[ecrea] CFP ICA pre-conference: From fragmentation to Integration: Addressing the role of communication in refugee crises and resettlement processes

Please below you can find the call for papers for the upcoming ICA 
Pre-Conference From fragmentation to Integration: Addressing the role of 
communication in refugee crises and resettlement processes, to be hosted 
in Prague (Charles University, Faculty of Law) on the 24th May 2018.
You can access the full information of this call at the following link:
http://www.icahdq.org/resource/resmgr/Conference/2018/Preconferences/PCCFP_From_Fragmentation.pdf

We think this is an extremely relevant topic for our societies and we 
would like to see this preconference turning into a meeting point 
between academics and practitioners interested in reflecting upon the 
overarching questions and challenges we are facing.
We invite interested participants to submit extended abstracts of less 
than 1500 words describing the purpose, theory, method(s), results, and 
conclusions of the scientific study or social intervention project. We 
also welcome critical and reflexive submissions that provide an 
insightful perspective on the topics highlighted in this call. Please 
submit 1) a separate title page including the paper's title and author's 
details (name, title, and institutional affiliation) and 2) an 
anonymized extended abstract.

Extended abstracts’ submission deadline is 15 January 2018. Acceptance 
decisions will be announced by 29 January 2018. Full papers are expected 
by 15th April 2018.

Please submit your proposals as a PDF file to the following email: 
(miguelvm /at/ soc.uva.es)
Organizing Committee – Contact information
Miguel Vicente Mariño, Universidad de Valladolid (Spain), 
(miguelvm /at/ soc.uva.es)   Amanda Paz Alencar, Erasmus University Rotterdam 
(Netherlands), (pazalencar /at/ eshcc.eur.nl)
Carlos Arcila Calderón, Universidad de Salamanca (Spain), 
(carcila /at/ usal.es) Félix Ortega Mohedano, Universidad de Salamanca (Spain), 
(fortega /at/ usal.es)
Noemi Mena Montes, Erasmus University Rotterdam (Netherlands), 
(menamontes /at/ eshcc.eur.nl)
This pre-conference is sponsored by the ICA Intercultural Communication 
Division.

Description
This pre-conference emerges from the ongoing refugee crisis at the 
Mediterranean Sea, calling for dialogue between scholars and 
practitioners interested in the roles played by Communication regarding 
this multifaceted challenge. Although the event is open to cover 
different humanitarian crises worldwide, the urgency and relevance of 
this topic appeals to the scholarly commitment to propose applied 
solutions to decision-making bodies and involved organizations. 
Discussing the role of mass and new social media, and intercultural 
communication in this context turns into a must for our research community.

Objective
The main purpose of this conference is to open a space for dialogue 
regarding the way refugee crises are tackled by political, social and 
media actors, aiming to set some guidelines to avoid those mistakes 
previously noticed and leading to a more constructive and conscious 
coverage and social action.
Rationale The phenomenon of massive forced migration is not new in our 
global history. In recent years, however, increasing numbers of 
asylum-seekers and refugees have dominated headlines and political 
agendas across Europe and elsewhere. The current refugee crisis at the 
Mediterranean Sea put significant more pressure to EU countries. An 
unprecedented number of refugees reaching the shores of Europe and the 
socioeconomic, ethnic and religious diversity of recent flows have 
deepened and broadened existing integration challenges in European 
communities.
At the same time, the crisis has emphasized the lack of cohesion between 
different policies and programs in this area, as well as the rise of 
nationalist and xenophobic sentiments in many European countries, 
affecting the development of a unified solution to growing refugee 
challenge. At a more global level, forced migrations related with 
climate change processes are also bringing new challenges to a current 
status quo based on national boundaries and control of human movements. 
Both the extension and depth of these challenges call for an integral 
approach to their management, mainly because all expectations point to 
an increase and intensification in the coming years.

This one-day pre-conference aims to identify and build up dialogues 
between diverse actors coming from different settings and disciplines. 
Based on applied social projects currently being developed in various 
countries and on the scientific projects accumulated during the last 
decade, this forum pretends to explore the encountered limitations and 
identify the effective solutions in these social, economic and cultural 
processes. The common backbone of the contributions will deal with the 
role played by Media and Communication in these social practices, 
ranging from mass media representations of refugees to the mediated 
communicational exchanges conducted in the social media scenarios, from 
political negotiation between relevant actors in the field of 
policy-making to the role played by hands-on intercultural mediation 
projects.

Communication Research, at its diverse layers and from a wide array of 
topics and methods, is expected to contribute to the analysis of social, 
demographic and cultural changes, so tackling the on-going refugee 
crisis in the Mediterranean area is an opportunity to connect 
theoretical and methodological advances with a relevant topic which 
certainly requires practical, technical and applied contributions. In 
doing so, screening the online activity turns into an additional sphere 
to be kept under attention, as a new space for social discussion and action.

Completing a panoramic approach to a complex phenomenon is the purpose 
of a pre-conference that will try to merge the strengths of social 
collective action with both the theoretical and empirical contributions 
coming from recent applied research projects. In doing so, comparative 
media and social studies are strongly encouraged. An initial, but not 
exhaustive, list of research questions we would like to address during 
this preconference are:

-	What media coverage are receiving the humanitarian crises during the 
last decade? How are refugees being portrayed by media companies based 
at the countries receiving migrants? Which discourses and explanations 
are being displayed and spread across the audiences?
-	Which actions and projects are being more effective in promoting an 
open culture to dialogue and international cooperation? What is the role 
played by NGOs, social enterprises, private corporations in these 
processes and which relations are being established between them and 
media professionals?
-	How are the national authorities reacting to refugee crisis and 
resettlement, not only regarding their political decisions but also in 
terms of their communication strategies to deal with their internal and 
external publics? -	Which roles are being played by lay citizens in the 
public sphere, both as a result of conventional courses of public 
opinion actions and as new digital forms of activism?
-	Are migration processes experiencing changes in the way they are 
presented to their public opinion? Has the traditional focus on punctual 
alarms shifted to a more balanced and continuous attention by media, 
society and political authorities?
-	How are refugees, as primary social actors in the process of 
integration, perceiving and redefining the role and functions of media 
and communication technologies during the whole integration process?

Submission process
The organizers invite interested participants to submit extended 
abstracts of less than 1500 words (around 4 double-spaced pages, 
including a selection of references) describing the purpose, theory, 
method(s), results, and conclusions of the scientific study or social 
intervention project. We also welcome critical and reflexive submissions 
that provide an insightful perspective on the topics highlighted in this 
call.

Please submit 1) a separate title page including the paper's title and 
author's details (name, title, and institutional affiliation) and 2) an 
anonymized extended abstract.

Extended abstracts’ submission deadline is 15 January 2018. Acceptance 
decisions will be announced by 29 January 2018. Full papers are expected 
by 15th April 2018.

Please submit your proposals as a PDF file to the following email: 
(miguelvm /at/ soc.uva.es)  Expected outcomes
A selection of papers presented at this pre-conference will be offered 
to join a special issue proposal to a leading Communication Research 
journal.

Registration fee
40 USD (including coffee breaks)

Expected assistance
This pre-conference is open to anyone interested in this topic, 
regardless s/he is presenting a paper. The maximum attendance allowed, 
due to the lecture hall dimensions is 90 participants

Conference venue
Charles University
Faculty of Law, Lecture Hall 103
https://www.prf.cuni.cz/en/

Právnická fakulta Univerzity Karlovy v Praze
nám. Curieových 7
116 40 Praha 1
Czech Republic

Date and time
24th May 2017
> From 08:00 until 17:00

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