ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

27 – 29 September 2024

Zakynthos, Greece

Deadline: March 31, 2023

https://dstfestival.org

The Greek Island of Zakynthos (Zante) constitutes a spot in time and space where the convergence of diverse sociocultural narratives takes place: Hugo Foscolos, Andreas Kalvos, Dionysios Solomos (national poet of Greece), and Andreas Vesalius are amongst the island's most notable cultural figures.

With that in mind, four Laboratories from three Greek Universities (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, University of the Aegean, Ionian University) have collaborated to organise the biannual International Digital Storytelling Festival (DST-Zakynthos)¹, between the biannual DST conferences.

DST-Festival celebrates the art of digital storytelling. DST-Festival is expected to constitute a space where the diverse community-driven digital stories can be communicated to the broader community, shared, and critically reflected upon by experts (artists, scientists, medical doctors etc.) and by the Festival participants (DST creators or not).

The 1st International Digital Storytelling Festival “We, The story” (DST-Zakynthos 2024) will be hosted by the "Foskolos" multi-purpose hall (https://cinefoskolos.gr).

DST-Zakynthos 2024 comprises a competitional and a non-competitional part. The competitional part of Festival is organized in six themes:

• Culture

• Education

• Environment

• Health

• Science – Research

• Society

Each creator may compete to any competitional theme (maximum two DSTs per creator in total).

Who can contribute with a DST to the Festival? DST is characterised by the creator’s truth, a personal narrative, crucially differing from a video clip or a short film. We accept any DST created within an acknowledged institution, organization etc. (accompanied with a respective verification Letter), or an Independently created DST (accompanied with a Letter briefly explaining the process of its creation). Each submission includes the DST (with the respective Letter), an Authorisation Letter (that the DST may be showed in public), and a Letter of Commitment (that the DST may be included in the Festival programme), payment of the handling fees (15 euros per DST). Detailed information about the procedures of entering the DST festival competition may be found at https://dstfestival.org, while queries may be sent to info@dstfestival.org.

Considering the non-competitional part, this year, the Festival will host a special session devoted to Greece, entitled “hiStories across the topos and the chronos.”

Furthermore, in parallel with the Festival, DST-workshops will be organized by DST-specialists for those who wish to experience the process of DST creating.

We invite you to join DST-Zakynthos 2024!

Michail Meimaris Professor Emeritus, President of DST-Zakynthos 2024

Important dates

• Submissions: 01 March 2024 – 31 March 2024
  
• Decision to contributors: 30 April 2024
  
• Registration: 30 April 2024 – 31 May 2024
  

Organised by:

– Zakynthos Club For UNESCO

– Laboratory of New Technologies in Communication, Education and the Mass Media, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

– Mathematics, History, Philosophy and Didactics of Mathematics Laboratory, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

– Learning Technology and Educational Engineering Laboratory, University of the Aegean

– Interactive Arts Laboratory, Ionian University

Co-Organised by:

– Region of Ionian Islands

– Université Paris 8

– MICA - Université Bordeaux – Montaigne

– University of Lapland

– Chaire UNESCO ITEN

– MSc Global Health-Disaster Medicine, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

– EU Jean Monnet Chair in Humanitarian Medicine and Response in Action (2020-2024)

– The Greek Film Archive Foundation (Tainiothiki Tis Ellados)

– StoryCenter (USA)

– Pilgrim Projects (UK)

¹ Prior to the International Festival, two national DST festivals have taken place in Greece:

• “When 01 meets narration: Digital stories” at the Greek Film Archive Foundation (9-10/12/2017, Athens)
  
• “When 01 meets the Storytelling: Discussions and digital stories” (17-18/3/2018, Zakynthos)
  

June 26-28, 2025

University of Graz, Austria

Deadline: February 20, 2024

CALL FOR PAPERS

What is critique? What can Critical Theory do for society? Which forms of critique may claim any relevance in late capitalism? How can a critical public opinion manifest itself in the 21st century? How can we distinguish critique from political ideologies and conspiracy theories? (see Fridays for Future, Querdenker, etc.) What characterises critical thinking? How can radical thought be rendered practically relevant?

The conference Theories and Concepts of Critical Theory takes place between 26 and 28 June 2025 at the University of Graz, and it approaches its main theme from various theoretical and practical perspectives. Based at the Faculty of Humanities, this interdisciplinary conference constitutes the second stage of the interdepartmental research project Radical Thought in the Anthropocene. The conference follows on from a first event that took place in 2023 and which was dedicated to different disciplinary approaches to Critical Theory.

We will bring the concept and idea of critique into productive constellations with a variety of concepts and categories pertaining to social and cultural theory. In doing so, and by highlighting fundamental societal and existential challenges of the 21st century, we will reflect upon the possibilities and potentials of a productive critique of society, especially concerning its implications for academic theory and lived practice. In view of the great global, societal, ecological and economic challenges, we will put to the test the social significance and practical relevance of cultural and social theory in the 21st century.

 Keynotes

• Rodrigo Duarte, Belo Horizonte, Brazil

• Lydia Goehr, New York City, USA

• Sven Kramer, Lüneburg, Germany

• Michael Thompson, New York City, USA

Conference Board (University of Graz)

• Stefan Baumgarten, Department of Translation Studies

• Stefan Brandt, Department of American Studies

• Juliane Jarke, BANDAS Center & Department of Sociology

• Susanne Kogler, Department of Art and Musicology

• Sonja Rinofner-Kreidl, Department of Philosophy

Format

 The conference is held in a workshop format. Incoming abstracts will be assigned to the following three corresponding themes:

• Workshop I: Language, Translation, Society

This workshop compares and contrasts diverse forms and concepts of critique and communication, examining their viability in view of current societal challenges such as multiculturalism, multilingualism, migration and modern communication technologies. Amongst other things, we will address cultural readings and language-specific receptions of the first generation of the Frankfurt School, especially concerning their historicity, timeliness and their ‘afterlife’. We will also pay special attention to ideology critique and to critical approaches on technology. Further relevant categories include phenomena such as inter- and transculturality, deconstruction and text, medialisation and multimodality, globalisation and (digital) cultures as well as gender-specific issues.

• Workshop II: Materialism, Aesthetics, Politics

The question surrounding (artistic) ‘material’ concerns one of the key themes associated with Theodor W. Adorno’s aesthetic theory. It is also of central importance regarding the current reception of Critical Theory. Such questions surrounding the status, nature and conceptualisation of the material world not only challenge the Marxist origins of Critical Theory but also its concrete political and practical relevance. In this workshop, we will compare and contrast approaches in Critical Philosophy and Critical Social Theory, as well as approaches pertaining to (Historical) Materialism and (Neo-)Idealism. Of particular interest here is the relationship between New Materialisms and Critical Theory. Further relevant topics include (world) literature, digitalization and mediatisation, art and freedom (from ideology), (artistic) activism and politics.

• Workshop III: Humans, Spirit, World Relation

This workshop deals with the relationship between science and critique. Here, the role of the Humanities for critical thinking and the role of lived practice with positive future implications will be debated from self-reflexive and self-critical standpoints. Among other things, we will discuss in what ways scientific and academic thought echoes conceptualisations, theories and arguments from Critical Theory, and how science might be able to adapt them for a better life, for a radical “wild thinking” that may generate alternative realities, art worlds, even anarchist constellations. Dichotomous thinking, post- and transhumanist ontologies as well as Anthropology and History are further possible themes. The relationship between critique, reason and unreason, as well as between critique, indignation and resistance about the state of (world) social affairs will also be up for discussion.

We look forward to receiving abstracts (max. 300 words) for 20-minute presentations on the above- mentioned topics and themes by 20 February 2024 under radikalesdenken(at)uni-graz.at. We are particularly looking forward to receiving contributions from doctoral candidates and early-career researchers! The abstracts must be submitted in anonymised form in English including a mini- biography (approx. 100 words).

The Conference Board will accept abstracts based on an anonymous selection procedure. Acceptance letters will be sent out in spring 2024. The conference will be streamed online. Selected contributions are expected to be published in English by Palgrave Macmillan.

Journal Mobile Media & Communication (JCR Q1, SPECIAL ISSUE)

Deadline: February 15, 2024

Guest editors: Mireia Fernández-Ardèvol & Sakari Taipale.

This special issue aims to explore the role of mobile communication in later life from theoretical and empirical perspectives. The more profound changes affecting older adults' inclusion/exclusion in the information society are mainly reflected in their use of mobile communication devices, particularly smartphones. Over the years, these pervasive changes have shaped older adults' social identity, family relations, and basic life conditions.

The premise of this special issue is the shared understanding that a large part of even recent research on later life and mobile communications is no longer valid, partly because it needs to incorporate the diversity of this life stage sufficiently. Hence, there is a risk that the understanding of older adults' mobile communication experiences becomes ossified and based on stereotyped and outdated knowledge. 

Important dates:

•     Abstract submission date 15 February 2024
  
•     Acceptance /rejection feedback 01 April 2024
  
•     Authors submit full papers by 30 September 2024
  
•     Peer Reviews completed/resubmissions in March 2025
  
•     Final acceptance by 15 September 2025
  

Relevant links:

CfP: https://journals.sagepub.com/pb-assets/cmscontentl/mmc/Special%20Issue%20Proposal_%20Mobile%20communication%20and%20later%20life_%20from%20theories%20to%20empirical%20frescoes_06NOV2023-1699587686.pdf

Journal website: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/mmc

New book from Nordicom

Authors: Signe Sophus Lai and Sofie Flensburg

Download the book as open access or order a print copy here: https://www.nordicom.gu.se/en/publications/gateways

 Content:

Preface

Introduction

What we (think we) know

Biases of digital media

Agenda

Narrative 

PART I: DEPARTURES

Chapter 1. Follow the data

Epistemic crossroads

Structuring forces of digital communication

Towards digital communication systems

Chapter 2. Step-by-step: Comparing infrastructures, markets, & states

Step one: The Digital Communication System Matrix

Step two: The continuums

Step three: The indicators Future steps: A dynamic framework 

PART II: MAPS 

Chapter 3. Accessing the Nordic Internets 

Waves & wires

The rise & fall of incumbent empires

Governing access

The last mile & the last bastion 

Chapter 4. The backbone of communication

Mermaids & sea serpents

Expanding territories

The black-boxed backbone

Horizons & vertigos  

Chapter 5. Over-the-top applications 

Nordic application environments

Platform power

Gatekeeping the gatekeepers

Ruptures & tectonic plates 

Chapter 6. Bits of data, bits of power 

Surveillance architectures

The data asset

Datafication of welfare

Blocking the data hose? 

PART III: ROUTES

Chapter 7. A waltz 

Big Tech & the welfare state

At the mercy of the objects we study 

Chapter 8. Road to nowhere 

Comparing digital communication systems

Datafied welfare?

Evolving Internet regimes 

References

April 10, 2024

Sheffield, UK

Deadline: December 10, 2023

The ECREA Journalism Studies Section and the Young Scholars Network (YECREA) invite applications for the 4th Journalism Studies PhD Colloquium, which will take place on 10 April 2024 at the University of Sheffield.

The PhD Colloquium aims to connect up-and-coming journalism researchers and experienced colleagues in the field, and to provide mentorship to doctoral students. It is an opportunity for PhD researchers in Journalism Studies to present their projects, receive in-depth feedback on their work from established scholars, and network with senior scholars and peers in a friendly and supportive environment. Students will be paired with an experienced scholar, who will read a substantive piece of their work (a chapter or paper of 5,000-8,000 words) and give them feedback on the day of the colloquium.  

We welcome all theoretical and empirical PhD projects focusing on journalism research. We also strongly support submissions from PhD students at the start or middle of their projects as they benefit from feedback the most (although doctoral students at any stage of their PhD journey are welcome to apply).  

Submission guidelines 

Interested PhD students should submit the following: 

• An abstract of 500 words outlining the 1) topic, 2) rationale, 3) theoretical approach, and 4) empirical application (if applicable). 
  
• A separate document with the name, affiliation, expected graduation date, and supervisor.  
  
• A ranked list of five potential respondents (please try to choose scholars likely to attend a section conference in the European context). 
  

Please send your submissions via email to Bissie Anderson (b.anderson4@rgu.ac.uk) no later than 10 December 2023. Submissions will be reviewed in a double-blind review process. 

Notifications of acceptance will be issued by 10 January 2024. 

We expect participants whose abstracts are accepted to submit a full paper (5,000-8,000 words) by 10 March 2024. Full papers are mandatory for participation as they will be sent to selected respondents. More information on the submission requirements will be sent to accepted participants via email.  

*PLEASE NOTE*: The PhD colloquium will take place in-person only and we are unable to accommodate requests for virtual participation. 

Timeline

• Sunday 10 December 2023 at 23:00 - deadline for submissions
  
• Acceptances announced by 10 January 2024 
  
• Full papers submitted by 10 March
  

June 6-7, 2024

Tilburg (the Netherlands)

Deadline (EXTENDED): February 9, 2024

Organizers:

• Niels Niessen, Tilburg University, the Netherlands
  
• Nuno Atalaia, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
  
• Rianne Riemens, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
  

Keynote speaker: Prof. Tiziana Terranova

This conference brings together critiques of how Big Tech invades all domains of public and private life, transforming those domains in the process. The conference explores how the humanities can contribute to a better understanding of this development. At the same time, we are interested in how humanities research changes in relation to this development.While critiquing Big Tech, it is important to acknowledge that for many, platforms like Instagram, Tumblr, and X (Twitter) are places of consciousness building and activism. It is also safe to say that without these platforms, movements like MeToo, Trans Liberation, and Black Lives Matter would not have happened the way they did. Yet while these platforms help liberate personal and collective life in some respects, ultimately they are not designed for emancipation, but to maximize user engagement. The conference examines the ways in which Big Tech interpellates people as users, through its technologies and its discourses. We will also discuss potential forms of resistance against this interpellation.

In proposing a humanities perspective on Big Tech, we tackle what we perceive as a crisis of the human form in the age of large-scale platforms, personalized AI, and the algorithmic condition.

Theorists including Patricia Ticineto Clough (The User Unconscious), Nick Couldry & Ulises Mejias (Costs of Connection), and McKenzie Wark (Capitalism Is Dead) have argued that Big Tech threatens the very integrity and sovereignty of individual and collective human existence. At the same time, the existence of both humans and non-humans is threatened by climate change and the continuous appropriation of the environment for the benefits of Big Tech and economic growth (as argues for example Mél Hogan in “Big Data Ecologies”). What does it mean to practice the Humanities in algorithmic societies facing political and ecological crises? How to understand the human subject and its relation to technology and the environment in light of these conditions? How to critique Big Tech’s understanding of the human subject, its extractive economic model and continuous infrastructural and spatial expansion, and its visions of the future? How to work towards alternatives?

The conference somewhat changes up the traditional conference format, creating more space for conversation and workshops. We ask for short 10-minute individual presentations. During the workshops hosted by the conference organizers, participants are invited to critically engage with the methodological, epistemic, and ecological implications of studying Big Tech. If you are interested in participating in the conference, please fill out this form. (https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/H-8AnSFOUBAa5xr17f4MLwF-QTa5AQXpQB-Olfw1Vys/).

We ask you to briefly describe (1) the topic of your presentation and ideally also your object of focus (if your paper is mostly theoretical, still provide an example of an object you connect to); (2) your intervention (the argument you plan to develop, or how you envision your contribution); (3) a brief reflection on methodology and how your contribution speaks to the changing humanities. In addition, please indicate your preference for the workshop you would like to attend on day 2 of the conference (How to design a user?; How to study big data ecologies?; How to de-Google Learning?). Finally, we ask participants to ideally participate in the full conference. On the evening before the conference (June 5) we will have an informal dinner (paid for by the organization) in the center of Tilburg. The conference itself will take place in De Nieuwe Vorst theater, also in the Tilburg city center.

To apply, please fill out the form on https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/H-8AnSFOUBAa5xr17f4MLwF-QTa5AQXpQB-Olfw1Vys/ 

For questions, please email bigtechconference@protonmail.com

Deadline for submission: 9 February. We will send out conference invitations by the end of February.

A special issue of Societies (ISSN 2075-4698).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: May 30, 2024     

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Cristina Miguel

Prof. Dr. Elisenda Piera

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The rapid advance of artificial intelligence (AI) in society demands innovative research perspectives to examine how people effectively engage with AI and the potential benefits and drawbacks of its use.  Despite a growing number of people engaging in intimate relationships with robots, chatbots, and virtual assistants, there is still little knowledge about human–AI intimacy practices. AI companions aim to create a safe and non-judgmental space for individuals to share their feelings and thoughts. These types of AI technologies can show care for humans by actively listening to their concerns and using empathetic language to support them. Thus, they may help to fight loneliness and contribute to a sense of connection and well-being. On the other hand, detractors claim that AI companions are detrimental to users’ ability to form real-life relationships and involve privacy risks. The amount of users’ data that AI companions need to collect to learn about individuals’ behaviour may compromise users’ privacy. Therefore, some questions arise: How is AI transforming the ways we understand and experience intimacy?; Are new forms of intimacy emerging?; How are AI technologies being adapted for cultural differences in building intimate relations?; Which cultural and social continuities and discontinuities are related to AI companions’ adoption?; Are there experiences of distrust and disconnection in relation to AI companions?; How are artificial intimacy experiences being narrated?

The main objective of this Special Issue, "Artificial Intimacies: Exploring New Forms of Connection and Disconnection with AI Technologies”, is to understand the emerging phenomenon of artificial intimacy. This Special Issue aims to achieve a holistic understanding of how AI companion robots and apps operate and how they are adopted for different types of intimate relationships (e.g., friendship, romantic, sexual), as well as to map the social imaginaries and moral panics around these new intimate technologies driven by AI.

For this Special Issue, we welcome empirical research articles, literature reviews, or conceptual papers that analyse and assess how artificial intimacies are understood and experienced in society. Potential topics for submissions to this Special Issue on artificial intimacy may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• AI companion robots and apps (sexual, caregivers, friendship, romantic, etc.).
  
• Social and ethical implications of the use of AI companions.
  
• Political economy of AI companion apps.
  
• Intimate relationships with virtual assistants.
  
• Age, race, gender, or class and AI companions.
  
• Artificial intimacy imaginaries and fiction.

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as conceptual papers are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Societies is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

• AI companions
  
• artificial intelligence
  
• artificial intimacy
  
• companion apps
  
• intimacy
  
• sex robots
  
• social robots
  

June 25-27, 2024

University of Windsor (Ontario, Canada)

Deadline to submit abstract for paper: January 12, 2024 (3:00 pm EST)

Submit abstracts here: https://uwindsor.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_d0DLSwygYnXvKEm

Symposium & Workshop Synopsis

Crowd funding and personal donation platforms raise a constellation of issues that have garnered relatively little attention. Donation platforms such as GoFundMe or KickStarter operate multi-million-dollar businesses. This reality, alongside the several multimedia tactics that are deployed to seduce potential donors may not be transparent to them. In addition, personal donors’ data can be highly sensitive information when it relates to political affiliations, religious beliefs, or is connected to oppressed minority groups at the local level or through foreign governments or organizations. And yet, organizations that initiate and benefit from donation campaigns may not be subject to the personal data protection laws when such laws apply to commercial activities only. When leaked or made accessible to government authorities or employers, personal donations can lead to drastic measures including law enforcement freezing of bank accounts, or loss of employment. As such, personal donations raise fundamental human rights issues, the regulation of which deserves particular attention and scrutiny. More broadly, the political, economic, and cultural impact of crowd funding and personal donation platforms invites a deeper critical and interdisciplinary engagement.

The Symposium aims to bring together scholars from diverse disciplines, including law, communication and media studies, sociology, anthropology, economics, business, and political science, to reflect on the multifaceted dynamics of crowd funding and personal donation platforms and practices shaped by an evolving ecosystem of platforms, devices, data collection practices, political climates, social norms, fundraiser needs, donor motivations, and regulatory frameworks. Zones of inquiry include the following:

• What incites personal donors to give, and what are their perceptions with respect to ventures, causes, political movements calling for fundraising?
  
• What is the personal donor in law? (i.e. the nature of the transactions performed, privacy and personal data implications, legal protections against deception and fraud, tax treatment incentives, among other considerations).  
  
• When does a personal donor become an investor?
  
• How are communication, social media, digital platforms (GoFundMe, Kickstarter, etc..) impacting personal donations both from the perspective of fundraisers and personal donors?
  
• What are the social dynamics and cultural factors that influence the success of crowdfunding campaigns?
  
• What types of industries (creative, cultural, educational, healthcare etc.) or causes (humanitarian, emergency relief, political, etc.)  resort to personal donations and what are considerations specific to each of those industries or causes?
  
• What are the opportunities and pitfalls for inventors and start-up companies resorting to crowdfunding and online donation platforms to subsidize the development of their new technology or product?
  
• What are the narratives, tools, methods deployed by fundraisers? When are such narratives justifiable and laudable, and when are they deceptive, misleading, or fraudulent?
  
• What is the level of accountability and transparency to which fundraisers, digital donation platforms and other intermediaries are or should be subject to?
  
• Is there a need for greater protection of donors’ good will and more generally of the public?
  
• How do governments support some fundraisers (e.g. tax breaks, interests in charity reliance, etc.) and ban others? (e.g. security surveillance, banking and finance regulation, criminal sanctions)
  
• What should the extent of state control be over eligible causes for tax purposes and proscribed ones?  
  
• What are the human rights implications (e.g. potential discrimination, constraints on right of association, liberty) of such government regulations?
  

The Symposium and Workshop’s main goal is to further develop a research agenda in this area of study through the benefits of an interdisciplinary approach, gathering researchers across different disciplines and with different perspectives to address these challenging and critical questions.

The selected participants will be invited to contribute to a book project / collection of essays to be published in a leading academic journal/press.

July 10-11, 2024

Gorizia, Italy

Deadline: January 31, 2024

Dear colleagues,

We are thrilled to announce that the keynote speakers of the conference “Work and Play: Studying the Labour of And Around Acting in Contemporary European Cinema” will be Dr Christopher Holliday (King’s College London) and Prof. Catherine O’Rawe (University of Bristol).

Proposals are invited until January 31st, 2024 (CET). Please note that the dates of the conference, have been anticipated to July 10-11, 2024.

We are pleased to share that the conference will be held in Gorizia in conjunction with the opening of the 43rd Premio Sergio Amidei (International Award for Best Screenplay): conference presenters will receive accreditation to attend the event.

More details in the CFP below.

WORK AND PLAY: STUDYING THE LABOUR OF AND AROUND ACTING IN CONTEMPORARY EUROPEAN CINEMA 

Conference organizer: Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici e del Patrimonio Culturale

Università degli Studi di Udine, Italy

Conference dates: 10-11 July 2024

Conference venue: Centro Polifunzionale Gorizia Campus 

Scholarship addressing actors and actresses has traditionally focused on theories and issues of stardom. The centrality of the star as a prominent signifier in film texts, as well as a major asset in the production and commercialisation of film products, has been variously and fruitfully investigated by star and celebrity studies. Stars’ performances and personas have been analysed as the epitome of their actual or perceived national identities, as the expression of their coeval cultural and political context, as well as marketing mainstays for their respective national film industries (e.g., Gundle 1995; Leahy 2003; Reich 2004; Spicer 2022). Less explored has instead been the labour of and around acting. This conference, which originates from the research project funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research titled F-ACTOR. Forms of Contemporary Media Professional Acting. Training, Recruitment and Management, Social Discourses in Italy (2000-2020), therefore wishes to study labour issues in connection not just to stardom, but to screen acting in Europe. In the Old Continent, the ‘fluidity of identities’ (Bergfelder 2005: 329) that characterises the region from a cultural and geo-political standpoint is echoed in the transnationality of many film actors, such as the French Juliette Binoche (Vincendeau 2015), the Italian Ksenia Rappoport (Faleschini Lerner 2012), or the Spanish Daniel Brühl (Vidal 2016). Transnationality is regarded as one the distinctive features of Europe’s predominant mode of film production (Jäckel 2003), as it relies to a great extent on international co-productions, funded through bi- and multi-lateral agreements, supranational schemes like Creative Europe and Eurimages, as well as dedicated film festivals’ initiatives (Iordanova 2015). How does the relationship between film actors, (trans)national identity, policy framework, and production system play out in labour practices and individual decision-making within Europe? If, as Richard Dyer (1986) observes quoting Marx, the star image is an example of ‘“congealed labour”, something that is used with further labour (scripting, acting, directing, managing, filming, editing) to produce another commodity, a film, what are the material and symbolic conditions in which such labour is performed, and by whom? How is the labour of and around screen acting performed within the framework of European cinema produced over the last two decades? How are digital technologies impacting on acting and acting-related practices and labour within Europe? What part, if any, does transnationality play in shaping the values and practices of actors and non-acting professionals in European film industries? This conference aims to explore the multiple forms of labour that constitute, inform, and surround contemporary screen acting. In this sense, we are not only interested in the labour of contemporary European screen actors, and how it intersects with individual traits such as gender and age. We also wish to examine the varied forms of labour that prepare, accompany, manage, circulate, manipulate, consume, and evaluate the screen actor’s performance against the backdrop of an increasingly globalized and corporatized European film industry. 

The conference invites proposals for presentations that explore symbolic, social, organizational, economic and/or juridical dimensions of labour performed by and around screen actors in the context of contemporary European film industries (ca 2000-present time). The list of possible topics includes, but is not limited to:

●      The labour of acting across national and trans-national production cultures;

●      Intersectional approaches to screen acting;

●      Actors and promotional labour: (self-)branding, transmedia persona, digital intimacy;

●      Actors and the law: labour rights, welfare, contracts;

●      Labour organizations, unions, and industry associations;

●      The labour around acting: coaches, casting directors, talent agents, PR professionals;

●      Training actors: schools and institutions, professions, methods;

●      Making up actors: make-up and hairstyling artists, fashion stylists, image consultants;

●      Voice acting: dubbing professions, cultures and practices across Europe;

●      Acting and digital technologies;

●      Acting and film criticism;

●      Actors and the economy of prestige: Festivals, awards, accolades;

●      Actors and fandom.

We invite proposals for individual papers and pre-constituted panels. All proposals should be written in English. Abstracts for 20-minutes individual papers should be of 300 words (max). Panel proposals should include a 300-word (max) description of the panel, including a title, plus a 200-word (max) description of each individual paper (min 3, max 4 papers of 20 minutes each per panel). All proposals should include also a 100-word bio of the presenter(s), 5 keywords descriptive of the proposal, and 3 to 5 key bibliographic references.

The conference will be held in-person.

For more information and resources about F-ACTOR. Forms of Contemporary Media Professional Acting. Training, Recruitment and Management, Social Discourses in Italy (2000-2020), please visit https://italianperformers.it/en/

Proposals should be submitted to workandplayuniud@gmail.com no later than 11:59PM (CET) on January 31st, 2024.

Notifications of acceptance will be sent out by March 31st, 2024.

For any questions, do not hesitate to contact the conference organizing committee: workandplayuniud@gmail.com 

Keynote bios:

Christopher Holliday, Lecturer in Liberal Arts and Visual Cultures Education at King’s College London. Dr Holliday’s research is concerned with digital technologies and forms of computer animation in contemporary visual culture. He has published extensively on computer-animated film, digital visual effects, Deepfakes, and digital de-aging. He is the author of The Computer-Animated Film: Industry, Style and Genre (EUP, 2018) and co-editor of the anthologies Fantasy/Animation: Connections Between Media, Mediums and Genres (Routledge, 2018) and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: New Perspectives on Production, Reception, Legacy (Bloomsbury, 2021), as well as the creator and curator of www.fantasy-animation.org.  

Catherine O'Rawe, Professor of Italian Film and Culture at the University of Bristol. Prof. O’Rawe’s principal research interest lies in Italian cinema, which she has investigated with particular attention to stardom, performance, and audiences. Her latest book, The Non-Professional Actor. Italian Neorealist Cinema and Beyond (Bloomsbury, 2023) addresses the casting, performance, and labour of non-professional actors, particularly children, their cultural and economic value to Italian Neorealist cinema. She is also the author of Stars and Masculinities in Contemporary Italian Cinema (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), and co-author of Italian Cinema Audiences: Histories and Memories of Cinema-going in Post-war Italy (Bloomsbury, 2020).

Chris Miles

Palgrave Macmillan

Chris Miles, Principal Academic in Marketing & Communication at Bournemouth University, has just published The Marketing of Service-Dominant Logic: A Rhetorical Approach, with Palgrave Macmillan.

Service-Dominant logic can be described as a mind-set for a unified understanding of the purpose and nature of organizations, markets and society. A concept that was first introduced by Vargo and Lusch in 2004, S-D logic has generated not just a vast host of journal articles and books but has established an expanding sphere of influence across marketing scholarship. In this book, Chris Miles uses a rhetorical approach to investigate the ‘marketing’ of Service-Dominant logic, asking how the formulation and presentation of the logic aids in its persuasive promotion. In doing so, the book explores the lexicon choices, metaphors, symbols, and persuasive gambits that have resonated so strongly with marketing academia, with the aim of understanding how these elements work together in a compelling narrative that delivers the logic’s core value proposition of transcendence. Chris Miles investigates how these rhetorical strategies have evolved as the S-D logic framework has developed, examining the revisions to its foundational premises and axioms and the introduction of new perspectives such as systems theory. It is the first book-length rhetorical analysis of a single strand of marketing discourse and as such, it serves as a showcase for the methodology, the insights it can provide, and its value for marketing scholarship.

Book details:

DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-46510-9

Hardcover ISBN

978-3-031-46509-3

Published: 01 December 2023

Softcover ISBN

978-3-031-46512-3

Due: 15 December 2024

eBook ISBN

978-3-031-46510-9

Published: 30 November 2023

Number of Pages

IX, 259