CfP: sessions at ISA2027

I am convening two sessions at the next ISA World Congress and would love to see your work there.

1. Streaming the Global Wave: Cross-Border Cultural Circulation, Labour, and Territory (RC14 Sociology of Communication, Knowledge and Culture / WG10 Digital Sociology, co-organised with HaeRan Shin, Seoul National University)

What makes a drama, a film, or a game actually land somewhere? This session follows two entangled infrastructures of circulation: the platform-algorithm apparatus of licensing, geoblocking and recommendation, through which platforms act as diplomatic agents, and the diaspora-human network of translingual creators, subtitling collectives and fan communities whose labour re-narrates a product until it arrives. The Korean Wave is the paradigmatic case, but we welcome papers on Chinese drama, anime, Nollywood and beyond, including the beauty and medical-aesthetic corridors the Wave spawns. Cases from the Global South and cross-corridor comparisons especially welcome.

2. Standards in Turbulent Times: Geopolitics, Labour, and Capture from 5G to AI (RC02 Economy and Society / RC23 Sociology of Science and Technology)

When standards become data-driven, the standard is no longer a settled technical artefact but a process continually rebuilt from data. This session reads AI and data standards across two terrains: the high politics of states, committees and conformity assessment, where standardisation reterritorialises transnational production along lines of sovereignty and security, and the ordinary work of users, inspectors and annotators whose activity is recursively folded into the next benchmark. Where along these two terrains are authority and value captured?

Abstracts (max 300 words) are due 14 October 2026 via the ISA portal. Links to both sessions in the comments. Questions welcome, by message or at june.wang@cityu.edu.hk.