Call for papers "Knowledge, Technologies and the Police”.

2023-05-05

Call for abstracts Special Issue on “Knowledge, Technologies and the Police”.

We invite abstracts for a special issue on “Knowledge, technologies and the police”, in Nordic Journal of Science and Technology Studies (ntnu.no), which will be edited by the members of the project A Matter of Facts - Politihøgskolen.

Digitalisation and the use of technologies are at the core of knowledge production in policing. Decades of science studies scholarship has demonstrated the different ways that knowledge is not a question of finding one pre-given truth, but a process contingent on material-discursive and socio-technical entanglements (e.g., Mol 2002, Law 2004, Latour 2007, Barad 2007). Although the role of technologies in policing has been subject to increased scrutiny over the past years, their specific role in processes of knowledge production has been less studied. In this special issue, we aim to shed light on this specific dimension of technologies and policing: In what ways are technologies active parts in shaping what becomes knowledge in the police?

The issue will explore human-technology-interaction and the influence of technologies on knowledge production in policing within a Nordic context, and welcome both theoretical and empirically founded contributions. We welcome abstracts for papers that focus on knowledge and technologies in policing in the Nordic countries, and that are inspired by or using perspectives from science and technology studies (STS).

Papers can be about (but not limited to):

  • Critical examination of the role of police technologies (for example communication systems, registries, databases, software, social media networks, or technological devices).
  • Case studies critically examining the role of technologies in shaping police knowledge, such as online patrols, the incorporation of digital devices and systems in policing.
  • Conceptual papers scrutinizing the digital transformation of the police organization.
  • Critical examination of the becoming of data, information, and knowledge
  • Theoretical explorations of the mentioned topics, using perspectives from STS

Interested authors should send an abstract (250 words) and a short author-bio (200 words) to jenny.maria.lundgaard@phs.no and guro.flinterud@phs.no before July 1st, 2023. Please see the journals website for instructions to authors. The timeline for the special issue is planned as follows:

Timeline

01/07/23            Deadline abstracts

15/08/23            Abstracts reviewed and authors notified

01/02/24            Submission of full papers

01/05/24            Blind reviews sent to authors

30/06/24            Resubmission of articles

01/09/24            Decision on revised version (in some cases new revisions)

01/11/24            Final version of papers

01/12/24            Final version of papers sent to publisher

 

For information and questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Brita Bjørkelo, Johanne Yttri Dahl, Guro Flinterud, Jenny Maria Lundgaard

Guest Editors

 

References

Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway. Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Durham: Duke University Press.

Law, J. (2004). After method. Mess in social science research. London and New York: Routledge.

Latour, B. (2007). Reassembling the social. An introduction to Actor-Network Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Mol, A. (2002). The body multiple. Ontology in medical practice. Durham: Duke University Press.