Call for Papers – Netnocon 2027 – Sydney, Australia June 9 – 11, 2027

Conference Theme: Riding Digital Waves

Location: Western Sydney University (1PSQ, Parramatta Square), Sydney, Australia

Netnocon 2027 reveal video

Netnocon 2027, our fifth annual international conference, will take place in Sydney, Australia—marking the very first time the global netnography community gathers outside of Europe. Hosted at Western Sydney University’s state-of-the-art 1PSQ building in Parramatta Square, our venue sits at a dynamic intersection of deep Indigenous heritage, global cultures, and cutting-edge urban innovation. Surrounded by vast horizons and ocean currents, Sydney offers a symbolic setting for our 2027 theme: Riding Digital Waves.

The 2027 theme invites researchers and practitioners to explore what it means to navigate, survive, and thrive amidst the fast-moving currents of digital transformation. Where others see an overwhelming deluge of data or automated algorithmic noise, netnography teaches us how to find the rhythm, meaning, and human connection beneath the surface.

Riding digital waves is not merely about passively floating on the informational stream or being swept away by technological tsunamis. It demands active engagement, critical immersion, reflexive positionality, and a grounded human sensibility. As artificial intelligence, autonomous agents, predictive algorithms, and ubiquitous platforms reshape the fabric of daily life, netnographers are uniquely positioned to investigate how humans (and post-humans) experience, adapt to, resist, and shape these flows.

We invite netnographic explorations that dive beneath the surface to investigate:

Human Sensibility and Ethics: Maintaining empathy, care, reflexivity, and ethical principles while navigating high-tech and AI-driven field sites.
Immersion and Engagement: How researchers and participants deeply immerse themselves in changing digital spaces, subcultures, platform vernaculars, and synthetic environments.
Cultural and Technocultural Swells: The socio-cultural, political, and consumer dynamics unfolding across our varied cultural landscapes.

Netnocon is a collaborative, open, and intellectually generous space where researchers come together to think, question, and share. The conference welcomes work at all stages of development and from all career levels, across academic disciplines and geographic regions, encompassing empirical, conceptual, and methodological contributions.

Topics of Interest

Submissions must center on or incorporate netnography. Topics include, but are not limited to:

AI, Synthetic Culture, and Agentic Tech: Netnographic studies of generative AI, consumer AI agents, digital assistants, algorithm-driven subcultures, and human-AI co-creation.
Human Sensibility & Ethical Currents: Ethics, privacy, consent, and researcher positionality in automated or AI-integrated environments.
Immersive & Sensory Netnographies: Embodying digital research, sensory ethnography, immersion journals, virtual/augmented spaces, and metaverse environments.
Digital Currents, Activism, & Subcultures: Online movements, consumer resistance, fandoms, niche subcultures, and collective action navigating platform shifts.
Algorithmic Labor & Platform Economy: Digital nomadism, creator economies, influencer dynamics, and the lived realities of platform work.
Cultures of Care & Wellbeing: Digital health contexts, techno-care, online support systems, and mental health communities.
Techno-Animism & Speculative Futures: Technospirituality, post-humanist, and more-than-human approaches to digital cultural life.
Auto-netnography and researcher reflexivity
Hybrid Methodologies: Combining in-person ethnography with netnography
Methodological Comparisons: Netnography vs. digital, virtual, or computational ethnographies
Multimodal Data Analysis: Text, image, audio, video, and algorithmic data pipelines
Longitudinal Netnography: Tracking digital cultural shifts across extended timeframes
Team & Interdisciplinary Netnography: Scaling collaborative digital qualitative research
Intersectional & Critical Approaches: Gender, race, class, and diversity in technocultural research

Submission Formats

Authors are invited to submit through the Conference Submission System at https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/stages/81730/submitter in one of two formats:

Abstracts: Up to 500 words (single-spaced, Times New Roman, 12 pt, up to 5 keywords, references, and up to one figure/table).
Full Papers: Up to 10 pages (single-spaced, Times New Roman, 12 pt, inclusive of references, figures, tables, abstract, and up to 5 keywords).

Submission Guidelines

All submissions must be anonymized for double-blind peer review. Files must be under 10 MB. References must follow APA style, and submissions should adhere to the APA Inclusive Language Guidelines.

Final abstracts and papers need to list all author names and affiliations. Submissions must be original and should not have been published previously or be under consideration for publication while being evaluated for this conference.

At least one author will have to register for the conference for accepted abstracts and papers to be included in the conference proceedings. Authors of accepted full papers who only want the abstract to be included in the conference proceedings should notify the conference organizing committee by February 17, 2027 through an email sent to: info@netnocon.org.

Special Issue Opportunity

Please check the conference website in late 2026 for announcements regarding journal special issues affiliated with Netnocon 2027.

Important Dates

August 17, 2026: Paper submission site opens
October 1, 2026: Early bird conference registration begins
December 1, 2026: Paper submission site closes (deadline for abstract/paper submission)
February 1, 2027: Reviews sent to authors and notification of abstract/paper acceptance
March 4, 2027: Deadline for at least ONE author to register for the Conference
April 9, 2027: Early bird conference registration ends
May 9, 2027: Registration closes

Netnocon 2027 Scientific Program Chairs

Prof. Robert Kozinets, University of Southern California
Prof. Rossella Gambetti, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
Dr Ulrike Gretzel, University of Southern California
Assoc. Prof. Nicole Bridges, Western Sydney University
Assoc. Prof. Birgit Muskat, Australian National University

Review Board

Adèle Gruen
Aditya Deshbandhu
Adrienne Watson
Aleksandra Powierska
Aleksej Heinze
Alessandro Iuffmann Ghezzi
Alex Baudet
Alex Fenton
Ali Mohamed
Alice Audrezet
Alison Maton
Alvarez Soler
Amrita Chakraborty
Amy Yan Ting Leung
Ana Cruz
Ana Pastor
Andrian Haro
Angela Antonia Beccanulli
Ann Katzinski
Anna Chinazzi
Anna Cooper-Ryan
Anne Gombault
Anthony Patterson
Arash Naghdi
Ashleigh McFarlane
Beatrice Medici
Bherlyn Joy Leccio
Birgit Muskat
Burcak Ertimur
Burcu Asena-Salman
Charlotte Hoyland
Chee Wei Cheah
Chihling Liu
Christina Muhs
Claire Johnston
Cristina Vasilica
Daniela Andreini
Diego Rinallo
Dmitrii Iarovoi
Ebru Uzunoglu
Elizabeth Aduhene
Ellen Mertens
Erika Nelson
Felice Addeo
Fernanda Scussel
Florentin Remond
Francesca Negri
Francesco Sorbino
Frédérique Ménard
Georg von Richthofen
Georgia Fenlon
Giacomo Bagna
Giada Mattias
Giovanni Baldi
Grazia Murtarelli
Gregorio Fuschillo
Hanna Möller
Ilias Kapareliotis
Isabella Ciampa
Ishita Nagpal
Jack Campbell
Jagannath Sanyal
Joe McArdle
Jose Prado Filho
Josephine Go Jefferies
Kaiti Shang
Kelly Marnfeldt
Killian O’Leary
Lala Hu
Laura Hoeger
Lauren Smith
Lena Cavusoglu
Liliana De Simone
Lily Cresswell
Long-Rui Han
Lucia Fanini
Lucina Odoi
Magda Raza
Maheshika Dissanayake
Malik Arshad
Manuela Eder
Manuelita Arias Arango
Margaret Jakovac
Margaret-Anne Lawlor
Maria Augusta Ribeiro
Maria Carolina Zanette
Mariam Humayun
Mariana De Oliveira Castanhas Casal Ribeiro
Marie Kerekes
Marie-Agnès Parmentier
Mariia Lobanova
Mark Nguyen
Marlene Kulla
Massimiliano Ruggiero
Matteo Corciolani
Matthew Anderson
Maud Derbaix
Meggie Mañago
Mehrgan Malekpour
Melissa Girling
Michael Heller
Michael Mulvey
Mijka Ghorbani
Mohamed Maher
Morteza Abolhasani
Nicole Bridges
Nicoletta Vittadini
Oshri Bar-Gil
Paola Gioia
Rachael Walker
Rachel Ashman
Rafael Oliveira
Rebecca Pera
Rebecca Scott
Robert Kozinets
Romas Malevicius
Rossella Gambetti
Russell Belk
Salma El Azmeh
Sam Copland
Saoussan Ben Douissa
Selin Metin Turkel
Sema Misci Kip
Sharifah Alwi
Sidra Junaid
Silvia Biraghi
Stacey Munnelly
Stephanie Weber
Stephen O’Sullivan
Tatsita Mishra
Toni Eagar
Trevor Omoruyi
Ulrike Gretzel
Valentina Primossi
Valentina Rozo Bernal
Valérie Kindarji
Vanessa Campbell
Vincenzo Esposito
Xiaoxian Wang
Xiaoxiao Duan
Yolanda López García

We look forward to exploring cultural crossroads and netnography together in Sydney!