in-chief for the issue, Nathan Coombs, detailing your proposed contribution: nathan@criticalglobalisation.com
Please send complete manuscripts to: abstracts@criticalglobalisation.com.
Final submission deadline: 15 November 2013