[ecrea] New Call for Papers: geography and communications -abstracts welcome

*Call for papers: GEOGRAPHY AND COMMUNICATIONS: Vol 13.1*

/Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture/

//

Geography, media, and communications have been closely linked since the 
16^th  Century. Just as the advent of the printing press changed the 
media landscape, so too did it change that of geography and cartography. 
The printing revolution, along with new instruments of measurement led 
to a prolific expansion of mapping activates in the 16^th  Century, 
producing increasingly detailed birds eye views of the world. These 
views from above worked to serve as tools of possession, the elevated 
position of the explorer and cartographers and the commanding view 
provided by the maps mirrored the divine gaze of God, positioning the 
commissioner of the map in a seemingly omniscient position, solidifying 
their position of control, changing perceptions and relationships with 
space itself. In this way, the Cartographic Gaze was the precursor to 
the surveillent gaze, epitomized by Bentham’s Panopticon and the work of 
Foucault. A number of texts have already examined the linkages between 
geography, media and communications; Innis’s (1950) classic text on 
/Empire and Communications/; Falkheimer and Jansson’s (2006) 
/Geographies of Communication/ explores communicationtheory’s /spatial 
turn/, and conversely Adams and Jansson’s (2012) examination of 
geography’s /communicational turn/. Yet, as we move further and deeper 
into a digitized world we are bombarded with ever more instruments of 
measurement (big data, algorithms, UGC, VGI etc.), ever more far 
reaching versions of the printing press (Web 2.0, Social Media etc.), 
and the waters are muddied further by the development of 
Participatory-GIS systems, and the (re-)birth of Neogeography which 
purportedly offers up a challenge to the status quo (Goodchild, 2009; 
Haklay, 2013). Thus, it becomes essential that, just as we might 
question the 16^th  century map makers, we must now question data 
analytics, algorithms and their architects, the media, and those who 
claim to contest the cartographic gaze; to ask, ‘/did you find the world 
or did you make it up?’ /to quote Winnicott (/cited in/ Corner, 1999). 
The media, data analysts and neogeographers all sit in-between the 
virtual and the real creating new forms of virtual time and space that 
are then superimposed onto territorial spaces (Potts: 2015). These new 
virtual spaces are still so too controlled and mediated from above by 
new omniscient digital Gods, propelled by their search for profits.

This call for papers aims to bring together the disciplines of geography 
and communication to draw out and challenge a number of problematic 
discourses in relation to power, knowledge and representation, 
recognizing not only that each are material and symbolic, but also that 
each particular place representation is contingent and unique (Hall, 
1980). As the world, the media and our communications tools become 
increasingly digitalized and data driven we are increasingly 
constructing myths through algorithms, visualization, codification and 
mediation, of all which require us to rethink and interpret signs and 
their connotations (Hall, 1997; Barthes, 1972). Late twentieth century 
communication and information technologies have produced such a blurring 
of what is real and what is representation that the two can no longer be 
distinguished (Corner, 1999). Geography has often been concerned with 
the scales of state, capital, power, knowledge and representation, 
leading many theorists to cross the divide between disciplines; Michel 
de Certeau, Pierre Bourdieu, David Harvey and Henri Lefebvre being clear 
examples. It is then perhaps, through combining the knowledge of 
geographers, media and communication theorists and social theorists that 
we can better understand the twenty-first century’s increasing 
spatialization of thought and experience.

Themes may also include but are not limited to the following:

•Maps as tools of communication

•Communication infrastructure and power relations

•Representation and communications

•Cultural Geography and the media

•Geography and communication

•Spatial dimensions of technology

•Geospatial data analysis for communication

•The geographies of data visualization

•Participatory GIS

•Counter-mapping and tactical media

•Globalization, cartography and inequality

//

//

•*Submission of Abstracts:* Prospective authors of research articles of 
between 6,000-8,000 words including notes and references are encouraged 
to send a 250-word abstract to (WPCC2015 /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(WPCC2015 /at/ gmail.com)> no later than end *19**^th  January 2018.*

•*Deadline for abstracts:* end 19^th  January 2018. Please send 
abstracts to (WPCC2015 /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(WPCC2015 /at/ gmail.com)>

•The editorial team of WPCC will endeavour to inform authors of 
abstracts by end 1^st  February 2018 if the abstract meets the brief of 
the issue and if WPCC would like to request submission of a full text 
with a view to inclusion, subject to peer-review and editing on delivery.

•*Deadline for full-text submission:* 20^th  April 2018. Authors of 
those abstracts encouraged by WPCC or new submissions should register at 
the journal website by*20*^*th* * April 2018 *attaching the article. 
Authors will be notified as soon as possible about acceptance, revisions 
or rejection and the outcome of the review process with a view to 
publishing accepted articles subject to any amendments requested. Please 
route communications about articles submitted via the journal's online 
system. Please submit articles via: 
_https://www.westminsterpapers.org/about/submissions. 
<https://www.westminsterpapers.org/about/submissions>_



*References:*

Adams, P. C., & Jansson, A. (2012). Communication geography: A bridge 
between disciplines. /Communication Theory/, /22/(3): 299-318.

Barthes, R. (1972). /Mythologies/. 1957. Trans. Annette Lavers. New 
York: Hill and Wang.

Corner, J. (1999). /The agency of mapping: Speculation, critique and 
invention/, pp. 213-252 in /The Map Reader: Theories of Mapping Practice 
and Cartographic Representation/ (eds. M. Dodge, R. Kitchin and C. 
Perkins), Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.

Falkheimer, J., and Jansson, A.  (eds.) (2006) /Geographies of 
Communication: The Spatial Turn in Media Studies./ Göteborg: Nordicom.

Goodchild, M. (2009). NeoGeography and the nature of geographic 
expertise. /Journal of Location Based Services/, /3/(2): 82-96.

Haklay, M. M. (2013). Neogeography and the delusion of democratisation. 
/Environment and Planning A/, /45/(1): 55-69.

Hall, S. (1997). /Representation & the media/. Northampton, 
Massachussetts : Media Education Foundation.

Innis, H. A. (1950). /Empire and Communications/, Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Potts, J. (2015). /The New Time and Space/, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.



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