IV. INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION, DIGITIZATION AND SOCIETY SYMPOSIUM

From Democracy to Infocracy: Truth in an Optimized Society

İstanbul Aydın University Faculty of Communication

Call For Papers

Istanbul Aydın University’s Faculty of Communication proudly announces the fourth International Communication, Digitization, and Society Symposium. This year’s event is shaped by the theme “From Democracy to Infocracy” and guided by the motto “Truth in an Optimized Society.”The symposium aims to bring together leading scholars, civil society representatives, artists, industry experts, and graduate students (MA/PhD) for inspiring interdisciplinary dialogue. We warmly invite you to contribute to this hybrid event, which will be held both onsite and online from 28 to 30 April 2026.

The opening speeches of the symposium will be delivered by Pollyanna Ruiz from University of Sussex, Douglas Giles from Elmhurst University, and Erkan Saka from İstanbul Bilgi University.

Papers may be submitted in Turkish or English and should thoughtfully address the symposium’s central themes and topics stated below.

A Paradigm-Shifting Concept: Infocracy

The digital age is not merely accelerating the production of knowledge; it is reshaping its very essence. Infocracy- a concept encapsulating the ascendancy of information as both the architecture of governance and the currency of power-emerges as a pivotal axis in the intellectual landscape of our era. Theorists, from Manuel Castells’ explorations of network society to Shoshana Zuboff’s analysis of surveillance capitalism,  from Bernard Stiegler’s meditations on proletarianization to Byung-Chul Han’s insights into the transparency society, collectively seek to fathom this epoch where information and authority intertwine at a fundamental level.

Infocracy is not merely an epistemological order in the classical sense; it is also an ontological regime. This regime constitutes a digital derivative of Foucault’s knowledge–power dialectic: to know increasingly means to see, and to see means to bring under control. In this configuration, “truth” is produced through the algorithmic operations of technical systems, while the human subject is re-coded as a datafied, quantifiable form of existence.

The Tension of the Motto

A motto such as “Truth in an Optimized Society” operates like a scalpel cutting through the core of modern communication regimes. Here, “optimization” refers not merely to the enhancement of efficiency; it signifies the algorithmic reshaping of social order, behaviors, preferences, and even our perceptions of reality. In other words, society gradually becomes a machine that calibrates its structural rhythm to the flow of data.

The motto highlights a vital tension. On one hand, it captures the seamless, accelerated, and synchronized logic of algorithmic order. On the other hand, it exposes the unruly, plural, and intricate character of truth.Truth resists optimization. It overflows with ambiguities, exceptions, divergent interpretations, and the vulnerabilities that are part of the human condition.

Do data regimes refine truth, or do they erode it? As society adopts algorithmic forms, does truth shift, vanish, or take on new and unexpected aesthetics? Perhaps it transcends its previous form, slipping beyond the grasp of perception, or finds itself awakened in a guise so unfamiliar that it invites us to question the nature of transformation itself.

A Climate of Transition

We find ourselves in an era of unprecedented access to information. Yet the public sphere is increasingly fragmented, fragile, and vulnerable to manipulation.This paradox is now central to our time. New information technologies have fueled the rise of authoritarian governance, anti-scientific sentiment, social polarization, and the spread of conspiracy thinking.The term “infocracy” defines this new epoch. Individuals are transformed from “citizens” into “users.” They are ceaselessly monitored, analyzed, and steered. Information itself has become the principal instrument of governance and control.

This year’s theme, ‘From Democracy to Infocracy,’ reflects urgent concerns. As powerful technology monopolies dominate the digital realm, foundational democratic ideals—pluralism, transparency, informed participation—are being displaced. In their place, a techno-authoritarian order emerges, engineered to shape public preferences for private gain.

The aim of the fourth International Communication, Digitization, and Society Symposium is to explore ways of reintegrating the rapidly advancing communication and information technologies—such as social media, artificial intelligence, big data, and deep learning—into the sphere of public deliberation, at a time when their development outpaces society’s capacity to normatively justify, regulate, or contest them. Rejecting the view that these technologies are merely neutral tools, the symposium seeks to understand how they are reshaping the social fabric, our political agency, and even our state of being human.

The symposium offers an open platform for scholars and all relevant stakeholders to examine communication technologies—one of the constitutive dynamics of our era—in their political, cultural, social, economic, legal, and ethical dimensions. It also aims to engage with infocracy not merely as a concept, but as a mode of thought that elucidates the epistemic structure of the present. Participants are invited to offer theoretical, critical, or empirical contributions on topics such as digital power, the knowledge economy, data colonialism, AI ethics, media epistemology, the philosophy of information, and processes of digital subjectivation.

We warmly invite you to participate in this symposium—organized under the auspices of the Faculty of Communication at Istanbul Aydın University—which welcomes original contributions from scholars at both national and international levels.

Prof. Dr. Özer KANBUROĞLU

Dean, Faculty of Communication

Istanbul Aydın University

Important Dates:

Deadline for abstract paper submission	2 March 2026
Abstract paper acceptance	24 March 2026
Deadline for registration	6 April 2026
Program announcement	17 April 2026
Symposium dates	28-29-30 April 2026
Publication of the abstract booklet	1 June 2026
Deadline for full paper submission	27 July 2026