2026 Flashpoint Symposium

For more information on prior flashpoints, visit our AoIRchive page.

Imagining and Co-creating Methods for Internet Research

11-12 August, Malmö University

Malmö, Sweden

In collaboration with Malmö Research Centre for Imagining and Co-Creating Futures, AoIR invites participants to its annual Flashpoint symposium.

For those interested in participating in the symposium, the deadline to submit an abstract of up to 300 words is March 30, 2026.

Confirmed keynote plenary speakers are

  • prof. Annette Markham, Utrecht University, Netherlands
    prof. Susana Tosca, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
    prof. Kat Jungnickel, Goldsmiths University of London, UK
    prof. Sarah T. Roberts, UCLA, USA

As technologies evolve, our relationship to the technological world changes, and so should our methods of studying the world around us. The methods we use to conduct research matter in understanding what can be studied, how the studies reflect the world, and how the groups we are studying (with) relate to academia. Internet research faces challenges in recruitment, data quality, practicality, and ethics, leading to questions about sampling bias, data truthfulness, and other issues that require creative solutions. We need to question and challenge many of the dominant approaches and find ways to reimagine methods that fit contemporary research challenges. Research methods need to evolve with the world, respect its diversity and be open to inventive ways to involve research participants in knowledge co-creation.

Creative research methods can be methods that draw on creative self-expressions of research participants or researchers, including visual, text, sound, and materials. They may also involve creative use of technologies as part of the research process and outcome – apps, mash-ups, data visualisations, APIs, etc. In addition, creative methods can encompass transformative approaches, including participatory, speculative, artistic, worldbuilding, decolonising, activist and community-based research approaches that are designed to reduce the power imbalances and include diverse voices in academic research. Mixed and hybrid methods that challenge researchers to question the paradigmatic assumptions of their work may also be understood as creative research practices.

In the spirit of challenging established academic traditions, the symposium invites scholars interested in method-related discussions to join us in imagining and co-creating methods for a new era of internet research.

We invite individual abstracts for papers, performances, spoken word pieces or artistic creations that highlight creative research methods or focus on the process of creating new methods. Please submit an abstract no longer than 300 words, five keywords and a short bio (including contact details) by March 30th, 2026.

The symposium will charge a fee of 500 SEK (~47 EUR/~56 USD/~41 GBP) that will cover lunches and coffee, and AoIR will also sponsor dinner for symposium participants. If you do not want to share any work but would still like to be part of the symposium, you can also sign up as a participant after March 15. PhD students and early-career scholars are particularly welcome, and AoIR will provide some fee waivers for the early-career scholars (available at a later stage when registration opens).

Submit your contribution to the symposium: Imagining and Co-creating Methods for Internet Research AoIR Flashpoint Symposium at Malmö – Fill out form (https://forms.office.com/e/yzLEg9T0fb)

Important dates:

  • Deadline for abstract submission: March 30, 2026
  • Registration opens March 15, 2026
  • Notification of acceptance: mid-April, 2026
  • Deadline for registrations June 15, 2026
  • Symposium in Malmö 11-12 August, 2026

More information about Malmö Research Centre for Imagining and Co-Creating Futures: https://mau.se/en/research/research-centres/imagining-and-co-creating-futures/ 

The Symposium organiser is prof. Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt

(contact: pille.pruulmann.vengerfeldt [at] mau.se), The scientific committee includes Prof. Andra Siibak and prof. Julia Velkova.