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[ecrea] CFP: The Communicative Turn in Risk Communication Theory and Practice

Fri Oct 02 22:29:53 GMT 2009


From: Enric Castelló <(enric.castello /at/ urv.cat)>

Catalan Journal of Communication and Cultural Studies
Special Issue 2.2 CALL FOR PAPERS

The Communicative Turn in Risk Communication Theory and Practice

Guest editors
Tom Horlick-Jones (Cardiff University) and Jordi Farré (Rovira i
Virgili University, Tarragona)

In recent years a technical discourse of risk has assumed the status
of a universal basis for governance and administrative practice in
both private and public sector organisations within Europe, the United
States and elsewhere. This re-framing of pre-existing organisational
concerns in terms of risk categories reflects an underlying
bureaucratic concern with the accountable, controllable and
cost-effective management of contingency (Horlick-Jones, Power, Renn
etc.). During this period, the use of risk communication as a
regulatory and policy tool has become increasingly important as a part
of institutional attempts to inform and influence the behaviour of
target audiences. Research into formal risk communication has now
developed from a concern with the top-down provision of factual
materials to a focus on a range of more diverse activities, with a
trend toward various sorts of stakeholder engagement (e.g. Fischhoff)

Proceeding by analogy with the celebrated linguistic (or hermeneutic)
?turn? in the social sciences (e.g. Barthes, Rorty etc.), in which
language use came to be seen as at least in part constitutive of the
objects of their concern, this collection of papers will address the
communicative turn by which risk objects, categories and practices
have come to be shaped by the theory and discourse that informs risk
communication.

Catalonia, as a European industrial region with petrochemical and
nuclear complexes, has a strategic interest in promoting research into
risk communication processes. The Catalan Journal of Communication and
Cultural Studies welcomes proposals for contributions to this special
issue which address this central theme. Papers might be grounded in
empirical studies of specific risk communication processes; make
linkages between communication theory and risk theory; or perhaps
offer some combination of these. Other possible perspectives might
include the relationship between risk communication and risk
management practices; the double hermeneutic (Giddens) linking formal
risk communication and the everyday mundane risk practices of
organisational or lay actors; and the notion of engagement as a
process of ?co-generative theorising? (Deetz).

The journal plans to include papers of around 6-7,000 words, and short
research notes and reports of around 2-3,000 words. Abstracts (of no
more than 500 words) for proposed contributions should be sent to
(catalan.journal /at/ urv.cat) by 20th December 2009. Acceptance of abstracts
will be confirmed by 20th January 2010. Full manuscripts should be
submitted before 31st March 2010. All contributions will be subject to
anonymous peer review.

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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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European Communication Research and Education Association
Web: http://www.ecrea.eu
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E-mail: (Nico.Carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
Web: http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/
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