[ecrea] Capitalism, Culture and Media conference

A reminder of this conference, now with further plenary speakers added, 
and the deadline extended to 9 February, after a number of people 
remarked that the original abstracts deadline of 2 February came at a 
difficult time for people snowed under by marking and teaching preparation.

Capitalism, Culture and Media
A two day international conference at the University of Leeds
7-8 September 2015
Keynote and plenary speakers include:
Alison Hearn (University of Western Ontario), Bev Skeggs (Goldsmiths), 
David Hesmondhalgh (University of Leeds), Des Freedman (Goldsmiths), 
Jeremy Gilbert (University of East London), Justin Lewis (Cardiff), 
Justin O’Connor (Monash University, Melbourne) Richard Sennett (NYU/LSE 
– subject to teaching commitments).
The conference is organised by the School of Media and Communication at 
the University of Leeds, in conjunction with the following:

· The ECREA (European Communication Research and Education Association) 
Media Industries and Cultural Production Working Group

· The IAMCR (International Association for Media and Communication Research)

· The SCMS (Society for Cinema and Media Studies) Media Industries 
Scholarly Interest Group

· The Carsey-Wolf Center at University of California Santa Barbara
For many decades, capitalism was a concept largely ignored in the social 
sciences and humanities. Things have changed since the continuing global 
financial crisis began. Capitalism is now taken seriously not only by 
Marxists, but also by non-Marxian feminists, social democrats and 
conservatives. Yet research on how we might understand relations between 
capitalism, media and culture has remained relatively limited. The rise 
of approaches to capitalism that emphasise the need to understand it in 
broad terms, including but not confined to the economic, potentially 
provide an inspiring basis to reinvigorate analysis of 
capitalism/media/culture relations. So too does the interest of cultural 
studies and other researchers in the nature of relations between culture 
and economy.
This conference brings together international scholars and activists 
from a range of disciplines and perspectives, to share research and 
ideas about the relations between capitalism, media and culture. It aims 
to combine contemporary and historical perspectives, and to bring 
theoretical, empirical and action research into dialogue. It will 
provide a forum for the conceptual and empirical analysis of relations 
between capitalism, media and culture, regardless of the tradition and 
perspective in which analysis is grounded (Marxian or otherwise) and 
regardless of the disciplinary background of the analyst.
Topics and approaches on which we would welcome proposals for papers and 
panels include the following but are not confined to them, and are in no 
particular order:

· Phases, varieties and modes of capitalism and their relevance to media 
and culture

· Intersections between capitalism and key dynamics of social identity 
and power: for example gender, sexuality, ethnicity and class

· How might cultural production research throw light on capitalist media 
and vice versa?

· Anti-capitalist movements and the media

· Media labour, exploitation and class

· Alienation and media labour

· Power, inequality and capitalism

· The problem of commodification

· Capitalism and subjectivity

· Alternatives to capitalist systems of cultural production

· Gift, commodity and capitalism

· Moral economies of media and culture

· Political economy of media and culture – its contributions and limitations

· Cultural economy, and relations between culture and economy under 
capitalism

· The profit motive and the media

· Cultural capitalism, cool capitalism, cognitive capitalism, digital 
capitalism etc

· Intellectual property as an aspect of contemporary capitalism

· Markets, their benefits and limitations – and their relation or 
otherwise to capitalism

· Capitalism, the internet, social media

· The concept of “creative industries” and the knowledge economy

· Any individual media industry (music, film, journalism, television) in 
relation to capitalism

· Theories and theorists of capitalism and their relations to culture 
and media: Anderson, Badiou, Boltanski, Bourdieu, Castells, Chiapello, 
Fraser, Garnham, Gibson-Graham, Habermas, Hall, Harvey, Hirschman, Marx, 
Piketty, Ranciere, Rubin, Sen, Weber, Williams, Zizek
Leeds is the third biggest city in England, the main city of Yorkshire, 
and a major cultural and business hub. Immediately to its north are 
hundreds of miles of beautiful countryside, including the Yorkshire 
Dales and the Lake District. It is extremely well served by transport 
links. It has an international airport with five daily flights from 
Amsterdam. It is 200 miles/320 kilometres north of London, just over two 
hours by train. Manchester Airport, the major airport of the north of 
England, is an hour away by train. The University of Leeds campus is 
superbly located in the centre of this historical city, a short walk 
away from numerous hotels.
Please send panel proposals or abstracts to Liz Pollard at 
(e.v.pollard /at/ leeds.ac.uk) by 9 February 2015 as an email attachment in 
Word. Abstracts should be 250 words maximum and should explain the 
connection to the conference theme. Panel proposals should provide an 
outline of the panel idea and its relations to the conference theme (200 
words max), and provide abstracts of the 3-4 speakers (250 words maximum 
per abstract), and the name of a person who will chair the panel.
Conference fee: 150 pounds/180 euros (80 pounds/96 euros for students), 
includes lunch and refreshments for the duration of the conference. 
Researchers from countries where it is difficult to fund research travel 
should consult the conference organisers.
Local organising committee: David Hesmondhalgh, Giles Moss, Anna 
Zoellner, Jason Cabanes, Leslie Meier, Lee Edwards, Kate Oakley, David 
Lee, Andreas Rauh Ortega, Jennifer Carlberg, Luca Antoniazzi, Ellis 
Jones, Jeremy Vachet
Advisory committee: Janet Wasko (University of Oregon, IAMCR), Rodrigo 
Gomez Garcia (Metropolitan Autonomous University, Mexico City, IAMCR), 
Kevin Sanson (Carsey-Wolf Center, University of California Santa 
Barbara), Michael Curtin (Carsey-Wolf Center, University of California 
Santa Barbara), Paul McDonald (University of Nottingham/SCMS Scholarly 
Interest Group), Alisa Perren (University of Texas/SCMS Scholarly 
Interest Group), Hanne Bruun (University of Aarhus/ECREA Working Group), 
David Fernandez Quijada (European Broadcasting Union/ECREA Working Group).

David Hesmondhalgh
Professor of Media, Music and Culture
School of Media and Communication
University of Leeds

Twitter: @hesmondthing
Web page: http://media.leeds.ac.uk/people/david-hesmondhalgh/


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