[ecrea] CFP - 'Situating Simondon: media and technics'

Call for Papers: ‘Situating Simondon: media and technics’

Platform: Journal of Media and Communication
An interdisciplinary journal for early career researchers and graduate 
students

Volume editors: Thomas Sutherland and Scott Wark

Abstract submissions due: 1st of May, 2014

Full paper submissions due: 1st of July, 2014

Abetted by a paucity of translations, the work of Gilbert Simondon has 
remained relatively obscure in the Anglophone world for some time. 
Simondon is, however, finally – if somewhat belatedly – finding the 
appreciation amongst English-speaking readers that had eluded him for so 
long. Although Simondon’s work is probably most recognised today for its 
influence upon Gilles Deleuze and Bernard Stiegler, its scope is far 
greater than one might surmise on the basis of such associations.

Amongst many other topics, Simondon’s philosophy focuses quite heavily 
upon questions related to technology, communication, mediation, and 
information. It is these areas in particular that we hope to explore in 
this special section of Platform. How might we situate the theories of 
Simondon within our contemporary media environment? Are they still 
relevant? Or are they too reliant upon outmoded principles and 
theoretical models? What lessons, both theoretical and practical, might 
researchers in the fields of communication and media studies take from 
Simondon’s philosophy? How might we extend or update his work for the 
digital, networked society?

Platform encourages the submission of theoretical and empirical work 
engaging with Simondon and his legacy. We are particularly interested in 
papers that seek to situate Simondon’s work, both historically and 
within the disciplinary boundaries of media and communications. 
Potential themes might include, but are not limited to:


•   Technological determinism in an age of digitization and 
unprecedented automation. Does Simondon provide us with a useful means 
for negotiating the question of agency in such an environment, or is he 
too beholden to the cybernetics and information theory of his time?

•   Individuation and the associated milieu. Have subsequent media forms 
and communicative methods altered or halted the processes of 
individuation of which Simondon speaks?

•   Media ecology. Some strands of media ecological study stress the 
dynamism and complexity of media-technical systems. How does Simondon’s 
understanding of technology challenge or deepen these approaches?

•   Materiality and hylomorphism. At a time when communication appears 
increasingly immaterial, how might we understand Simondon’s attempt to 
escape all hylomorphic conceptions of communication and individuation? 
Does the notion of immateriality remain trapped within a hylomorphic 
distinction between form and matter, or is it indicative of a need to 
reconceptualise the very question of materiality?

•   Technics and media. How does Simondon’s work fit within the larger 
field of studies on technics and its history (e.g. Mumford, 
Leroi-Gourhan, Ellul, Gille, Stiegler, etc.)? Might media and 
communications as a discipline benefit from a greater emphasis upon the 
role of technics in engendering media environments both past and present?

•   The politics of individuation. Stiegler, Lefebvre and Mackenzie, 
amongst others, use Simondon’s work on transduction and individuation to 
describe and diagnose politics. How might Simondon help us think 
politics today?


In addition to this special section, we also welcome submissions that 
more broadly deal with issues relating to the areas of media, 
technology, and communication in theoretical, methodological, or 
empirical terms.

Please send all enquiries and submissions to (platformjmc /at/ gmail.com). Both 
abstracts and full papers must be accompanied by a brief curriculum 
vitae and biographical note.

We recommend that prospective authors submit abstracts well before the 
abstract deadline of the 1st of May, 2014, in order to allow for 
feedback and suggestions from the editors. All submissions should be 
from early career researchers (defined as being within a few years of 
completing their PhD) or current graduate students undertaking their 
Masters, PhD, or international equivalent.

All eligible submissions will be sent for double-blind peer-review. 
Early submission is highly encouraged as the review process will 
commence on submission.

Note: Please read the submission guidelines before submitting work. 
Submissions received not in house style will not be accepted and authors 
will be asked resubmit their work with the correct formatting before it 
is sent for review.

Platform: Journal of Media and Communication is a fully refereed, 
open-access online graduate journal. Founded and published by the School 
of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne (Australia), 
Platform was launched in November 2008.

Platform is refereed by an international board of established and 
emerging scholars working across diverse fields in media and 
communication studies, and is edited by graduate students at the 
University of Melbourne.



---------------
ECREA-Mailing list
---------------
This mailing list is a free service from ECREA and Nico Carpentier.
--
To subscribe, post or unsubscribe, please visit
http://www.ecrea.eu/mailinglist
--
ECREA - European Communication Research and Education Association
--
Postal address:
ECREA
Chaussée de Waterloo 1151
1180 Uccle
Belgium
--
Email: (info /at/ ecrea.eu)
URL: http://www.ecrea.eu
---------------