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[ecrea] 40th IIS World Congress in Delhi - Call for Papers: Panel “Theorizing the Public Sphere in a digitized globality”

Wed Jun 29 15:07:56 GMT 2011



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The 40th IIS World Congress in Delhi

After Western Hegemony: Social Science and its Publics

February 16-19, 2012

Organized by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi &

Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS), Uppsala

Call for Papers: Panel “Theorizing the Public Sphere in a digitized globality”

Theme:

In current social scientific research as well as in the public discourse some well-established themes seem to be converging: globalization, localization, mediatization and digitization are being increasingly theorized as interrelated and interdependent processes. At the same time, researchers are trying to find out whether the classic (Western) notion of the public sphere – as the theoretical and empirical foundation of a democratic commonwealth – can be adapted and adopted against the backdrop of our digital age. The proliferation and popularity of digital and increasingly mobile media, laptops and netbooks, mobile phones but also social networks like Facebook, Twitter and the like thoroughly change the face of our media and how we make use of them. This poses the question if such new techno-economic structures and changing social practices might bring about a Global Public Sphere?

This development extends to at least three dimensions: a) the dimension of (technically facilitated) connectivity and thus to the question whether or not such new opportunities are accessible and actually used for transnational communication. b) The dimension of common topics – and thus an increased cultural reservoir of meaning that may be related to globally. Since, c) the public sphere has traditionally been connected with a specific political scope or space, the question is raised if the public sphere still pertains to political elements in a (world) society. Does politics continue to form the constitutive element of a global public sphere, or – contrary to this perspective – are they of diminishing relevance and get replaced by other themes, topics and discourses (such as popular culture, global marketing and advertising, mediated-interpersonal communication)?

Possible questions for papers include:

If we understand the public sphere as the sum total of active and passive participants in communication regarding matters of collective concern – how has it changed in the light of these new developments and what is its future? Does this notion still hold analytic value? Are we witnessing the emergence of a global public sphere? What is the role of the classic (mass) media in this process? What are the hindrances/drivers of such a development? Do we need a (new) ethic for global communication, and what could it look like?

Paper proposals

We invite paper proposals to discuss these and related questions with participants from all countries, cultures and disciplines. Please send your extended abstracts (max. 800 words) to the panel convenors (see below) by August 25, 2011. Proposals will be peer reviewed, authors notified by September 25, 2011. Conference website: www.scasss.uu.se/iis/iis2012/regular_sessions.html <http://www.scasss.uu.se/iis/iis2012/regular_sessions.html>

Organizers:

Marian Adolf, Dr phil, Associate Professor of Media Culture at Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen (Germany). Research interests include the Sociology of the Media, Cultural Theory and Critical Media studies. (marian.adolf /at/ zeppelin-university.de) <mailto:(marian.adolf /at/ zeppelin-university.de)>

Cornelia Wallner, Dr phil, Post-Doc researcher at Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich (Germany); specializes in research on the Public Sphere, Media Systems and Media Quality measurement. (wallner /at/ ifkw.lmu.de) <mailto:(wallner /at/ ifkw.lmu.de)>



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