[ecrea] CfP: Communicating family memory: remembering in a changing media environment

CfP: Communicating family memory: remembering in a changing media 
environment


Special issue of "Communications: The European Journal of Communication 
Research"; guest-edited by Christine Lohmeier, University of Bremen

Memory and media are closely interlinked areas of research: In fact, 
memory has always materializedthrough cultural artefacts, various 
objects and the mediation of images, words and signs.Furthermore, memory 
as a social construct has a strong collective dimension. Even 
individuals’ memoriescanbe viewed and made sense of within the context 
of different collectivities and social formations such as the family, an 
ethnic community or a nation. Media are essential for these groups to 
communicate with each other and thereby constitute and negotiate 
identities, or make sense of the world –past, present and future included.

The proposed special issue of Communications aims to solicitarticles 
which consider remembering and forgetting within the contexts of 
families. Next to the nation and ethnic communities, families are 
classic memory communities.Families shape the individual’s understanding 
ofpersonal and collective identities and belonging, as well as notions 
of exclusion. Moreover, families can provide an immediate personal 
access to the past (through older family members and previous 
generations) as well as the future (children and imagined future 
generations).

In times of “deep mediatization”, communication within families has 
undergone some tremendous changes: a higher number of communication 
devices are in use with an increasing number of functions and media and 
communication devices present in most areas of everyday life. At the 
same time the pace of innovation is increasing – both in terms of 
devices and gadgets available and in terms of services and platformson 
offer. Through everyday practices like texting and emailing, more and 
more digital traces are producedcreating a sense that these activities 
are stored somewhere and therefore not forgotten.Meanwhile, it is also 
apparent that the data produced through these activities are not in 
one’s ownhands and the people who generate them do not have complete 
control over them.

Simultaneously, heightened mobility (be it for work or leisure 
purposes), migratory experiences and flight, as well as divorces and 
ruptures within families provide challenges as well as perhaps new 
opportunities for creating family memory.

Submissions can address but are not limited to the following topics:

◊ media and memory practices in families

◊ negotiating memory through communication practices and media use

◊ the family as a memory community in the context of or in relation to 
other memory communities

◊communicative practices and remembering in different types of families 
(single-parent, LGBT parents, mixed-race families, multi-generational 
families, foster families)

◊ representation of family memory in media texts, exhibitions, museums

◊ families as (dys-)functional memory communities

◊ critical approaches that question/furtherdevelop the concept of family 
and family memory

◊ theorizing mediated family memory

◊ communication and family memory in times of crises, migration and flight

◊ media, memory, mnemonic practices of transnational families

◊ the significance of objects and mediated memories for families

◊ forgetting in families in times of deep mediatization

◊ power relations/struggles concerning memory and communication matters 
within families

◊ methodological questions  and reflections concerningresearching family 
communication and family memory

◊ situating communicative practices and family memory in the context of 
mass communication

Formal requirements and time line


For this special issue Communications. The European Journal of 
Communication Research accepts full articles (manuscripts of up to 8,000 
words with present original work) and research in brief (manuscripts of 
up to 4,000 words). For further details see 
http://www.communicationsonline.eu/node/7

In a first step, please submit an extended abstract of about (600 – 800 
words), indicating if you would like to submit a full article or a 
manuscript for research in brief. In addition, please provide a short 
biographical note (of no more than 150 words) of contributing authors. A 
selection of the abstracts received will be invited to provide full 
submissions. These will be peer-reviewed (double-blinded).

Suggestions for the book review section are also welcome.

Please submit abstracts to (christine.lohmeier /at/ uni-bremen.de) 
<mailto:(christine.lohmeier /at/ uni-bremen.de)> and 
(rieke.boehling /at/ uni-bremen.de) <mailto:(rieke.boehling /at/ uni-bremen.de)>


Deadline for abstract submission:30 August 2016

Notification: 15September 2016

Deadline for submission of full manuscripts:15 December 2016

Final deadline for revisions: 30 April 2017

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