[Commlist] CfP: Critical Sociology of Media and Communication

CFP: CRITICAL SOCIOLOGY OF MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION: THEORETICAL 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO A DISCONNECTED FIELD

SYMPOSIUM IN CRITICAL SOCIOLOGY

SUPPORTED BY Research Network 18 – Sociology of Communications and Media 
Research of the European Sociological Association

GUEST EDITORS: Paško Bilić and Thomas Allmer

Alongside Durkheim and Weber, Marx is often credited as one of the 
founding figures of sociology in almost all major handbooks and 
introductory courses to sociology. Yet, contrary to this elementary 
recognition, rarely does the debate within mainstream sociology offer an 
analysis of how generations of critical scholars influenced the canon 
and our understanding of contemporary society.

The situation is similar within the field of sociology of media and 
communication, although with an added layer of complexity. Even though 
some of the founders of sociology in the first and second generation of 
the Chicago School studied communication (e.g. Goffman, Mead, and Park), 
the relationship between sociology, media and communication has been, 
for the most part, tenuous and vague. Many authors have argued that, 
with the growth of public opinion research and institutionalization of 
communication, media, and journalism departments, sociology has 
abandoned media and communication altogether (e.g. Berelson, 1959; Katz, 
1983; Pooley and Katz, 2008).

Others would argue that sociology has much to offer to the study of 
media and communication (e.g. Benson, 2014; Chen, 2018; Waisbord, 2014). 
However, the role of critique in these discussions is not developed 
fully. At the same time, many critical scholars have never abandoned the 
study of media and communication and have, instead, developed a deeper 
sociological understanding of the field (e.g. Fuchs, 2011; Golding and 
Murdock, 1978; Meehan & Wasko, 2013; Mosco, 2009; Wasko, 2001). In this 
understanding, the focus is on a range of topics such as capitalism, 
power, media industries, the public sphere, democracy, ideology, 
nationalism, authoritarianism, labor, gender, and social inequality to 
name a few.

This special issue of Critical Sociology seeks papers exploring the 
critical sociology of media and communication. Contributions examining 
epistemological, ontological and axiological/praxiological dimensions 
are particularly welcome. We invite sociologists, media and 
communication scholars, critical theorists, interdisciplinary, and other 
scholars to address one or more of the following or related questions:

* Which theoretical approaches are needed to study the sociology of 
media and communication critically?
* How should sociology study media and communication critically?
* Why is the critical sociology of media and communication needed?
* What should be the focus of analysis for the critical sociology of 
media and communication?
* How are society and communication best defined, explained and 
critiqued by the critical sociology of media and communication?
* What can critical theory offer to the sociological study of media and 
communication?
* How do approaches and thinkers inspired by Marx enrich the field of 
sociology of media and communication?
* What is the historical role of the critical study of media and 
communication within the discipline of sociology? How has it changed 
over time?
* Does the critical sociology of media and communication differ from 
other critical approaches such as critical theory and political economy? 
How are they related to each other?
* Are there any specific regional approaches to the critical sociology 
of media and communication?
* Which political processes need to be supported by the critical 
sociology of media and communication to achieve a commons-based society?
* How can the critical sociology of media and communication contribute 
to the development of public data infrastructures and communication 
services?
* Given that production and reproduction of critical media and 
communication sociology depends on the material and human resources, how 
can such an approach best be sustained?
* How can different critical approaches to media and communication 
overcome divisions and separation and work together in the age of 
digital capitalism, fake news, big data positivism, new nationalism and 
authoritarianism?

DEADLINES

Abstract submission: 31 October 2022
All abstracts will be reviewed and decisions on acceptance/rejection 
will be communicated to the authors by the end of November 2022
Full paper submission: 15 April 2023

Please submit the article title, author name(s), contact details and an 
abstract of 200-400 words to Paško Bilić, (pasko /at/ irmo.hr), and Thomas 
Allmer, (thomas.allmer /at/ uti.at)

ABOUT THE GUEST EDITORS

Paško Bilić is a critical sociologist working at the Institute for 
Development and International Relations in Zagreb, Croatia. His primary 
research interests include the sociology of media, the political economy 
of media, and media regulation. He is the co-author (with Toni Prug and 
Mislav Žitko) of The Political Economy of Digital Monopolies (Bristol 
University Press, 2021), Sociology of media: routines, technology and 
power (Jesenski and Turk – in Croatian, 2020) and editor (with Jaka 
Primorac and Bjarki Valtysson) of the Technologies of labour and the 
politics of contradiction (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). Website: 
https://irmo.hr/djelatnici/pasko-bilic

Thomas Allmer is a social scientist, based at the University of 
Klagenfurt in Austria. His research focuses on critical social theory, 
political economy of media and communication, digital media and society, 
digital labour and capitalism, and universities and academic labour. His 
publications include Towards a Critical Theory of Surveillance in 
Informational Capitalism (Peter Lang, 2012) and Critical Theory and 
Social Media: Between Emancipation and Commodification (Routledge, 
2015). His forthcoming book, Universities and Academic Labour in Times 
of Precarisation and Digitalisation, will be published with Routledge in 
2023. Website: http://thomasallmer.net

ABOUT THE JOURNAL

Critical Sociology, Website: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/crs
Editor: David Fasenfest, Wayne State University, USA

Critical Sociology is an international peer reviewed journal that 
publishes the highest quality original research. The journal seeks to 
engage and promote critical thinking by publishing articles from all 
perspectives broadly defined as falling within the boundaries of 
critical or radical social science. Critical Sociology is included, 
among others, in the following abstracting and indexing databases: 
Scopus, Social Science Citation Index, and Sociological Abstracts.

Once the Symposium has been published in Critical Sociology, we are 
planning to materialize the collection in the form of an edited volume 
as part of the Studies in Critical Social Science book series by Brill. 
The book will initially appear in hardcover by Brill and in paperback by 
Haymarket Press about a year after publication.

REFERENCES

Benson, R. (2014). Strategy follows structure: a media sociology 
manifesto. In: Waisbord, S. (ed.) Media Sociology: A Reappraisal. 
Cambridge University Press, pp. 25-45.
Berelson, N. (1959). The state of communication research. The Public 
Opinion Quarterly 23(1): 1-6.
Chen, W. (2018). Abandoned not: media sociology as a networked 
transfield. Information, Communication & Society 21(6): 647-660.
Fuchs, C. (2011). Foundations of critical media and information studies. 
Routledge.
Golding, P. and Murdock, G. (1978). Theories of communication and 
theories of society. Communication Research 5(3): 339-356.
Katz, E. (1983). The return of the humanities and sociology. Journal of 
Communication 33(3): 51-52.
Meehan, E. and Wasko, J. (2013). In defence of a political economy of 
the media. Javnost 20(1): 39-53.
Mosco, V. (2009). The political economy of communication. SAGE publications.
Pooley, J. and Katz, E. (2008). Further notes on why American sociology 
abandoned mass communication research. Journal of Communication 58(4): 
767-786.
Waisbord, S. (ed.) (2014). Media sociology: A reappraisal. Cambridge 
University Press.
Wasko, J. (2001). Understanding Disney: The manufacture of fantasy. 
Blackwell Publishers.
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