Session 3 Information and Identity

Keynote speaker: Prof. Liesbet van Zoonen, Professor of Communication and Media Studies, Loughborough University and Professor of Popular Culture, Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Session Chairs: Mustafa Ali and Hugh Mackay

In this session, we turn our attention from questions of where (space) and when (time) to questions of who (identity) and explore the relationship between information and identity with a view to understanding what it might mean to think of identity in terms of information and conversely, what it might mean to think of information in terms of identity. Topics to be addressed include: identity as information, or how thinking in terms of information impacts on our understanding of identity; how identity is constructed in social networks; information and the construction of multiple identities; the relationship between information, identity and persona; on-line and offline identities; the relationship between information, identity, knowledge and power; and the role of information technologies in the construction of identity. In particular, the session aims to explore what, if anything, we gain from thinking of race, gender, nationality, class and sexual orientation as informational issues, as well as what, if anything, we gain from thinking of information in terms of race, gender, nationality, class or sexual orientation.