CFP: Technical Communication Specia l Issue on "Legal Issues in Global Contexts"

Hi all

(apologies if you receive this more than once)

I thought that you might be interested in this call 
for proposals for a special Technical Communication 
issue on  “Legal Issues in Global Contexts” 

Best,
Caroline Jarrett

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Call for Proposals:

Special Issue on “Legal Issues in Global Contexts”

Technical Communication, the journal of the 
Society for Technical Communication (STC), 
is soliciting article proposals for an upcoming
special issue that will examine how factors of 
law and of culture affect how technical communicators
work in international and cross-cultural contexts. 
This special issue will be published in
November 2010, and the guest editors are 
Kirk St.Amant of East Carolina University and 
Martine Courant Rife of Lansing Community
College.

SPECIAL ISSUE DESCRIPTION
Legal issues are increasingly affecting the work we do as industry
practitioners, academic researchers, university and college educators, and
independent entrepreneurs in technical communication.  In some cases, these
legal issues involve notions of ownership, copyright, and trade secrets.  In
other instances, legal concerns related to privacy, disclosure, and free
speech affect how technical communicators perform different activities.
 These legal issues are further complicated by different cultural
perspectives related to working in global environments and to addressing the
informational needs of different cultural groups within our own nations.
 Very few individuals in technical communication, however, are lawyers or
have formal training in issues of law and its intersection with different
cultural communication expectations and assumptions.   This special issue of
Technical Communication will examine the legal issues affecting technical
communication practices related to designing materials for or to working
with individuals from other nations and cultures.

POSSIBLE TOPICS FOR THIS SPECIAL ISSUE
The guest editors invite proposals for papers on applied research or theory,
case histories/studies, tutorials, and/or annotated bibliographies that
address the following issues:

•       Why should technical communicators attend to global/international
legal issues? Why not?

•       What kind of training should technical communicators have to address
issues of law and culture effectively in international and domestic
contexts?

•       How are legal issues or requirements related to language and
translation affecting technical communication practices?

•       How should technical communicators working in international
organizations approach legal issues? Should these issues be turned over to
the “legal department”? Should technical communicators have input on
organization policies with respect to implementing law? Should they be seen
as experts in this area? Why or why not?

•       What developments in international law, treaties, or global-context
legal conversations may impact the work of technical communicators (e.g.,
the EU Data Protection Directive, TRIPS [Agreement on Trade Related Aspects
of Intellectual Property Rights], conversations on appropriation of
traditional knowledge)? What recommendations might be developed to work
within or challenge these new developments?

•       How do legal issues affect communication practices in globally
distributed virtual teams?

•       What kinds of legal issues do international practices such as
offshoring raise for technical communicators?  How do these issues affect
technical communication practices or provide new opportunities
for technical communicators to contribute value to their organizations?

•       How have legal issues in global contexts become more immediate with
regard to the continual growth of and use of online media in international
contexts?

•       In what ways can our history of examining issues of intercultural
communication contribute to how we approach legal issues in global contexts?

•       How do cultural differences related to intellectual  property and
copyright affect technical communication practices – particularly practices
involving globally distributed teams?

•       How do issues of government surveillance and data mining affect the
ways in which technical communicators interact in globally distributed
workplaces or use online media to present information and
exchange ideas across cultures?

•       How can aligning global legal issues and local legal issues help –
or complicate how we work and conduct research as technical communicators?

•       What kinds of theories or research methods from the field of
technical communication might inform our ability to understand legal issues
in global contexts?

•       In what ways can/should technical communicators enter into public
discussions about global-legal issues?

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Proposals should be no more than 400 words in length.  
All proposals should include submitter name, 
affiliation, and email address as well
as a working title for the proposed article.

PRODUCTION SCHEDULE
The schedule for the special issue is as follows:
1 June 2009 -- 400-word proposals due
15 June 2009 – Guest editors return proposal decisions to submitters
1 October 2009 – Draft manuscripts of accepted proposals due
15 February 2010 -- Final manuscripts due
November 2010 -- Publication date of special issue

CONTACT INFORMATION
Completed proposals or questions about either proposal topics or this
special issue should be sent to Kirk St.Amant and Martine Courant Rife
at [email protected]



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