CLCF members were active at the 2024 Association of Internet Researchers conference  held in Sheffield, UK. Attending were CLCF co-leads Mary Elizabeth (ME) Luka and Rafael Grohmann, alongside CLCF cluster members David Nieborg and Godwin Simon.

Luka shared demonstrations and activations of participatory and collaborative methods during two afternoon sessions on October 31, alongside Annette Markham (Utrecht) and Kat Jungnickel (Goldsmiths) at “Getting Industrious With Others: Workshop(s) on Creative and Crafty Public Engagement Methods.” The session began with a review of Jungnickel’s recent “speculative sewing” method from the Bikes and Bloomers research, as well as her ERC-funded Politics of Patents (POP) archival research and activation into citizenship and 200 years of wearable technology. Participants first created their own pockets, then went on a walk with Luka through nearby Weston Park to explore ways in which colonialism is still visible or challenged, and to enjoy one of the signature nature spaces Sheffield boasts. Participants picked up objects from the walk to share in the future imaginaries session led by Markham and co-facilitated by Luka and Jungnickel.

Grohmann presented a paper (co-authored with Alexandre Costa Barbosa) titled “Big Tech Sovereignty: Platforms and Discourse of Sovereignty-as-a-service”. The presentation addressed how platform companies are co-opting the meanings of sovereignty through the launch of programs called “Digital Sovereignty”. The authors analyzed how these discourses framed sovereignty as a service, in order to sell infrastructure to governments around the world, as a response to the current digital policies.

Nieborg participated in a panel on “Global Perspectives on Platforms and Cultural Production” showcasing work by the editors and contributors of their recent special issue in the International Journal of Cultural Studies. Nieborg also co-authored two papers presented at the conference: “Where my AI apps at? A historiographic approach to analyzing platform tools,” co-authored with Kaushar Mahetaji, and “Reciprocal Platform Labour In The Nigerian Social Media Video Industry,” co-authored with Simon.

If you’re interested in hearing about the work of CLCF researchers, stay tuned for #AoIR2025, which will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in October 2025. CLCF members are planning to put together panels and present ongoing projects!