LIST OF PANELS

This panel investigates how different stakeholders influence, and are affected by, digital and data policies in different political and institutional contexts. Contributions under this theme will reflect on the heterogeneity of governmental approaches to the rise of digital data and the resulting sociopolitical consequences. 

We understand digital data as a deeply political issue for the power it wields to those who control it. Questions of power are tightly linked to the creation, uses, governance and impacts of digital data, as reflected by the expanding fields of critical data studies ​(Burns et al., 2018; Iliadis & Russo, 2016)​, data politics ​(Ruppert et al., 2017)​ and data justice ​(Taylor, 2017)​. The unprecedented availability of digital data and data capacities creates new kinds of value for all actors ​(Mejias & Couldry, 2019)​ and intensifies the struggles over its access and control.  

The scope of digital and data policies covered in this call include data-based innovations deployed by governments to fulfill their tasks and responsibilities towards their citizens, like online platforms and communication channels, digitized services, digital identification and surveillance systems. It also covers new laws and regulations that result from the governments’ mandate to legislate the unprecedented volumes of continuous and ubiquitous digital data prompted by the datafication logic ​(Sadowski, 2019; van Dijck, 2014)​, which include personal data protection, data localization and international data transfers.  

Based on this, relevant topics for this panel encompass the democratic quality of policy-making processes, the factors that enable or constraint stakeholder engagement, and the public values, motivations and governance principles that shape data policies and regulations. In addition, the far-reaching socio-political consequences of emerging data governance may include data rights and protection, dataveillance, mass surveillance, repression, and discrimination. Critical approaches that identify the political and policy deficiencies and challenges in the governance of digital data are strongly encouraged. 

We therefore welcome papers that examine how stakeholders influence, and are affected by, digital and data policies in different political regimes, especially in contexts with prevailing democratic deficiencies and/or authoritarian practices. Relevant stakeholders include governments and other state actors, international organizations, civil society, activists and citizens.

References 
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Burns, R., Dalton, C. M., & Thatcher, J. E. (2018). Critical Data, Critical Technology in Theory and Practice. The Professional Geographer, 70(1), 126–128. https://doi.org/10.1080/00330124.2017.1325749 

​Iliadis, A., & Russo, F. (2016). Critical data studies: An introduction. In Big Data and Society (Vol. 3, Issue 2). SAGE Publications Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951716674238 

​Mejias, U. A., & Couldry, N. (2019). Datafication. INTERNET POLICY REVIEW Journal on Internet Regulation, 8(4). https://doi.org/10.14763/2019.4.1428 

​Ruppert, E., Isin, E., & Bigo, D. (2017). Data politics. In Big Data and Society (Vol. 4, Issue 2). SAGE Publications Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951717717749 

​Sadowski, J. (2019). When data is capital: Datafication, accumulation, and extraction. Big Data and Society, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951718820549 

​Taylor, L. (2017). What is data justice? The case for connecting digital rights and freedoms globally. Big Data and Society, 4(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951717736335 

​van Dijck, J. (2014). Datafication, dataism and dataveillance: Big Data between scientific paradigm and ideology. Surveillance & Society, 12(2), 197–208. https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v12i2.4776   

This panel investigates how different stakeholders influence, and are affected by, digital and data policies in different political and institutional contexts. Contributions under this theme will reflect on the heterogeneity of governmental approaches to the rise of digital data and the resulting sociopolitical consequences. 

The panel welcomes papers that engage with the following topics, especially in contexts with prevailing high levels of repression, democratic deficiencies and/or authoritarian practices: 

- Policy-making processes of digital and data policies and regulations, including stakeholder engagement, participation mechanisms and democratic quality. 
- Power relations between relevant stakeholders, namely governments, state actors, international organizations, civil society, activists and citizens. 
- Digital and online repression, surveillance, and dataveillance.  
- Data-based discrimination and vulnerable groups. 
- The role and influence of public values and governance principles in data policies and practices, including differences between political regimes.  
- Underpinning factors and consequences of emerging laws and regulations on questions related to personal data protection, data localization and international data transfers. 
- Data justice and strategies to improve the distribution of the value generated from digital data.  
- Political and institutional deficiencies and challenges in regulating digital data at the local, national, regional and international level.  
- Critical approaches to data studies and data politics. 
- Other topics relevant to the panel theme.  

We welcome submissions that provide new evidence on emerging digital and data policies in all kinds of political and institutional contexts, as well as papers that make a conceptual contribution to the theme of the panel. Methodologically, the panel is open to both qualitative methods like ethnography, action research, interviews, and in-depth case studies, and quantitative papers based on surveys, descriptive, experimental and correlational research, among others. We invite scholars from different disciplines in order to reflect the complex and interdisciplinary nature of digital and data policies and practices.