[Commlist] DN Congress - Discursive Imaginaries of Change: Heterotopias, Power, Knowledge, and the "Great Transformation"

Philipps-Universität Marburg
Marburg, Germany

Date: 19/07/2027 - 21/07/2027
Registration deadline: 31/03/2027
Call for papers ending on: 31/10/2026

Discursive Imaginaries of Change - Heterotopias, PowerKnowledge, and the
"Great Transformation"19–21 July 2027 | Philipps-Universität Marburg,
Germany



In 1527, Philipps-Universität Marburg was founded as a space of intellectual
rupture: the first Protestant university in the world, conceived as a
heterotopia at the very moment of a great transformation. Five hundred years
later, DNC 2027 comes to Marburg to ask: how do we discursively imagine,
contest, and inhabit transformation today?

We live in a world of polycrisis: entangled climate emergencies, the riseof
authoritarianism, growing inequalities, and the rapid transformation of the
public sphere through AI and digital media. Yet the language and discursive
practices with which we address these challenges matter. Academic discourse
too often reproduces the very framings it sets out to critique. The DNC 2027
congress invites scholars to step beyond "problem talk" and to ask instead:
what discursive fissures, counter-imaginaries, and heterotopian spaces are
emerging? What futures are already being articulated — and by whom?

Rather than treating "transformation" as a goal to be achieved, we open 
it as
a discursive site: a terrain of meaning-making, power, struggle, language,
and imagination. Drawing on social imaginaries, discourse theory, and
critical epistemologies, we invite researchers from across the 
humanities and
social sciences (linguists, sociologists, media scholars, organizational
discourse scholars, cultural theorists, gender and minority studies
researchers, educational scholars, political scientists, philosophers,
historians, and many others) to engage with the ways transformation is
narrated, contested, and re-imagined.



Thematic Focus

The congress builds on a long tradition of DNC events that have analysed the
discursive construction of social pasts, presents, and futures. This 
time, we
are especially interested in the imaginaries that different actors,
movements, disciplines, and epistemological traditions bring to the question
of change. We do not assume that transformation is a settled concept, nor
that it always points in progressive directions. Right-wing populisms and
authoritarian movements offer their own powerful imaginaries of
transformation. So do the counter-discourses of feminist care ethics,
indigenous knowledge systems, commoning movements, degrowth advocates, and
decolonial scholars. All of these deserve our critical, analytical as wellas
cocreational attention.

We are interested in four broad, overlapping dimensions:

Imaginaries and discourse: How is the meaning of "transformation", "crisis",
or "the future" discursively constructed, stabilised, and contested across
political, media, and everyday registers? What social imaginaries shape
collective understandings of economy, democracy, social life and
ecology?Power, knowledge, and epistemic struggles: Whose knowledge counts,
and whose is marginalised? We especially welcome contributions from 
Southern,
decolonial, feminist, and indigenous perspectives that challenge
Western-modernist frameworks. We encourage analysis of how educational
systems, organisations and communicative practices normalise particular
epistemic orders.Heterotopias and counter-movements: Where do alternative
spaces, practices, and discourses emerge? How are commons, care, solidarity,
and more-than-human entanglements articulated as alternatives to market
logic? How do such spaces relate to — and potentially transform —
hegemonic formations?Methodological reflexivity: How can discourse research
itself reflect on its own positionings, avoid reproducing hegemonic closures
or epistemic romanticism, and develop what some call "caring research"? What
are the implications of engaged, transdisciplinary, or co-creative
methodologies for our scholarly practices?


Topics and Suggested Panels

We invite 15 to 20-minute presentations (followed by 10 minutes of
discussion) on topics related to the congress theme. Contributions that do
not fit neatly into a single theme are warmly encouraged. Suggested panels
include but are in no way restricted to the following perspectives:

Philosophical: Alternative epistemologies, ontological pluralism, and the
politics of knowledge.Political: Populism, democratic backsliding,
postcolonial and feminist imaginaries of democracy.Economic: From
neoliberalism to plural economies; the discursive construction of The Great
Transformation.Linguistic: From Great to Small Narratives, Truth Telling,
Post-Truth Orders.Societal and Spatial — Social fragmentation, commoning,
urban heterotopias, and community-based change.Ecological: Climate 
discourse,
more-than-human entanglements, buen vivir, and degrowth.Educational:
Onto-epistemologies of commoning education, institutional discourse,
discursive perspectives on organizational learning and education, and
pedagogical imaginaries.Methodological; Reflexive, caring, and
transdisciplinary research methodologies.Media and Digital Imaginaries — AI
safety and alignment, digital platforms, and the co-construction of social
and political futures.Gender, Minority, and Postcolonial Studies —
Anti-feminist and anti-LGBTQ+ discourses, in-group/out-group constructions,
and decolonial imaginaries.and many more


Presentation Formats

DNC 2027 welcomes submissions in the following formats:

Single papers - 20-minute presentations (please submit an abstract of no 
more
that 250 words plus title and references, APA 7)Symposia - three 
thematically
related papers in a 90-minute session (please submit as a single 
submission a
framing of up to 400 words and 200 word abstracts for all papers linked 
to it
plus titles & references, APA 7)Research Workshops with a methodological 
or /
and research practical focus - 90 minute session (please submit a framing of
600 words, a methods section 400 words plus references (300 words)
You will soon find more information of the different congress formats at the
DNC 2027 website at https://discourseanalysis.net/DNC2027



UnConferencing

We will organise a participatory and cocreational unconferencing format at
the second afternoon of the congress. This format offers any kind of
cocreational space to discuss book projects, research proposals, 
conferences,
burning questions, and form connections with the university and regional
partners such as the cooperating gender center and the democracy center of
University of Marburg. Everybody is invited to suggest topics for
unconferencing sessions.

Please submit suggestions for networking and cocreation on Tuesday afternoon
(90 min sessions) into the congress conftool.



Congress Languages

Please choose in Conftool, in which of the four congress languages you would
like to present your work (English, French, Spanish or German).



Submission Guidelines

All Submissions are to be submitted via Conftool at
https://www.conftool.com/dnc2027/


Important Dates

Abstract submissions open: 15th of June 2026Submission deadline: 31st of
October 2026
Notification of acceptance: 15th of December 2026Registration
deadline: 31st March 2027 (early bird fee) & 15 June 2027 (regular fee)


Fees and Registration

Participants are required to hold an active DiscourseNet membership (€60
for 2 years) and pay a congress participation fee: As we intend to apply a
solidarity approach, the congress fee is differentiated:

Early Bird Rate (until 31st of march 2027):

Professors/full time academics with an institutional position: €168Doctoral
students: €83Colleagues from the Global South / Students:€43
Regular Rate: (until 15th of June 2027)

Professors/academics with an institutional position: 253 EuroDoctoral
Students: 153 EuroCollegues from the Global South 83 Euro
Registration and payment details will be sent with the acceptance
notification and are available via the Conftool. [6] The congress is also
open to non-presenting participants with active DN membership. 
Non-presenting
participants from the host institution (Philipps-Universität Marburg)are
exempt from the DiscourseNet membership fee.



Venue

The congress will take place in person at Philipps-Universität Marburg,
Germany. Further details on travel, accommodation, and the full programme
will be published at https://discourseanalysis.net/DNC2027. [7] No online
participation will be offered. The congress is prepared in cooperation with
the gender centre and the democracy centre of Philipps-University of 
Marburg.
Head of the local organizing team is Prof. Dr. Susanne Maria Weber.



Contact

For further information regarding the congress, registration, accommodation,
or programme updates, please contact: DNC 2027 Organizing Committee
(dncongress2027 /at/ gmail.com)
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