[ecrea] CFP: Communicating Power: Energy, Canada and the Field(s) of Communication

CFP: Special Issue, /Canadian Journal of Communication/, Winter 2018


*Communicating Power: *

*Energy, Canada and the Field(s) of Communication*

**

Guest Editors:  Shane Gunster, Imre Szeman, Matthew Greaves, Bob Neubauer

Proposals (500 words): due *December 1, 2016.*

Final papers: due *June 1, 2017.*

Questions of energy dominate Canada’s contemporary political, economic 
and cultural landscape. Governments at all levels have, to varying 
degrees, recognized climate change as a political priority. Yet many 
also champion carbon extraction and export as essential to Canadian 
economic growth and prosperity.  Many in the oil and gas sector likewise 
admit to the need for climate change to be integrated into regimes of 
energy regulation and governance, but also insist upon the long-term 
viability and even expansion of the fossil-fuel industry as well as our 
ongoing dependence upon it in everyday life.

The rapid decline of global energy prices, coupled with the uneven but 
extraordinary growth of renewables, has raised significant doubts about 
the economic and technological logic of such arguments. The recent 
scale, pace and intensity of climate change have only underscored the 
need for an immediate transition away from fossil fuels.  Industry and 
government proposals to expand carbon infrastructure – pipelines, 
fracking, coal and LNG exports, etc. – have, unsurprisingly, been met 
with stiff resistance from First Nations, environmental groups, local 
communities and others.  But the fight against ‘extractivism’ is more 
than simply a defensive struggle to protect local eco-systems, 
economies, communities and ways of life:  it also generates and sustains 
alternative visions of how transformations in the production, 
circulation, governance and use of energy can ground new forms of 
social, cultural and political life.

Historically, critical engagement around questions of energy has been 
sparse in the humanities and social sciences, and the field of 
communication is no exception.  In recent years, however, scholars from 
a wide range of disciplines have devoted increasing attention to the 
social, cultural and political dimensions of energy and, in turn, 
explored the often invisible influence that historically specific energy 
formations exercise upon and through a variety of disparate phenomena, 
including habits, values, ethics, ideologies and institutions.  It is to 
this growing body of literature – often dubbed ‘the energy humanities’ – 
that this special issue intends to contribute.

Communication and media studies are well situated to engage with this 
emerging area of study. Though rarely remarked upon, Harold Innis' 
transportation-oriented approach to communication implies the centrality 
of energy and fuel to Canadian development. Today, the numerous 
sub-disciplines of communication studies offer a variety of perspectives 
to address key questions concerning energy and Canadian society. For 
instance, how does Canadian energy development interface with the 
political economy of contemporary Canadian communication systems? How 
might cultural studies and related approaches understand the changing 
role of energy discourse in Canadian national identity and popular 
culture? How do news and journalism mediate our understanding and 
engagement with the political and economic dimensions of energy 
development? How has the emergence and growth of social media 
transformed the promotional and/or oppositional communications 
strategies of corporations, governments and social movements? How might 
research into political, corporate and civil society communications 
inform our understanding of social and political conflicts around 
different forms of energy? And what insights might be gained from a 
technology studies approach to the production and circulation of energy?

We invite contributions from scholars studying energy from the vantage 
point of communication and media studies.  Possible topics include (but 
are not limited to):

·Journalism and news coverage of energy.

·Advertising, public relations and ‘promotional’ energy culture.

·Energy development and decolonialization.

·Energy and communication/cultural theory.

·Alternative, oppositional, activist and/or utopian energy discourses.

·Representations of energy in media and popular culture.

·Visualizations of energy.

·The (im)materiality of energy in everyday life.

·Audience/public perceptions of energy.

·Energy and/as technology.

·Energy and/as national identity.

·Energy subcultures.//

The editors welcome proposals for academic papers as well as review and 
photo essays.  Proposals, due on *December 1, 2016*, should be no longer 
than 500 words, and briefly describe the topic, method and principal 
objectives of the research.  Final papers will be due by *June 1, 2017*.

All proposals, and any further inquiries, should be sent by email to 
(sgunster /at/ sfu.ca) <mailto:(sgunster /at/ sfu.ca)>.

---------------
ECREA-Mailing list
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier and ECREA.
--
To subscribe, post or unsubscribe, please visit
http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
URL: http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/
--
ECREA - European Communication Research and Education Association
Chaussée de Waterloo 1151, 1180 Uccle, Belgium
Email: (info /at/ ecrea.eu)
URL: http://www.ecrea.eu
---------------