[Commlist] CfP "Representations of (Post-)Industrial Communities: Voice, Visibility and Value" - Global Media Journal - German Edition

**Call for Contributions for a Special Section of GLOBAL MEDIA JOURNAL - 
GERMAN EDITION – Summer 2027*

**Representations of (Post-)Industrial Communities: Voice, Visibility 
and Value**

Deadline for full paper submissions: 15 January 2027

Guest Editors:

Anke Fiedler, Universität Greifswald

Darren Lilleker, Bournemouth University

James Morrison, University of Stirling

Industrialization across the globe, and particularly in North America 
and Europe, was associated with profound societal transformations, most 
notably the urbanization of populations and the creation of mass 
workforces (Cowie & Heathcott, 2003). Across generations, many families 
expected their children to follow established occupational trajectories 
into mines, steelworks, docks, mills, and factories (cf. Gildea, 2023). 
For much of the twentieth century, heavy industries offered relatively 
stable employment, social security, and a decent standard of living, 
contributing to gradual improvements in working-class conditions up to 
the 1960s (Russo & Linkon, 2009).

Deindustrialization, by contrast, has often been experienced as a 
process of decline and loss – in economic, social and cultural terms. As 
industries disappeared, so too did the social infrastructures that 
sustained everyday life (Cowie & Heathcott 2003; Russo & Linkon 2009). 
Urban spaces fell into decay, amenities declined, and the voices, values 
and identities of communities were increasingly marginalized within 
broader national imaginaries. The result has been a growing sense of 
diminishing pride, security, self-worth and trust among post-industrial 
working-class communities (Cowie & Heathcott, 2003), which continues to 
shape experiences of being voiceless, unrepresented, and neglected 
(Emery, 2018). In a number of contexts, such experiences have also 
provided fertile ground for neo-authoritarian movements – including 
illiberal, anti-democratic, nationalist, and populist ones 
(Rodríguez-Pose et al., 2018, 2023) – which mobilize narratives of loss, 
resentment, and national re-framing (Emery, 2018; Morrison, 2022).

These dynamics have been particularly pronounced in major industrial 
regions that later experienced significant decline, such as the Rust 
Belt in the United States (Campbell, 2017; Cowie & Heathcott, 2003) as 
well as Northern England and the German coal regions (bpb, 2021). 
Comparable processes of political radicalization can be observed across 
Europe, in regions shaped by different political and economic systems 
(Rodríguez-Pose et al., 2018, 2023). These include both long-established 
capitalist economies as well as former state-socialist contexts, such as 
Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Wallonia, and Upper Silesia (Domański, 2015; 
Leboutte, 2009).

This special issue seeks to explore these dynamics by examining the 
media, political and wider public communicative processes around 
(de-)industrialization. It aims to take a pluralist approach to 
industrial transformation, attending both to macro-level public 
discourses and to the lived experiences of communities navigating 
industrial decline and post-industrial restructuring, along with the 
political responses to these developments. By foregrounding 
communication as a central site through which industrial transformation 
and political challenges are interpreted, negotiated, contested, and 
experienced, the special issue invites critical engagement with 
questions of inclusion/exclusion, voice, visibility, (mis/under-) 
representation and inequality in societies shaped by ongoing processes 
of deindustrialization.

We welcome submissions from scholars across disciplines and regions, 
including historical and contemporary analyses, that address 
communication processes around (de-)industrialization. Submissions may 
engage with, but are not limited to, the following research areas:

•            Public discourse: The role of mass media, political 
communication, popular culture and wider public debate in shaping 
narratives of industrial change, decline, renewal, and loss.

•            Everyday/interpersonal communication: Constructions and 
experiences of loss, value and belonging by affected communities and 
practices through which they articulate, negotiate or resist dominant 
public representations; communicative practices of memory, identity and 
belonging; political attitudes/orientations among (post)-industrial 
communities.

•            Media structures and representation: Structural absences 
and inequalities in media institutions, including the exclusion and/or 
mis/under-representation of working-class voices in media production, 
ownership and decision-making, and the implications of these absences 
for public visibility, voice and the recognition (or denial) of lived 
experience.

•            Journalism: Journalistic practices, norms, routines and 
cultures in sourcing and reporting stories about the impact and 
implications of industrial transformation and communities affected; 
relationships between journalists and deindustrialized communities; 
authority, authenticity and legitimacy of competing voices in 
representing working-class lives.

•            Data, digitization, and media technologies: The role of 
digital platforms, data practices, automation, algorithmic systems and 
generative AI in reshaping visibility, value and participation; the 
communicative implications of platformization for post-industrial work 
and community life.

•            Media use and reception: Media use and communication by 
affected communities that is directed at making sense of industrial 
change; levels and forms of media reception and (dis-)engagement among 
(post-)industrial communities, agenda-setting and media effects; use of 
participatory, community and/or alternative media and information sources.

•            Theoretical and methodological considerations: Conceptual 
and methodological approaches to researching the mediation of 
deindustrialized and marginalized communities in the digital era, 
including ethical questions of access, voice, representation and 
participation in communication research itself.

This special section follows the pre-conference, “Representations of 
(Post-) Industrial Communities: Voice, Visibility, and Value,” hosted by 
the IAMCR Communication in Post- and Neo-Authoritarian Societies Working 
Group on June 27, 2026, in Dublin. Funding for language editing and 
proofreading will be provided by the IAMCR Section/Working Group Project 
Fund.

*Requirements for Submitting Contributions to the German Edition 
Contribution formats*

Academic articles (peer-reviewed); essays; media practice & research 
reports; graduate section; interviews

*Style Guide & Submissions Requirements*

•            Please adhere strictly to Global Media Journal – German 
Edition formatting and APA 7th edition citation style.

•            Manuscript lengths depend on the chosen contribution 
format: 
https://www.globalmediajournal.de/index.php/gmj/submission-guidelines

•            Please refer to the Style Guide for GMJ

•            All submissions for academic articles will undergo 
double-blind peer review.

•            GMJ-DE is Diamond Open Access; no APCs (no author 
processing charges)

*Full manuscript submission*

•            Full manuscripts should be submitted via the journal’s 
website _www.globalmediajournal.de <http://www.globalmediajournal.de>_ 
by 15 January 2027.

•            Please select “Special Section Representations of 
(Post-)Industrial Communities: Voice, Visibility and Value” in the 
drop-down list when submitting your manuscript.

*Timetable*

•            Submission of full papers: 15 January 2027

•            Response to authors (first review): 31 March 2027

•            Publication date: July 2027

If you have any questions, please contact GMJ-DE editor Katharina 
Nötzold ((gmj /at/ polsoz.fu-berlin.de))

The GLOBAL MEDIA JOURNAL – GERMAN EDITION (ISSN 2196-4807) is a diamond 
open access, peer-reviewed journal for the publication of scholarly 
contributions dealing with issues of international, transnational, 
intercultural and transcultural communication and media, published in 
English and German twice a year. No article processing charges (APCs) 
are incurred. The journal is indexed in DOAJ, ERIH PLUS, EBSCO, EuroPub, 
BASE and Ulrich’s. Website: https://www.globalmediajournal.de

*References*

bpb [Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung] (Ed.). (2021). Abschied von 
der Kohle: Struktur- und Kulturwandel im Ruhrgebiet und in der Lausitz 
[Farewell to coal: Structural and cultural change in the Ruhr region and 
Lusatia]. Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung.

Campbell, C. (2017). Revitalizing the Rust Belt. American Affairs, 1(4), 
130–139.

Cowie, J., & Heathcott, J. (2003). Introduction: The meanings of 
deindustrialisation. In J. Cowie & J. Heathcott (Eds.), Beyond the 
ruins: The meanings of deindustrialization (pp. 1–18). Cornell 
University Press.

Domański, B. (2015). Contemporary processes of regional industrial 
changes in Poland—Possible interpretations. Studies of the Industrial 
Geography Commission of the Polish Geographical Society, 29(4), 40–53. 
https://doi.org/10.24917/20801653.294.3

Emery, J. (2019). Geographies of deindustrialization and the 
working-class: Industrial ruination, legacies, and affect. Geography 
Compass, 13, e12417. https://doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12417

Gildea, R. (2023). Backbone of the nation: Mining communities and the 
Great Strike of 1984–85. Yale University Press.

Leboutte, R. (2009). A space of European de-industrialisation in the 
late twentieth century: Nord/Pas-de-Calais, Wallonia and the Ruhrgebiet. 
European Review of History: Revue Européenne d'Histoire, 16(5), 755–770. 
https://doi.org/10.1080/13507480903262785

Morrison, J. (2022). The left behind: Reimagining Britain's socially 
excluded. Pluto Press.

Rodríguez-Pose, A. (2018). The revenge of the places that don't matter 
(and what to do about it). Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and 
Society, 11(1), 189–209. https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsx024

Rodríguez-Pose, A., Terrero-Dávila, J., & Lee, N. (2023). Left-behind 
versus unequal places: Interpersonal inequality, economic decline and 
the rise of populism in the USA and Europe. Journal of Economic 
Geography, 23(5), 951–977. https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbad005

Russo, J., & Linkon, S. (2009). The social costs of deindustrialization. 
In R. McCormack (Ed.), Manufacturing a better future for America (pp. 
149–174). Alliance for American Manufacturing.

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