ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Carmit Wiesslitz

This book examines to what extent the democratic potential ascribed to the Internet is realized in practice, and how civil society organizations exploit the unique features of the Internet to attain their goals. This is the story of the organization members’ outlooks and impressions of digital platforms’ role as tools for social change; a story that debunks a common myth about the Internet and collective action. In a time when social media are credited with immense power in generating social change, this book serves as an important reminder that reality for activists and social change organizations is more complicated. Thus, the book sheds light on the back stage of social change organizations’ operations as they struggle to gain visibility in the infinite sea of civil groups competing for attention in the online public sphere. While many studies focus on the performative dimension of collective action (such as protests), this book highlights the challenges of these organizations’ mundane routines. Using a unique analytical perspective based on a structural-organizational approach, and a longitudinal study that utilizes a decade worth of data related to the specific case of Israel and its highly conflicted and turbulent society, the book makes a significant contribution to study of new media and to theories of Internet, democracy, and social change.

More here: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498539791/Internet-Democracy-and-Social-Change-The-Case-of-Israel

Deadline: May 31, 2020

Monica Dall’Asta, Jacques Migozzi, Federico Pagello, Andrew Pepper eds.

To talk about the crime genre—as opposed to detective or spy or noir fiction—is to recognise the comprehensiveness of a category that speaks to and contains multiple sub-genres and forms (Ascari, 2007). In this volume, we want to uncover the ways in which the crime genre, in all of its multiple guises, forms and media/transmedia developments, has investigated and interrogated the concealed histories and political underpinnings of national and supranational societies and institutions in Europe, particularly after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Two most popular expression of the crime genre, the detective novel and the spy novel, have long been identified as ‘sociological’ in their orientation (Boltanski, 2012). These forms often tackle enigmas or uncover conspiracies that are concealed by and within states, asking searching questions about the failures of democracy and the national and international criminal justice systems to deliver just societies. Similarly, following the example of U.S. hard-boiled fiction, the ‘noir’ variant of the genre has also established itself as a ‘literature of crisis’ (according to Jean-Patrick Manchette’s formula), where the shredding of official truths and of ‘reality’ itself ends up revealing dark political motives that elicit an even starker set of ethical and affective interrogations (Neveu, 2004). While the obvious links between the ‘noir’ and the ‘hard-boiled’ traditions of crime fiction (e.g. between Manchette and Hammett) suggest an American-French or trans-Atlantic connection, we are keen to stress that the sociological and political orientation of the European crime genre—especially since 1989 and the corresponding opening up of national borders and markets—requires examining both global/glocal and multi-national (and state-bound) issues and challenges. It is here that the European dimension of the proposed volume is best articulated because, to do justice to this context, we need to pay attention not just to discreet national traditions, but the ways in which contemporary iterations of the genre interrogate the workings of policing, law, criminality and justice across borders and nations (Pepper and Schmid, 2016).

The transnational framework of the DETECt project (Detecting Transcultural Identities in Popular European Crime Narratives) is necessarily and acutely concerned with civic and ethical issues linked to the construction of new European new identities. The proposed volume aims to explore the ways in which these new identities are formulated and thematised in European crime novels, films or TV series, particularly in relation to the interrogations raised by the uncovering of hidden aspects of both the historical past and the contemporary political landscapes. Contributions are encouraged which look at particular case studies or identify larger national and/or transnational trends or synthesise the relationship between individual texts and these larger trends. It is envisaged that the volume will be organised into the three sections outlined below. Prospective contributors are invited to identify where their articles might sit within this structure as well as to outline the particular focus adopted by their essay in relation to the general topic. The list of topics in each section is to be regarded as indicative rather than exhaustive.

1. Crime Narratives and the History of Europe

European crime narratives from the last thirty years have frequently referred to collective traumas and conflicts that have torn European societies apart throughout the 20th century. Contributions are invited that look at the ways in which these fictional works have restaged and critically reinterpreted some of the most tragic pages in European recent history, including (but not limited to) the following iterations of violent rupture and social breakdown:

• The Civil War and Francoist dictatorship in Spanish crime narratives (e.g. Montalbán, La isla minima);
• Fascism, surveillance and the police-state (e.g. Lucarelli, Gori, De Giovanni) and the role of oppositional memory (e.g. Morchio, Dazieri) in Italian detective fiction;
• Fascistic/right-wing nationalist movements in interwar Scandinavia (e.g. Larsson, Mankell);
• The Third Reich as the historical biotope of crime fiction (e.g. Kerr, Gilbers);
• The constant presence of wars as a breeding ground for crime in French crime novels: World War I and II, collaboration, the Algerian War, colonisation, post-colonisation (e.g. Daeninckx, Férey);
• The heavy presence of Cold War images and axiology in spy novels and films, including those appeared after the fall of the Berlin Wall, both in Western and Eastern Europe (e.g. Kondor, Furst);
• The ‘Troubles’ in Irish and British crime fiction (e.g. Peace, McNamee).

2. Crime Narratives and the Present of Europe

Our present time is characterized by a number of social, political, financial/economic crises that threaten the construction of a cosmopolitan pan-European identity in line with the EU’s founding ideals. Crime narratives attempt to offer realistic representations of such contemporary crises by putting in place a number of ‘chronotopes’ that symbolise social divisions and peripheral and marginalized identities. We encourage essays that examine the ways in which post-1989 European crime narratives have represented the emergence of nationalisms, xenophobia, racism and other threats to the social cohesiveness of European democracies. We also invite contributions that use the trope of the crisis to explore how the links between crime, business and politics have polluted or corrupted the democratic imperatives of European social democracies and institutions from the outset. Topics might include:

• The Kosovo War, and more broadly the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s, as the first signs of a generalised geopolitical chaos (e.g. in French noir novels);
• The financial crisis of 2008 and its devastating consequences for individuals, communities and whole societies (e.g. Bruen and French in Ireland; Markaris in Greece; Dahl in Sweden; Lemaître in France);
• The migrant crisis (within and outside the EU) and the emergence of new anxieties about belonging and/or otherness (e.g. Mankell, Dolan, Rankin);
• Climate change, pollution, and environmental destruction (e.g. Tuomainen, Pulixi);

• The blurring of crime and capitalism and the depiction of crime as a form of social protest vis-à-vis the effects of global capitalism and neoliberal deregulation and privatisation (e.g. Manotti, Carlotto, Heinichen, the TV series Bron);
• Inquiries into the effects of contemporary forms of patriarchy, gendered violence and misogyny and their links to other forms of oppression and domination (e.g. Lemaître, Slimani, Macintosh, Gimenez-Bartlett Larsson, McDermid).

3. Crime Narratives and the Future of Europe

European crime narratives explore a broad range of social and cultural identities across different scales: from the more stable identities attached to local contexts through the new mobile, precarious and mutating identities fostered by the dynamics of globalization. This section will look into how these different identities and their complex interplay can suggest ways to frame the future of Europe. Contributions could address how crime narratives try to make sense of the complex, if yet perhaps contradictory, set of representations circulating across different European public spaces and collective imaginaries. On the one hand, we might ask whether something like a European crime genre even actually exists, given that these works typically demonstrate suspicions about ‘outsiders’ and only rarely offer positive representations of post-national transcultural identities. On the other hand, however, the genre does give us glimpses into what might be achieved through cross-border policing initiatives, organised under or by Interpol and Europol, in the face of organised crime gangs involved in transnational smuggling and trafficking networking. Contributions to this final section are encouraged to reflect upon how crime narratives produced by and in between the discreet nation-states frame the hopes and limits of European cohesiveness and the continent’s future or futures. Essays could focus on one or more of the following topics:

• The interplay between local, regional, national and transnational identities as represented through specific narrative tropes, such as in particular the local police station, the interrogation room, the frontier or border, and so on;
• The connection between social deprivation at the local end of the geopolitical scale and different global systems and networks at the other end;
• The role of borders, cities, violence, rebellion, policing and surveillance in producing new identities and subjectivities not wholly anchored in discreet nation-states. Attention could also be given to formal innovations insofar as these allow or enable the expression of new identities;
• The hope and consolation offered by the resilient community or village (Broadchurch, Shetland) or the extended family (Markaris’s Kostas Charistos series) in the face of the messy, brutal contingencies of a world ruled by criminal and business elites;
• Social banditry as a form of contestation directed against social inequalities produced by capitalism (Carlotto’s Alligator series; La casa de papel).

If you are interested in submitting a proposal to be considered for inclusion in this volume, please send an abstract of no more than 300 words and a short biography to info@detect-project.eu by May 31, 2020. We would encourage you to identify the section of the proposed volume where your essay would be best situated. We are looking to commission up to 14 essays in total of 7000 words each including footnotes and bibliographic references.

May 18, 2020

Nottingham, UK

Deadline: March 2, 2020 (4:00 PM)

Taking place across the week commencing 18th May 2020, this festival will feature a programme of live cinema screenings, leading academic research, master classes, workshops, an exhibition and demonstration track, Q&A sessions, and world premieres of new artistic commissions and exclusive live events.

Live Cinema III will showcase the creative and critical advances in the multi-faceted field of live cinema which encompasses a diverse range of forms. These include experimental expanded cinema, the global live-casting of cultural and entertainment events and live performance during film screenings - indeed any instance of the live augmentation of screen spectatorship. This festival marks a unique historical juncture and provides an opportunity to draw together and reflect upon the many landmark and contemporary moments where the trajectories of liveness and emergent screen technologies have intersected. It is 50 years since the touchstone publication of Gene Youngblood’s book ‘Expanded Cinema’ which revolutionised notions of cinema-making and viewing through its pioneering consideration of videos, computers and holography as cinematic technologies. Furthermore, it is 30 years since the publication of Philip Auslander’s influential ‘Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture’. The combination of the central ideas of these two works resonate more than ever when considering the new chimeras of contemporary live screen experience. Take for example, Netflix, and their recent purchase of a physical cinema venue. This was clearly a commercially strategic move, as was their partnership with UK-based organisation Secret Cinema on an elaborate immersive experience based around the series ‘Stranger Things.’ These hybrid forms - which blend the live and the mediated, the cinematic with the televisual and with the theatrical - are symptomatic of the enduring significance of collective viewing experiences, despite the predominance of individualised screen consumption perpetuated by the streaming revolution. Moreover, these complex moments of convergence where commercial, technological and artistic imperatives collide and coalesce - underscore the important need for the ongoing study of live and experiential screen-based phenomena.

We are currently seeking contributions for the two-day academic programme which will commence on Thursday 21st May. These contributions may take any presentation format; traditional academic papers, workshops, pre-constituted panels, practice-based contributions, technical demonstrations and alternative formats are very welcome. We welcome proposals from a broad range of disciplinary contexts such as arts and humanities, computer science, social science, leisure studies, cultural geography, organisation and management studies – including contributions that consider the impact of Live Cinema on other disciplinary fields and approaches. We particularly welcome interdisciplinary enquiries which embrace methodological innovation. Areas of significant contribution will be focussed on instances where the live and digital coalesce in the formation of live screen experiences. These may include, but are not limited to, the following themes:

• Live Cinema and the conceptual relationship to meta-cinema, post-cinema, expanded cinema
• Liveness, mediation and presence: rituals and happenings; individualisation versus collectivity
• Geographies of liveness: local, national and global exhibition and distribution infrastructures, livecasting of cultural and entertainment experiences, tours, touring, pop-ups, mobile exhibition, site-specificity in an arts context;
• Convergence and intermediality: Intersections between stage, screen and television;
• Media spectacle: Event Cinema, Event Films, Media Events, ‘Eventization’ and the new screen experience economy, theme parks, installations;
• Audience participation and interaction: Hecklevision, ‘barrage cinema’, sing-a-longs, cult movie practices, ‘call backs’, Secret Cinema, Punchdrunk, audience creativity, fan created content, cos play, role play,
• Embodied experience: affect, cognition, haptics, bio-tech, AI and algorithms, biofeedback, wearables, gestural interfaces, visual tactile integration and proprioceptive devices;
• Performance and Performativity: VJ, live remix, live soundtrack scoring, immersive theatre;
• New Screen Technologies: 4DX, 3D, Magic Leap; Motion Capture, Immersive Sound, XR, Mobile screens;
• Immersion and interactivity: Second screen, dome screens, digital engagements, E-sports, accessible, sensory and inclusive technologies and experiences;
• Organisations and infrastructures: festivals, cinemas, distributors, new business models, IP, economic considerations, policy dimensions and brand engagement, labour markets, models of working in the screen experience economy;
• Activist and political uses of cinema: guerrilla screenings, interrupted screenings, radical, alternative events, film forums;
• Innovations in experience design: game hybrids, pervasive gaming, Alternate Reality Games (ARGs);
• Placemaking and collective experiences: Film festivals, public screens, tourism, leisure industries and ‘destination events;’
• Newness, novelty, exclusivity and scarcity: experiential ephemera, promotional screenings, materials and paratexts, historicisation;

Potential contributors should submit a 300 word abstract and a short 100 biography to LiveCinemaFestival2020@gmail.com by 4pm on March 2nd, 2020. Decisions will be sent out on week commencing 16th March, 2020.

Live Cinema III: Festival of Research and Innovation is a collaboration between Live Cinema UK, Live Cinema Network, King’s College London and University of Nottingham. The LCF2020 academic strand is convened by Sarah Atkinson & Helen W. Kennedy. For further information contact Professor Kennedy, Department of Cultural, Media and Visual Studies at the University of Nottingham.

Helen.Kennedy@Nottingham.ac.uk

International Journal of Film and Media Arts, Vol 5 No 2 (2020), GEECT Special issue

Deadline: April 28, 2020

Issue editors: Manuel José Damásio & Jyoti Mistry

Artistic Research is the proposition of artistic practice and systematic reflection through art itself. It is an epistemic inquiry directed towards advancing knowledge, insight, understanding, and competences that are explored from within inside the discipline even though it mobilizes inter-disciplinary and cross disciplinary approaches to research enquiry. Furthermore, artistic research combines artistic methods with methods from other research traditions facilitating many dimensions of research about/for/through art and draws from research strategies from the empirical sciences and the humanities. Artistic practice and its focus on research must be distinguished from artistic development where artistic research typically supports the further development of art practice but aims at topics of enquiry with a broader socio-political, cultural and economic significance.

While artistic research (AR) has been acknowledged for over two decades as a significant knowledge base for education in the arts in Higher Arts Education Institutions (HAEIs), its import in film education and media arts has only gained increased momentum over the last several years. To this end, AR has become a relevant and urgent topic due both to external processes (i.e. accreditation) and internal pressures (i.e. staff capacitation) making it increasingly relevant for film schools.

A special issue on artistic research in film schools is an opportunity to reflect on the multivalent challenges, opportunities, potentialities and possibilities for collaborations that AR affords film schools. The special issue aims to also encourage reflections through case studies of AR projects and PhD supervision experience in film research and film education.

International Journal of Film and Media Arts invites papers that deal with but are not limited to the topics of:

• Examples of creative practice and research in film schools
• Role of critical and contextual theory in film related to artistic research
• The relationship between teaching and research
• Challenges with creating a research dynamic environment in film education
• The relationship between professional practice and artistic research
• Creating or developing doctoral education with a film focus in artistic research
• Any related topics that broadly deal with the role of artistic research in film schools

Abstracts to be submitted by 28 April 2020

Provide a single document with:

• ABSTRACT, no longer than 500 words with 5 keywords
• BIO, no longer than 300 words
• Name, Email address and institutional affiliation

Please submit to: anna.coutinho@ulusofona.pt

Timeline for publication:

• Feedback on abstracts – 10th May 2020
• Submission of full paper – 30th July 2020
• Final revisions – 30th September
• Publication date – 30th October

IJFMA Vol 5 No 1 (2020)

Deadline: February 28, 2020

Volume Guest Editors

• Filipe Costa Luz
• Conceição Costa

The next chapter of IJFMA is dedicated for the contemporary culture of videogames, encouraging authors to present original studies oriented to this immersive media that have a huge impact in modern life.

IJFMA welcomes papers addressing one or more of the following themes:

• Videogames as an art form;
• Visual culture and games;
• Videogames and animation for media literacy
• Ubiquitous games research;
• Games and learning;
• Pedagogies of play;
• Education and games;
• Non-traditional gaming approaches;

Dates

• Full Papers: 28 FEV 2020
• Communication of decision to authors: 30 ABR 2020
• PUBLICATION: 30 JUN 2020

May 28-29, 2020

Södertörn University, Stockholm

Deadline: March 15, 2020

News, for a long time considered a distinct commodity produced by journalists and established media organisations, is currently often considered a concept in flux. This is prompted by changes in news production, including altering practices of journalists and the opportunities for media users to produce and share their own content, but it is equally a result of novel forms of news distribution, where social media platforms, micro-celebrities and alternative and viral news sites have gained a prominent role in news dissemination.

Alongside transformations in the production and distribution of news have followed changing use patterns, leading to renewed questions about participation, trust and civic engagement in the public sphere. It is arguable, furthermore, that the altered context for news consumption interlinks not only with new behaviours around news, but also with more varied understandings of the concept itself – with a range of different sources of information competing for what is to be considered ‘news’.

While these developments have been widely discussed as impacting on democracy and the public sphere, they seem to necessitate a further re-thinking of the features and functions of news today, in relation not only to technological developments and the digitized media landscape, but also with regard to different kinds of societies and geo-cultural contexts for news.

The overall aim of this conference is to make a contribution to ongoing scholarly debates about news and democracy in digitized society, by providing a rethinking of the concept and societal role of news, from a range of analytical and geo-cultural perspectives. The conference aims to bring together researchers from different academic disciplines and geographical areas, with expertise that could bring new perspectives to the inherently Western field of news research, as well as advancing the research agenda around news both theoretically and empirically.

Papers may include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Considerations of news as a concept, in relation to theoretical or empirical areas of investigation, and in connection to news production, content or audiences
• Empirical studies of news outside of the Western world
• The role of social media, viral news sites and apps as platforms for news
• Algorithmic news selection
• The relationship between news journalism and social media
• Alternative and populist news sites and their role in the public sphere
• Transforming news audiences and emerging practices around news
• Micro-celebrities and ‘influencers’ as disseminators and sources of news
• Global, local and hyperlocal news contexts
• News in relation to different cultural and geographical contexts
• Current developments around journalism and journalists
• Historical perspectives on news
• Issues of truth and trust in news

The conference will entail a combination of keynote speakers, research dialogues with invited speakers and parallel papers sessions. Confirmed speakers include:

• Tamara Witschge, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. Co-author of Beyond Journalism (2020).
• Natalia Roudakova, McGill University. Author of Losing Pravda: Ethics and the Press in Post-Truth Russia (2017).
• Thomas Pettitt, University of Southern Denmark. Author of “The Parenthical Turn in Journalism Studies: The Role of the News Ballads” (2015).
• Marcel Broersma, University of Groningen. Co-editor of Re-Thinking Journalism Again: Societal Role and Relevance in a Digital Age (2016).
• Jonathan Mair, University of Kent. Author of “Post-Truth Eras” (2018).

Abstracts for presentations are to be submitted by the 15th of March, for the selection of conference contributions to be confirmed by the 27th of March. Abstracts should be a maximum of 300 words, submitted alongside a short presenter’s bio of no more than 100 words.

Submit abstracts to: sofia.johansson@sh.se and stina.bengtsson@sh.se.

Conference registration will be open between the 30th of March to the 15th of April. Registration is free.

Hosted by the Department of Media and Communication Studies, Södertörn University, with funding by the university’s Centre for Baltic and East European Studies. For more information, please see: https://www.sh.se/english/sodertorn-university/calendar/events/2020-01-28-international-conference-new-perspectives-on-news-theoretical-and-empirical-challenges-to-contemporary-news-research

Nordic Journal of Media Studies 2021 (Special Issue)

Deadline for submission of extended abstracts: May 1, 2020

Editors: Risto Kunelius (University of Helsinki), Anna Roosvall, (Stockholm University)

As a complex and systemic problem of collective action (in the Anthropocene), the climate crisis poses challenges on a new scale. They range from translating scientific knowledge to sustainable policy, from debating radical changes in energy supply and infrastructures to discussions of everyday consumer choices, from dialogues about identity and historical justice to the risks and scenarios of the future (which has gained ever more immediacy).

Towards the end of the 2010s, the gap between hopeful scenarios and the real trajectories of climate change became increasingly severe. Politically, the short-lived optimism of the 2015 Paris Agreement waned under the pressure. As a result, national decision-making structures are weakened by a conjuncture of political polarisation where climate policies intersect with issues of immigration, identity, and inequality both between and within countries.The ambitious target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius seems to be slipping away – and the predictions of concerned scientists are increasingly pessimistic. At the same time, global media is filled with signs of the crisis: unforeseen fires, devastating floods and draughts – to name the obvious, dramatic examples – but also news of widening civic protests calling for climate action.

The climate emergency poses a fundamental challenge to the media, in all its contemporary plurality. The list of questions is long. How will the climate emergency shape the media institutions we inherited from carbon-driven modernity? What kind of professional practices and forms of reporting are needed? How will the new affordances of digital media networks enhance knowledge about the risks we face and help promote sharper critique of policies? What sort of opportunities for mediated activism for and against climate action will emerge? How will people use the wide array of media forms available today to make sense of their lives in the era of climate crisis? What is – or could be – the role of media studies in shaping this future?

The Nordic Journal of Media Studies is devoting its 2021 issue to cutting edge research tackling the role of the media (from social media to professional journalism and from everyday communication to high-level power politics) and the challenges of media research as a field in the context of the climate emergency.

We welcome contributions with themes such as (but not limited to) the following (in no particular order):

• The role of time and temporality in climate communication
• Potentials and pitfalls of transnational media
• Visual communication and new forms of climate storytelling
• Negotiating climate justice, global inequalities, and solidarity
• Assessing different forms of knowledge and evidence (from complex models to indigenous knowledge)
• Extreme weather and climate reporting
• Translating between science, politics, media, and everyday practice
• Dynamics of networked, connective action and political participation
• Combating fake news in climate communication
• The role of political polarisation and populism – and concepts of countering them
• New alliances of coproduction in climate communication
• Role of language, argumentation, and rhetoric in climate coverage
• Comparative analyses of media reporting
• Relationships between media and climate policy (political decision making)
• The role of publics, audiences, and public opinion – and their measurement
• Potentials and pitfalls of targeted, strategic communication

We welcome contributions offering new empirical insight into these and other crucial nodal points of analysing, understanding, and innovating on the role of different media. The Nordic Journal of Media Studies is not committed to any particular methods, materials, or theoretical approaches. We welcome suggestions for both empirical work that focuses on key moments of the contemporary media system but also hope to publish critical theoretical work that may help us to reconceptualise the urgent challenges of communicating the climate emergency.

• 1 April 2020: Extended abstracts (1000 words), describing key questions, methods, data, and the phase in which the actual work is in.
• 1 May 2020: Notification of accepted abstracts, with feedback from editors.
• 15 September 2020: Deadline for full manuscripts.

Contact:

Risto Kunelius, University of Helsinki. e-mail: risto.kunelius@helsinki.fi

Anna Roosvall, Stockholm University, e-mail: anna.roosvall@ims.su.se

About the Journal

The Nordic Journal of Media Studies is a peer-reviewed international publication dedicated to media research. The journal is a meeting place for Nordic, European, and global perspectives on media studies. The editors stress the importance of innovative and interdisciplinary research, and welcome contributions on both contemporary developments and historical topics. The journal is open for theoretical contributions and empirical research, and combinations thereof. The editors also welcome critical approaches to media studies addressing questions of power, inequality, participation, and voice.

The Nordic Journal of Media Studies focuses on the interplay between media and their cultural and social contexts. We are interested in the media as industries and institutions of modern society, but also in how they are woven into the fabric of everyday life as mobile and interactive technologies. The emergence of new social networks, changes in political communication, intensified datafication and surveillance of human interaction, and new dynamics between media, popular culture, and commercial markets are important aspects of the changing relationship between media, culture, and society.

Nordic Journal of Media Studies

Editorial process

The Nordic Journal of Media Studies is published once a year and each volume focuses on a particular theme. An open call invites suggestions (extended abstracts) for contributions and, on the basis of this, invitations to write full-length articles are issued. All submitted articles are subject to double-blind peer review by two external reviewers.

Articles should not exceed 7,000 words, including references, and must contain an abstract of no more than 150 words. All articles submitted should be original works and must not be under consideration by other publications.

in cooperation with ESA RN21 “Quantitative Methods”

March 15-21, 2021

Gaborone, Botswana

Deadline: 31.03.2020 (Call for Session Organizers)

Dear Colleagues,

we are happy to announce that the “Global Center of Spatial Methods for Urban Sustainability” (GCSMUS) together with the Research Committee on “Logic and Methodology in Sociology” (RC33) of the “International Sociology Association” (ISA) and the Research Network “Quantitative Methods” (RN21) of the European Sociology Association” (ESA) will organize a “1st International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Spatial Methods for Urban Sustainability” (“SMUS Conference”) which will at the same time be the “1st RC33 Regional Conference – Africa: Botswana” from Monday 15.03 – Sunday 21.03.2021, hosted by the University of Botswana in Gaborone, Botswana. The main conference days will be from Thursday 18.03. – Saturday 20.03.2021. There will be travel grants GCSMUS members and African scholars can apply for.

The seven-days conference aims at promoting a global dialogue on methods and should attract methodologists from all over the world and all social and spatial sciences (e.g. area studies, architecture, communication studies, educational sciences, geography, historical sciences, humanities, landscape planning, philosophy, psychology, sociology, urban design, urban planning, traffic planning and environmental planning). Additionally, the conference programme will include advanced methodological training courses, Ph.D. workshops and a social programme. Thus, the conference will enable scholars to get in contact with methodologists from various disciplines all over the world and to deepen discussions with researchers from various methodological angles.

With this mission, we invite scholars of all social and spatial sciences and other scholars who are interested into methodological discussions to suggest a session topic. Conference sessions should mainly address a methodological problem. All sessions on general issues of social science methodology and epistemology as well as on qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches are equally welcome. In addition, we especially invite scholars to suggest session topics on one of the following issues:

‒ spatial methods and analysis

‒ cross-cultural methods and issues of comparability

‒ decolonizing social science methodology

‒ methods of and for the Global South

‒ methodological issues relevant for specific world regions (e.g. Africa, America, Asia, Europe)

‒ monitoring and evaluation methods and analysis

‒ applied research methods on urban design, urban planning, traffic planning and environmental planning

‒ arts- and design-based methods

‒ participatory and action research methods

‒ interdisciplinary and collaborative research methods

‒ big data, digital methods and cross-disciplinary research

‒ methods for values research, global wellbeing and sustainability

‒ methods for analysis of space and social inequality (e.g. space and class, gendered spaces, space and age, space and race)

If you are interested in organizing a session, please submit an abstract containing the following information to (botswana2021@mes.tu-berlin.de) by 31.03.2020:

• Session Title
• Session Organizers (Name, Email-Address, Institutional Affiliation)
• Session Abstract (containing a short description of the session and the type of papers you want to be submitted to the session).

If you do not receive an acknowledgement of submission within three working days, please resend your submission. The conference organizers will inform you, if your session has been accepted, by 13.04.2020. Please note that all sessions apply to the rules of session organization named in the RC33 statutes and GCSMUS Objectives (see below).

Please find more information on the above institutions on the following websites:

‒ “Global Center of Spatial Methods for Urban Sustainability” (GCSMUS): www.mes.tu-berlin.de/spatialmethods

‒ ISA RC33

‒ ESA RN21

‒ University of Botswana in Gaborone

If you are interested in getting further information on the conference (such as Calls for Abstracts) and other GCSMUS activities, please subscribe to the GCSMUS newsletter by registering via the following website:

https://lists.tu-berlin.de/mailman/listinfo/mes-smusnews

Please also kindly forward this information to anybody to whom it might be of interest.

Rules for Session Organization

(According to GCSMUS Objectives and RC 33 Statutes)

1. There will be no conference fees.

2. The session organizers and speakers will be expected to cover the costs of their accommodation and travel expenses themselves. However, members of GCSMUS partner institutions will be able to apply for a travel grant via their home institution. In addition, there will be travel grants for non-GCSMUS scholars from Africa who present a paper or organize a session. Travel grants will cover travel costs and living expenses. Details on the application process will follow later this year.

3. The conference language is English. All papers therefore need to be presented in English.

4. All sessions have to be international: Each session should have speakers from at least two countries (exceptions will need good reasons).

5. Each paper must contain a methodological problem (any area, qualitative or quantitative).

6. There will be several calls for abstracts via the GCSMUS, RC33 and RN21 Newsletters. To begin with, session organizers can prepare a call for abstracts on their own initiative, then at a different time, there will be a common call for abstracts, and session organizers can ask anybody to submit a paper.

7. GCSMUS, RC33 and RN21 members may distribute these calls via other channels. GCSMUS members and session organizers are expected to actively advertise their session in their respective scientific communities.

8. Speakers can only have one talk per session. This also applies for joint papers. It will not be possible for A and B to present at the same time one paper as B and A during the same session. This would just extend the time allocated to these speakers.

9. Session organizers may present a paper in their own session.

10. Sessions will have a length of 90 minutes with a maximum of 4 papers or a length of 120 minutes with a maximum of 6 papers. Session organizers can invite as many speakers as they like. The number of sessions depends on the number of papers submitted to each session. E.g. if 12 good papers are submitted to a session, there will be two sessions with a length of 90 minutes each with 6 papers in each session.

11. Papers may only be rejected for the conference if they do not present a methodological problem (as stated above), are not in English or are somehow considered by session organizers as not being appropriate or relevant for the conference. Session organizers may ask authors to revise and resubmit their paper so that it fits these requirements. If session organizers do not wish to consider a paper submitted to their session, they should inform the author and forward the paper to the local organizing team who will find a session where the paper fits for presentation.

12. Papers directly addressed to the conference organising committee (and those forwarded from session organizers) will be offered to other session organizers (after proofing for quality). The session organizers will have to decide on whether or not the paper can be included in their session(s). If the session organizers think that the paper does not fit into their session(s), the papers should be sent back to the conference organizing committee as soon as possible so that the committee can offer the papers to another session organizer.

June 22-26, 2020

Zurich, Switzerland

The University of Zurich and the Doctoral Program Democracy Studies are pleased to invite young scholars to the 7th Swiss Summer School Democracy Studies on FRONTIERS OF DEMOCRATIC INNOVATIONS

The Topic

Democratic innovations are institutions and practices that increase and deepen citizen participation in political decision-making. The Summer School offers insights into hot-topics and frontiers of democratic innovations from theoretical, empirical, methodological, and normative viewpoints. Young scholars can also present their own work on democratic innovations and will receive substantive and in-depth feedback from leading experts. During the Summer School, there are also many opportunities for one-on-one discussions and networking.

The Program

The Summer School comprises an intensive program of lectures, seminars, and young scholars‘ presentations. Five teaching days are scheduled, each offers a unique perspective and insights. A keynote speech addresses the overall topic. And exciting social activities will complement the academic program.

The Keynote

Maija Setälä will deliver the public keynote on „Renewing Democracy through Democratic Innovations: A Functionalist Perspective“

Credits

ECTS credits will be awarded for participation in the full academic program.

The teaching days consist of two parts, lectures and workshops. The lectures will be given by internationally renowned scholars. In the workshops, young scholars will present their individual research on the basis of a paper which will be discussed intensively by the experts in their field.

While young scholars attend each lecture and workshop, they apply for the workshop in which they wish to present their paper

Subject Area: Participation and Development 

Local Expert: Katja Michaelowa (University of Zurich)

International Expert: Brian Wampler (Boise State University)

Subject Area: Democracy in Digital Public Spheres: On Algorithms, Dissonance and Disruption

Local Expert: Frank Esser (University of Zurich)

International Expert: Ulrike Klinger (FU Berlin)

Subject Area: Innovations in Direct Democracy

Local Expert: Thomas Widmer (University of Zurich)

International Expert: Maija Setälä (University of Turku)

Deliberation and Democracy: A (surprisingly) Contestable Relationship

Marco Steenbergen (University of Zurich)

André Bächtiger (University of Stuttgart)

Participatory Budgeting in Asia: Democratic Innovations in Democratic, Semi-democratic and Authoritarian Systems

Daniel Kübler (University of Zurich)

Baogang He (Deakin University)

Who Can Apply

The Summer School is open to doctoral students, postdocs, and advanced master students worldwide in social sciences such as political science, political philosophy, media and communication science, and related disciplines. Participation is competitive and limited to 20 young scholars.

Fee

The registration fee includes participation in all academic sessions and social activities as well as accommodation, coffee breaks and lunches. Reduced or no fees can apply.

Grant A small number of grants is available.

Deadline

The deadline for application is March 1, 2020.

Notifications of acceptance will be sent by April 15, 2020.

How to Apply

Detailed information and the application form are available at www.ipz.uzh.ch/en/s3ds

Contact democracyschool@ipz.uzh.ch

April 14-19, 2020

Interuniversity Center (IUC) Dubrovnik 

Co-organized with the ECREA CEE Network

Course directors and lecturers:

• Zrinjka Peruško, University of Zagreb, Croatia
• Carmen Ciller, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain
• Steffen Lepa, Technische Universität Berlin, Germany
• Paolo Mancini, Università di Perugia, Italy
• Snježana Milivojević, University of Belgrade, Serbia
• Slavko Splichal, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
• Miklós Sükösd, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

This year’s lecturers also include:

• Laia Castro Herrero, Department of Media and Communication Research, University of Zurich
• Epp Lauk, Department of Communication, University of Jyvaskyla,
• Helmut Scherer, Institut für Journalistik und Kommunikationsforschung of the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover
• Miklós Sükösd, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
• Lenka Vochocová, Department of Media Studies, Charles University, Prague
• Dina Vozab, Department of Media and Communication, University of Zagreb

In Central and Eastern Europe it is 30 years since the socialist regimes collapsed, and democracy was introduced. The theoretical framework of the “transition” is no longer employed, even the “consolidation” discourse and approach is over. The thirty years of transformation have been diverse. The same original critical juncture of the fall of socialism has been differently used and shaped by different actors, countries or institutions, to produce different results. Not only is there a division of CEE into those who are now members of the EU and those who are not, but there is also a division between those who have consolidated some level of democracy and those who have consolidated some degree of authoritarian regimes. The authoritarian backsliding is a fact that can no longer be treated as a phase in the consolidation of democracy, but must also be recognized as one type of result of the transformations. Can we say that the media systems in this region of the world have acquired a settled shape, a form/character that is durable and stable? Will a new critical juncture will be necessary in order to re-start developments along the road to consolidated democracy and democratic media systems development?

What shaped these diverse developments? Why did some countries consolidate democracy and free media systems, and others have hybrid or authoritarian regimes with captured media? How do these changes compare to the changes of other European media systems? Should we compare media systems or media cultures? We will in this course and research conference examine conditions and variables of media change from modernization to socialism, and from socialism to post-socialism. We will explore ways to study change in media systems, focusing both on the temporal and spatial frames, and will examine transformations necessary in the political, economic and cultural fields. And we will examine which combination of historical conditions from the longue durée or more recently are responsible for certain types of outcomes of media systems. The focus of the course & research conference will extend also to different media related and journalistic practices in the region in focus.

A one day methodological hands-on workshop on fsQCA will be a part of the program.

This 9th "slow science" IUC-CMS is an interdisciplinary research conference & post-graduate course open to academics, doctoral and post-doctoral students in media, communication and related fields engaged with the issue of media and media systems, that wish to discuss their current work with established and emerging scholars and get relevant feedback.

Invited research conference participants will deliver keynote lectures with ample discussion opportunities. In this unique academic format, student course attendees will have extended opportunity to present and discuss their current own work with the course directors and other lecturers and participants in seminar form (English language) and in further informal meetings around the beautiful old-town of Dubrovnik (UNESCO World Heritage) over 5 full working days (Tuesday to Saturday).

The working language is English.

Participation in the course for graduate (master and doctoral) students brings 3,5 ECTS credits, and for doctoral students who present their thesis research 6 ECTS. The course is accredited and the ECTS are awarded by the Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb (www.fpzg.unizg.hr). All participants will also receive a certificate of attendance from the IUC.

Enrolment

To apply, send a CV and a motivation letter to zperusko@fpzg.hr. Students who wish to present their research should also send a 300 word abstract. The course can accept 20 students, and the applications are received on a rolling basis. After notification of acceptance you need to register also on this web page https://www.iuc.hr/course-details.php?id=1206

The IUC requires a small enrolment fee from student participants. Participants are responsible for organizing their own lodging and travel. Affordable housing is available for IUC participants. Stipends are available from IUC for eligible participants, further information at https://www.iuc.hr/iuc-support.php. For information on these matters please contact the IUC secretariat at iuc@iuc.hr.

Venue Information

The Inter-University Centre was founded in Dubrovnik in 1972 as an independent, autonomous academic institution with the aim of promoting international co-operation between academic institutions throughout the world. Courses are held in all scientific disciplines around the year, with participation of member and affiliated universities.

Additional Information

For further information about academic matters please contact the organizing course director: professor Zrinjka Peruško zrinjka.perusko@gmail.com, Centre for Media and Communication Research (www.cim.fpzg.unizg.hr), Department of Media and Communication, Faculty of Political Science (www.fpzg.unizg.hr), University of Zagreb (www.unizg.hr).