[ecrea] Network(ed) Histories - Pre-Conference from the ICA’s Communication History Division

Call for Papers:

Network(ed) Histories:

A Pre-Conference from the International Communication Association’s 
Communication History Division.

Thursday, May 24, 2018. (all day) Prague (in one of the two ICA 
conference hotels)

In contemporary communication research the network has become an almost 
ubiquitous concept, albeit to a very large degree dominated by a 
contemporary understanding of networks in relation to the social and the 
digital. Yet this omnipresent, contemporary usage of “networks” in 
reference to social media is rarely contextualized in terms of the many 
other kinds of communications networks that have existed in the past as 
well as the present. Given the obvious significance of social media in 
transforming social, cultural and political life, communications 
scholars have made the impacts and uses of networks their chief object 
of inquiry, rather than focusing on questions of origin, change over 
time, or historical precedent. Yet historical research into 
communications networks may help us to both reassess the significance of 
communications networks in the present and broaden our understanding of 
their role in the past.

This preconference takes as its starting point the premise that the 
history of networks is fundamental to the history of communication 
itself. Investigating networks naturally raises historical questions, 
since networks evolve and develop over time. To take but one example, 
material media infrastructures frequently outlive the media for which 
they were constructed; new media networks often retrace their 
institutional and infrastructural footprints. The social, institutional, 
and intellectual networks of communication studies have likewise shaped 
the research field over time. Historical research into the origins, 
evolution, impacts, and legacies of communication networks thus offers 
an opportunity to understand how they have historically shaped mass 
media content, institutions, patterns of control, censorship, and 
surveillance, audiences and reception, temporal and spatial imaginations 
and more.

This preconference also aims to reassess the significance of networks in 
communication history by bringing together historical research into both 
social and material networks, exploring how these networks have evolved 
over time, and with what implications. Like any theoretical 
construction, the distinction between the social and material in 
relation to networks is to some degree a false dichotomy. Papers that 
problematize, and/or bridge, this distinction are therefore particularly 
welcome. The history of communications networks entails a very broad 
range of questions. The following is a non-exclusive list of domains 
that we see as relevant to this topic. This list is intended to spur the 
imagination, not to discourage would-be submitters. We welcome a wide 
range of historical approaches to communication networks.

-broadcast network histories
-histories of networked communication technologies
-networks and surveillance
-networks and social change
-networks and media revolutions
-histories of communication research networks
-networks, centre and periphery
-networks, ownership and control

Abstracts of 300 words (maximum) should be submitted no later than 30 
November 2017. Proposals for full panels are also welcome: these should 
include a 250-word abstract for each individual presentation, and a 
200-word rationale for the panel. Send abstracts to: (lars.lundgren /at/ sh.se) 
<mailto:(lars.lundgren /at/ sh.se)>
Authors will be informed regarding acceptance/rejection for the 
preconference no later than 11 January 2018. Full papers will need to be 
submitted no later than 1 May 2018 as these will be posted online and 
made available to all those participating in the preconference. Early 
career scholars and graduate students are highly encouraged to submit 
their work. Please indicate if the research submitted is part of your 
thesis or dissertation project. The organizers will aim to arrange for 
discussants to provide an intensive response for graduate students’ 
projects. There will be a $100 registration fee for all attendees, to 
cover expenses.
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