Surveillance & Society, an open-access journal , is now accepting submissions for their forthcoming issue “Surveillance and Security Intelligence after Snowden.” Deadline for submissions is May 31, 2014.

Read the CFP below.

Surveillance & Society

Call for Papers:

Surveillance and Security Intelligence after Snowden

Volume 13, Number 1, January 2015

Deadline for Submissions: May 31st 2014

Editors:
David Murakami Wood, Queen’s University, Canada, dmw@queensu.ca
Steve Wright, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK, s.t.wright@leedsmet.ac.uk

Call for Papers

Although there have been many previous whistleblowers and revelations about state espionage, the Edward Snowden affair has gone much further in revealing to publics worldwide, the workings of global networks of surveillance and security intelligence, particularly those centered on the US National Security Agency (NSA). The revelations have also served to confirm – if such confirmation was needed – the warnings of surveillance studies scholars and privacy and anti-surveillance activists that the ‘surveillance society’ is a present condition not a future possibility.

The Snowden revelations have taken place in multiple interconnected contexts, in particular: ongoing post-Cold War realignments, the war on terror and the expanding and mutating state(s) of exception; an at-once increasingly hegemonic but fragile globalizing and neoliberalizing capitalist system; and, finally, tension and conflict struggles between state and corporate actors and popular social movements over the control of information. The former tendency includes not only security intelligence but also all aspects of the information economy from Internet censorship to the extension and redefinition of intellectual property. This includes a huge range of responses from varieties of net libertarianism like Wikileaks, Anonymous and Tor, through radical transparency or the the popular normalization of encryption and concealment, to state counter-hegemonic (but not necessarily less surveillant) strategies for alternative or separate communications networks from states as varied as Iran, China and Brazil and the potential ‘balkanization’ of the Internet.

This theme issue of Surveillance & Society will take the opportunity to reflect more deeply on: the content of the leaks as well as what remains unrevealed or has been further obscured; the response of the USA and its allies in the UKUSA or Five Eyes network and other states, corporations and people; trajectories in security intelligence; and all aspects of the broader context of the global political economy of surveillance and security intelligence.

Suggested topics:

• Snowden’s revelations in historical context
• Hidden histories and geographies of the NSA and the UKUSA / Five Eyes security intelligence networks, and other (non-US / UKUSA / Five Eyes) networks
• Revelation, whistleblowing and the response to security intelligence leaks
• The politics of security intelligence
• Security intelligence, surveillance, war, violence and terrorism
• Surveillance, securitization and militarization
• Security intelligence, national and international law and human rights
• Global, regional and national challenges to the NSA and the US security intelligence network
• The political economy of security intelligence and surveillance
• State security intelligence and private corporations
• Security intelligence and the Internet / Social Media
• The news media’s contradictory roles as user and analyst of surveillance material
• Technologies of security intelligence
• Future(s) of security intelligence and communications networks
• Security intelligence in art and popular culture
• Particular perspectives on security intelligence from Surveillance Studies
• Challenges to theories of surveillance and to Surveillance Studies posed by the Snowden revelations, e.g. the breakdown of mass / targeted surveillance distinctions; possibilities for autonomy and/or privacy; rethinking secrecy, obscurity, transparency etc.
• We also welcome other subjects not outlined above. Please contact the editors in advance to discuss proposed topics.

Submissions:

All submissions for peer-review must be completed and submitted electronically no later than May 31st 2014, except by prior agreement.

The editors are happy to discuss proposed submissions in advance:

David Murakami Wood, dmw@queensu.ca
Steve Wright, s.t.wright@leedsmet.ac.uk
The issue will be published in January 2015.

Forms of Submission:

• Articles: 4000-8000 words + references – fully double-blind peer-reviewed by at least 2 referees;
• Review Articles and Research Reports: 2000-4000 words – reviewed by one referee;
• Opinion: up to 2000 words – moderated by the Debates Editor, who can also commission specific pieces for debate;
• We also welcome visual, audio, literary and mixed / new media responses – please contact the Editors.