<nettime-ann> Call ESA 2015 Conference: âCritical Media Sociology Todayâ

[Christian Fuchs <christian.fuchs@uti.at>]

.
Call: RN18 Panel âCritical Media Sociology Todayâ
12th Conference of the European Sociological Association
August 25-28, 2015. Prague

Abstract Submission Deadline: Feb 1
Submission: http://esa12thconference.eu/abstract-submission

Call text: http://fuchs.uti.at/1338/

Critical Media Sociology Today

We live in times of ongoing crisis, the extension and intensification of 
inequalities concerning class, gender, and race, a return of the 
importance of the economy and political economy, a lack of imaginations 
of alternatives to neo-liberalism and capitalism, an intensification of 
right-wing extremism and fascism all over Europe, a lack of visions and 
power of the political Left, an intensification and extension of 
extremely repressive forms of state power such as communications 
surveillance conducted by secret services, ideological scapegoating 
conducted by conservative and far-right parties, and law and 
order-politics. Left-wing movements and parties have in some countries 
emerged or been strengthened, but the crisis has overall brought a 
further political shift towards the right and an intensification of 
capitalism and inequality.

We today require politically a renewal of the Left. For critical media 
sociology this means that it needs to ask questions, theorise, and 
conduct critical analysis of media and communications in the context of 
capitalism, class, ideologies, racism, fascism, right-wing extremism, 
gender, state power, activism and social movements, challenges for 
public service, media reforms, crisis, globalisation, the rise of China, 
digitalisation, consumer and advertising culture, 
information/cultural/media work, digital labour, the new international 
division of cultural and digital labour, warfare and military conflicts, 
the new imperialism, financialisation, etc.

ESA RN 18 calls for contributions that shed new light on questions that 
Critical Media Sociology needs to ask today and on theoretical and 
analytical insights that help to shape Critical Media Sociology in the 
21st Century.

RN18âs panel at the ESA 2014 Prague Conference âDifferences, 
Inequalities Sociological Imaginationâ and its contributions are 
organised in the form of specific session topics.

ESA RN18 calls for contributions to the following sessions:

RN18_1: Critical Media Sociology and Karl Marx Today:
What is the role and legacy of Karl Marxâs works and Marxist theory for 
critical media sociology today?

RN18_2: Critical Media Sociology and Capitalism Today:
How does capitalism shape media and communications today?

RN18_3: Critical Media Sociology and Critical Theory Today:
What is a critical theory of 21st century society? What role do 
communication, media and culture play in such a theory?

RN18_4: Critical Media Sociology and Stuart Hall Today:
How do Stuart Hallâs works, projects, and collaborations matter for 
critical media sociology today?

RN18_5: Critical Media Sociology and Cultural Materialism Today:
How does Raymond Williamsâ approach of cultural materialism matter today 
for understanding the sociology of media and communications?

RN18_6: Critical Media Sociology, Patriarchy and Gender Today:
What is the role of and relationship of identity politics and 
anti-capitalism for feminist media sociology today?

RN18_7: Critical Media Sociology and the Critique of the Political 
Economy of the Internet and Social Media:
How does capitalism shape the Internet and social media?

RN18_8: Critical Media Sociology and Ideology Critique Today:
What are the main forms of ideology today and how do they operate in the 
media? Which forms and approaches of ideology critique do we need to 
understand them?

RN18_9: Critical Media Sociology, Right-Wing Extremism and Fascism Today:
What is the relationship of far-right movements and parties, the media 
and communication?

RN18_10: Critical Media Sociology and Digital Labour Today:
What forms of digital labour and digital class struggles are there and 
how can they best be theorised, analysed, and understood?

RN18_11: Critical Media Sociology and the Left:
How could a 21st century Left best look like and what is the role of 
media and communications for such a Left? What is the historical, 
contemporary, and possible future relationship of critical media 
sociology to the Left? What is the role of media, communications, the 
Internet, and social media in left-wing movements? What problems do such 
movements face in relation to the media, communications, the Internet, 
and social media?

RN18_12: Critical Media Sociology and China:
How can critical media sociology understand the media in China and the 
role of China and Chinese media in global capitalism? What are 
differences and commonalities between European and Chinese media 
understood with the help of critical media sociology?

RN18_13: Critical Media Sociology, Democracy and the Public Sphere Today:
How can we best theorise and understand potentials and limits for the 
mediated public sphere in the 21st century?

RN18_14: Critical Media Sociology, the Commons, and the Alternatives Today:
What are the problems and post-capitalist potentials of alternative 
projects such as cultural and media co-operatives, left-wing and radical 
media projects, alternative social media, alternative online platforms, 
alternative media, community media projects, commons-based media, peer 
production projects, etc.?

RN18_15: Critical Media Sociology and State Power Today:
How does the relationship of media, communication and state powerâs 
various forms of regulation, control, repression, violence and 
surveillance look like?

RN18_16: Critical Media Sociology, the University and Academia Today:
What are the challenges and problems for teaching and conducting 
research about the media and communication from a critical perspective? 
What can be done to overcome existing limits and problems?

RN18_17: Critical Media Sociology and Cultural and Communication Labour:
What are characteristics of cultural and communication labour in 
capitalism today? Are there potentials that they can transcend 
precarity? What is the role of alternative economic models such as 
co-operatives (self-managed companies) in this respect?

RN18_18: Critical Media Sociology and Political Communication:
What is the role of political communication for a critical sociology of 
the media?

Notes
Please submit only to one session. Abstracts should not exceed 250 
words. Each paper session will have the duration of 1.5 hours. Normally 
sessions will include 4 papers. Abstracts must be submitted online to 
the submission platform, see below. Abstracts sent by email cannot be 
accepted. Abstracts will be peer-reviewed and selected for presentation 
by the Research Network; the letter of notification will be sent by the 
conference software system in early April 2015.
http://esa12thconference.eu/abstract-submission

Conference fee: http://esa12thconference.eu/fee

ESA/RN18 membership:
Paying members of ESA and RN18 have strongly reduced conference fees:
http://www.europeansociology.org/membership.html

Mailing list, Facebook:
You can join RN18âs media sociology mailing list 
http://lists.jacobs-university.de/mailman/listinfo/esa-rn18 and follow 
RN18 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/esarn18?ref=ts&fref=ts

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