Download a PDF version of the Call for Papers for the issue on Information/Control

Guest Editors: Stacy E. Wood & James Lowry

In his 1992 “Postscript on the Societies of Control,” Gilles Deleuze diagnosed our society as a control society. He argued that the closure and containment that characterized the subject and the state - previously described by Michel Foucault as the product of modernity - was giving way to a much more complex set of sociotechnical configurations that blurred the boundaries and limits of control. Within the context of information studies, the concept of control has its own particular legacies. Posed as the cure to a natural chaos, the discipline’s pursuit of authority control, bibliographic control, and controlled vocabularies represent a field epistemologically invested in order.

Since Deleuze's diagnosis, contemporary information systems and technologies have enabled unprecedented forms of control to permeate life at multiple levels, from the molecular to the global: From the manipulation of bioinformatic elements through gene sequencing to mass data collection policies, the relationship between information and control is increasingly entangled as they are threaded through our personal, professional, and public lives. Yet, as forms and mechanisms of control become more granular, the traditional modes of information control are challenged and the figure of the “gatekeeper” recedes. New evidential paradigms signified by the diagnostic of “post-truth,” new forms of consensus building via algorithmic logic, and a breakdown of the boundaries of information literacy all signify a challenge to traditional understandings of information control.

This poses a challenge and opportunity for information scholars and researchers to engage with ideas and concepts around the society of control, across disciplines. By foregrounding the mechanisms, intended purposes, and unintended effects of the relationship between control and information, this special issue will provide a forum to explore and critically engage an as yet underdeveloped line of thinking.

The scope of this issue might include research on:

• Editorial control, citizen journalism and “alt-facts”
• Informational panopticons; data gathering, aggregation and re-use in the context of the international rise of the Right
• Obfuscation, counterveillance and information activism
• Analyses of information policy, including approaches to classifying and redacting
• Political discourses about leaks, breaches and other forms of loss of control
• Other overt and/or covert uses of records and information in the “society of control”
• Technologies and techniques of control within information systems
  • Taxonomies and controlled vocabularies
  • The “politics of metadata” in relation to state control

Deadline for Submission: November 30, 2017

Types of Submissions

JCLIS welcomes the following types of submissions:

• Research Articles (no more than 7,000 words)
• Perspective Essays (no more than 5,000 words)
• Literature Reviews (no more than 7,000 words)
• Interviews (no more than 5,000 words)
• Book or Exhibition Reviews (no more than 1,200 words)

Research articles and literature reviews are subject to peer review by two referees. Perspective essays are subject to peer review by one referee. Interviews and book or exhibition reviews are subject to review by the issue editor(s).

Contacts: Guest Editors

• Stacy E. Wood, University of California, Los Angeles: stacyewood@gmail.com
• James Lowry, Liverpool University Centre for Archive Studies: jlowry@liverpool.ac.uk

Submission Guidelines for Authors

The Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies welcomes submissions from senior and junior faculty, students, activists, and practitioners working in areas of research and practice at the intersection of critical theory and library and information studies.

Authors retain the copyright to material they publish in the JCLIS, but the Journal cannot re-publish material that has previously been published elsewhere. The journal also cannot accept manuscripts that have been simultaneously submitted to another outlet for possible publication.

Citation Style

JCLIS uses the Chicago Manual of Style, 16^th Edition as the official citation style for manuscripts published by the journal. All manuscripts should employ the Notes and Bibliography style (as footnotes with a bibliography), and should conform to the guidelines as described in the Manual.

Submission Process

Manuscripts are to be submitted through JCLIS’ online submission system (http://libraryjuicepress.com/journals/index.php/jclis) by November 30th, 2017. This online submission process requires that manuscripts be submitted in separate stages in order to ensure the anonymity of the review process and to enable appropriate formatting.

• Abstracts (500 words or less) should be submitted in plain text and should not include information identifying the author(s) or their institutional affiliations. With the exception of book reviews, an abstract must accompany all manuscript submissions before they are reviewed for publication.
• The main text of the manuscript must be submitted as a stand-alone file (in Microsoft Word or RTF)) without a title page, abstract, page numbers, or other headers or footers. The title, abstract, and author information should be submitted through the submission platform.