[csaa-forum] CFP: Post-Representative Participations: Engaging with Civic Action in the Times of Digital Citizenship
nico carpentier
nico.carpentier at vub.ac.be
Thu Jul 12 01:52:59 ACST 2018
((apologies for cross-posting))
Post-Representative Participations:
Engaging with Civic Action in the Times of Digital Citizenship
16th Nov 2018, School of Media, University of Brighton (UK)
Keynote speakers:
1st keynote speaker – Professor Nico Carpentier, Uppsala University.
2nd keynote speaker to be announced
The Media, Communications and Cultural Studies Association’s
Postgraduate Network (MeCCSA PGN), the Participatory Communication
Research (PCR) section of the International Association of Media and
Communication Research (IAMCR), and the Centre for Digital Media
Cultures, University of Brighton invites postgraduate students,
early-career researchers, filmmakers, civil society members and
activists to submit proposals for our joint one-day conference at
University of Brighton.
The aim of this conference is to provide a platform for the critical
dialogue between Participatory Communication Research communities and
media practitioners (such as activists, filmmakers etc.) to examine the
issues of social, political and cultural change in the times of digital
media, giving a particular focus on ‘digital citizenship’. It also aims
to bring together international academics and media practitioners to
explore the creative participatory methods. We are keen to involve not
only academic presentations, but also workshops and film screenings by
media practitioners at the event, giving them the chance to present
their work, ideas and practices to an international audience.
About the Conference Theme
The contemporary era can be seen an experience of schisms, created by
living in an increasingly connected world with highly polarized social
contexts, a situation that has been referred to as living in "the era of
the both" (Carpentier, 2018). Even as media technologies continue to
proliferate and evolve to stimulate new(ish) socialities (Jenkins et
al., 2016), the global political environment seems to turn towards
intolerance and hatred. Arguably, increased levels of participation form
one of the antidotes to this violence, but this antidote can no longer
consist out of the older forms of civic participation, which were almost
exclusively grounded in the logics of representative democracy.
The context for democratic struggles has shifted more than ever towards
the usage of a mélange of different technologies that are deployed to
engage in civic action, at a variety of political levels, some of which
concern institutionalized politics, but others which do not. To refer to
a book co-edited by Henry Jenkins: Civic action is organised "by any
media necessary" (Jenkins et al., 2016). Digital participations feature
prominently in this mélange, which has structurally enriched the
repertoires available to civic action, but we should not ignore the
articulation of digital activist practices with many other
participatory-democratic practices outside the digital realm.
Simultaneously, also the digital industries are now increasingly
becoming object of media critique, which aligns them with the older mass
media industries, which have been endlessly targeted by civic activists,
e.g. critiquing these media for manufacturing consent (Herman and
Chomsky, 1988).
As academics and scholars, we need to engage with these newer forms of
participations that are encoded in the language of old and new
industries, activist practices and the performance of different politics
that transcend the representational, such that we can adapt and
influence strategies to continue fostering a diverse and a tolerant
vision of the future.
The central theme of the seminar is Post-Representative Participations:
Engaging with civic action in the times of digital citizenship. Possible
topics include, but are not limited to:
* Participatory Communication
* Participatory Methodology
* Representation and civic action
* Digital Citizenship
* Digital Activism
* Social Media and Social Movement
* Mobile Communication and Activism
* Activism, Surveillance and Datafication
* Digital Literacy and manufactured consent
* (Digital) Nomadism and civil participation
Please send your abstract, of no more than 250 words for
presentation/workshop/film screening/art-projects, along with a resume
detailing your work, to e.graves206 at canterbury.ac.uk or
siddharth.chadha at im.uu.se by 15th of August 2018.
For panel proposals, please include a brief rationale for the panel and
abstracts for all papers, including authors and affiliations. Panel
slots are one hour long, thus please include between three and four
papers in your panel proposal.
You will receive a notification from the conference organisers
confirming whether your abstract has been accepted by the 15th September.
The deadline for the submission of full papers and films is the 3rd of
November. The submission of a full paper is desirable but not obligatory
for conference participants. It is required in order to be considered
for the special issue publication. Films have to be made available to
the conference organisers before the 3rd of November. A selection of
papers will be considered for publication in a special issue of
Networking Knowledge, Journal of the MeCCSA Postgraduate Network,
depending on receiving a sufficient number of high quality papers. We
would thus like to encourage delegates to write up the full version of
their papers. Visual essays, and other, less common, formats will also
be considered.
We look forward to your abstracts. For any queries, please contact Emma
Kaylee Graves e.graves206 at canterbury.ac.uk or Siddharth Chadha
siddharth.chadha at im.uu.se
References
Carpentier, N. (2018) Foreword – The Era of the Both in ‘Networks,
Movements and Technopolitics in Latin America: Critical Analysis and
Current Challenges’. Palgrave Macmillan.
Herman, E. S. and Chomsky, N. (1988) Manufacturing Consent: the
Political Economy of the Mass Media. New York: Pantheon Books.
Jenkins, H., Shresthova, S. L. Gamber-Thompson, N. Kligler-Vilenchik, A.
Zimmerman (2016) By Any Media Necessary: The New Youth Activism. New
York: NYU Press.
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