[ecrea] Feminist Grassroots Media in Europe: An anthology

Call for Submissions for a Proposed Edited Volume

Feminist Grassroots Media in Europe: An anthology
Edited by Red Chidgey (UK), Jenny 
Gunnarsson-Payne (Sweden) and Elke Zobl (Austria)

Women have always played an important role in 
movements for social justice. Using media to 
transport their messages, to disrupt social 
orders and spin novel social processes, feminists 
have long recognised the importance of 
self-managed media to forge resistant identities 
and build coalitions. In fact, as Annabelle 
Sreberny-Mohammadi has found, "almost by dint of 
their existence alone, autonomous media 
controlled by women with women-defined output 
offer a challenge to existing hierarchies of 
power; when these media take up specific issues 
and campaigns, and align themselves with larger 
social movements, their political potential is significant" (1996:234).

Autonomous media cultures are currently gaining 
in critical attention. Over recent decades, 
scholars have developed conceptual frameworks 
such as 'radical media', 'alternative media', 
'activist media', and 'citizens' media' to help 
explain the unique characteristics and working 
models of grassroots media production - and to 
ask whether self-managed media can foster 
critical consciousness, aid in participatory 
democracy, and effect social change (Atton, 2002; 
Bailey, Cammaerts, and Carpentier, 2007; Byerly 
and Ross, 2006; Downing 1984, 2000; Rodriguez, 2001; Waltz, 2005).

Within this burgeoning field, however, few 
in-depth studies of grassroots media from a 
specifically cross-generational and European 
feminist perspective have been published.

The Feminist Grassroots Media in Europe anthology 
proposes to address this lack in research, 
bringing together activists and academics to 
re-evaluate existing theoretical frameworks and 
to portray activist projects in light of feminist 
media production. As such, the book will be of 
interest to a broad audience, such as activists 
and researchers within the fields of gender and 
media studies, and will serve as an undergraduate 
textbook for research on feminist 'radical media' 
praxis whilst delivering a much-needed archive of 
DIY media projects, networks and producers from the 1980s to the present day.

The Book Project
The term 'Media' is employed broadly here to 
include traditional broadcasting channels 
(newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, films, 
photography) and non-traditional genres (zines, 
blogs, vlogs, websites, wikis, posters, burn 
stations, podcasts, textiles). 'Grassroots' 
refers to self-managed media, produced outside of 
a commercial agenda, by a collective and/or 
individuals working from a community or social movement perspective.

The editors seek a variety of submissions from 
throughout Europe. The anthology aims to 
represent feminists from a diversity of age 
cohorts, backgrounds, races, classes, genders, 
geo-social regions and political priorities. The 
book seeks to ask what possibilities, limitations 
and vulnerabilities - with attention to class, 
race, ethnicity, age, disability, sexuality and 
gender dynamics - feminist grassroots media 
projects currently engender, and to map the 
histories, successes and challenges of women-led 
grassroots media in the late twentieth century 
and beyond. The editors are also keen to explore 
the links and discontinuities between 'second' 
and 'third wave' feminist media production.

The call includes, but is not limited to, work 
which addresses the following topics:

European Feminist Grassroots Media and:
"       Aesthetics
"       Activism
"       Alternative Economies and Media Logics
"       Organisational Models, Structures and Processes
"       Comparative Analyses and Histories
"       Volatile Relationships to the Mainstream 
(culture, media, funding and the state)
"       Community Building and Mobilisation
"       Dissemination Networks and Archives
"       Alternative Public/Private Spheres
"       Empowered Feminist Subjects and Citizens
"       Consciousness-Raising Strategies and Social Movement Media

Contributions can include:
"       Academic essays (5,000- 7,000 words)
"       Reports/overviews from countries (2,000 - 5,000 words)
"       Comparisons of 'second wave' and 'third wave' media projects
"       Technology-based case-studies
"       Interviews with grassroots media producers or distributors
"       Examples from grassroots media (e.g. excerpts from grrrl zines)
"       Visual commentaries
"       Images

 From these submissions, a free directory of 
grassroots media projects will be made accessible 
via the website Grassroots Feminism: A resource 
site for the feminist movement today
www.grassrootsfeminism.net (currently in planning)

Submission of Abstracts
Submissions (in English) are welcomed from 
feminist activists, community media producers, 
and scholars from a variety of disciplines. 
Potential contributors should submit:

A)      A 500 word abstract outlining the scope 
and themes of your proposed contribution, as well 
as possible inclusion of images.
B)      A brief author biography, indicating any 
particular institutional or group affiliation, 
and recent publications or projects
C)      Full contact details, including date of birth and nationality.

Deadline for Abstracts:
Abstracts should be submitted to 
(book /at/ grassrootsfeminism.net) by Monday 17th March 2008.

Biographical notes on editors

Red Chidgey (*1979) is a member of the Feminist 
Activist Forum in the UK, and publishes widely on 
feminist zines, riot grrrl and Ladyfest cultures. 
She received her MA in Critical Theory from the 
University of Sussex, where she re-trained as a 
Life History historian. She is currently involved 
in third wave media and feminist history projects.

Jenny Gunnarsson-Payne (*1976) completed her 
doctorate in Ethnology at the Department of 
Culture and Media, Umeå University, Sweden, and 
currently teaches Sociology at the University of 
Essex, UK. Her publications on 'alternative 
media' focus primarily on representations of 
gender and sexuality, and collective mobilisation, in Swedish feminist zines.

Elke Zobl (*1975) created the online resource 
site Grrrl Zine Network (www.grrrlzines.net) in 
2001 and has been part of the Grrrl Zines A-Go-Go 
collective conducting zine workshops with girls 
and young women (www.gzagg.org). After pursuing 
postdoctoral studies at the University of 
California at San Diego, she is now continuing 
her research on "Young women as creators of new 
cultural spaces" at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Austria.




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Nico Carpentier (Phd)
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Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Free University of Brussels
Centre for Studies on Media and Culture (CeMeSO)
Pleinlaan 2 - B-1050 Brussels - Belgium
T: ++ 32 (0)2-629.18.56
F: ++ 32 (0)2-629.36.84
Office: 5B.401a
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Katholieke Universiteit Brussel - Catholic University of Brussels
Vrijheidslaan 17 - B-1081 Brussel - Belgium
&
Facultés Universitaires Saint-Louis
Boulevard du Jardin Botanique 43  - B-1000 Brussel - Belgium
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Sponsored links ;)
----------------------------
NEW BOOKS OUT
Understanding Alternative Media
by Olga Bailey, Bart Cammaerts, Nico Carpentier
(December 2007)
http://mcgraw-hill.co.uk/html/0335222102.html
----------------------------
Participation and Media Production. Critical Reflections on Content Creation.
Edited by Nico Carpentier and Benjamin De Cleen
(January 2008)
<http://www.c-s-p.org/Flyers/Participation-and-Media-Production--Critical-Reflections-on-Content-Creation1-84718-453-7.htm>http://www.c-s-p.org/Flyers/Participation-and-Media-Production--Critical-Reflections-on-Content-Creation1-84718-453-7.htm 

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European Communication Research and Education Association
Web: http://www.ecrea.eu
----------------------------
ECREA's Second European Communication Conference
Barcelona, 25-28 November 2008
http://www.ecrea2008barcelona.org/
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E-mail: (Nico.Carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
Web: http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/
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