[ecrea] CFP: journal issue on democratic aesthetics

>Call for papers for a themed issue of the 
>journal Culture, Theory and Critique to be published in April 2009.
>
>Democratic aesthetics: actual, radical, global.
>
>Since Walter Benjamin equated aestheticized 
>politics with fascism and war, projects to 
>conduct politics aesthetically generally have 
>been regarded as inimical to democracy. Yet, 
>given the role of the US as a hegemonic world 
>power exporting democracy by force of arms, it 
>is timely to re-examine the potential of 
>productive relations between aesthetics and 
>democratic politics There are many different 
>notions of aesthetics, ranging from a 
>philosophical discourse about art (often 
>understood as distinct cultural practices, 
>objects, experiences, perceptions and 
>judgments), to its original broader sense (by 
>Baumgarten) of the study of sensory, bodily 
>aspects of cognitive interactions with the 
>world. Moreover, ongoing processes of 
>globalization generate and intensify tensions 
>among culturally variable ideologies of the 
>aesthetic, even as they problematize the 
>presupposition of democracys universal value. 
>It thus becomes at once more difficult and more 
>urgent to think the relation between democracy and aesthetics.
>
>
>Issues to be Explored: The purpose of the issue 
>is to focus on those senses of aesthetics that 
>pertain to the sensory communication of social 
>meanings through the production/dissemination 
>and consumption/interpretation of cultural 
>symbols. In these senses, democratic aesthetics can consist of, among others:
>a)     particular genres of art forms that 
>embody specific democratic values (such as 
>portraits of ordinary people and individualism, 
>or Brechtian, didactic, realist theatre);
>b)     democratic styles of political 
>performance (such as political actors presenting 
>themselves according to the modes of popular 
>culture, such as politicians as celebrities, or 
>theatrical or spectacular activism);
>c)      the democratization of aesthetics, 
>recognizing aesthetic activity in everyday life 
>(as in Paul Willis grounded aesthetics or 
>Pierre Bourdieus popular aesthetics);
>d)     the constitution of democratic publics as 
>communities of aesthetic judgment (e.g. drawing 
>from Kants and Arendts notions of sensus communis).
>
>The issue will analyse general processes and 
>particular examples of democratic aesthetics, 
>while also assessing them in terms of conceptual 
>and normative distinctions of democracy. In 
>particular, the issue will address the question 
>of whether democratic aesthetics is irrevocably 
>associated with commodified and mass mediated 
>capitalist culture, and hence is symptomatic of 
>attenuated forms of actually existing liberal or 
>market democracy (as in critiques by Terry 
>Eagleton and David Harvey), or whether (and 
>under what circumstances) democratic aesthetics 
>can motivate more radical, emancipatory versions 
>of democracy. The distinctions between actual, 
>critical and radical notions of democracy is 
>also crucial to addressing a key motivating 
>question for the issue, namely, whether under 
>current conditions in which the Western 
>militarized export of democracy cannot be 
>considered an unqualified good, democratic 
>aesthetics offer less hostile ways of practising 
>democracy in an international and transnational environment.
>
>The issue will be edited by Jon Simons, 
>Associate Professor, Department of Communication 
>and Culture, Indiana University. Please contact 
>him with any queries about the suitability of 
>essays for inclusion in the issue (preferably 
>including an abstract), or any other editorial matters, at:
>(simonsj /at/ indiana.edu)<mailto:(simonsj /at/ indiana.edu)>
>
>Article submissions
>
>Authors should submit an electronic copy of the 
>abstract and the article to 
>(ctc /at/ nottingham.ac.uk)<mailto:(ctc /at/ nottingham.ac.uk)>, 
>retaining one copy for their own records. Essays 
>should be in English, double-spaced (including 
>all quoted material, notes and references) on 
>one side only of the paper. Authors should 
>confirm at submission that their essay is not 
>also under consideration with another journal or 
>publisher, and also indicate that their 
>submission is for the themed issue on democratic aesthetics.
>
>Submissions will be subjected to blind review before acceptance.
>
>Deadline for submissions: May 6th 2008.
>
>Form. Essays should not normally exceed 7000 
>words, including quotations and footnotes, and 
>the word count should be printed at the end.
>For further details about note and referencing 
>formats, the use of illustrations and other issues, please see:
>http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/journal.asp?issn=1473-5784&linktype=44
>
>Culture, Theory and Critique is a refereed, 
>interdisciplinary journal for the transformation 
>and development of critical theories in the 
>humanities and social sciences. It aims to 
>critique and reconstruct theories by interfacing 
>them with one another and by relocating them in 
>new sites and conjunctures. Culture, Theory and 
>Critique' approach to theoretical refinement and 
>innovation is one of interaction and 
>hybridisation via recontextualisation and transculturation.
>
>
>Jon Simons, Associate Professor
>Department of Communication and Culture
>Indiana University
>800 E. Third St.
>Bloomington, IN 47405
>USA
>
>Phone: 812 856 0896
>
>Editorial board member: Culture, Theory & Critique
>http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/14735784.asp
>
>Co-editor (with Simon Tormey) of Manchester 
>University Press book series, Reappraising the Political
>http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/catalogue/aseries.asp?id=54

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Nico Carpentier (Phd)
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Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Free University of Brussels
Centre for Studies on Media and Culture (CeMeSO)
Pleinlaan 2 - B-1050 Brussels - Belgium
T: ++ 32 (0)2-629.18.56
F: ++ 32 (0)2-629.36.84
Office: 5B.401a
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Katholieke Universiteit Brussel - Catholic University of Brussels
Vrijheidslaan 17 - B-1081 Brussel - Belgium
&
Facultés Universitaires Saint-Louis
Boulevard du Jardin Botanique 43  - B-1000 Brussel - Belgium
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by Olga Bailey, Bart Cammaerts, Nico Carpentier
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http://mcgraw-hill.co.uk/html/0335222102.html
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Participation and Media Production. Critical Reflections on Content Creation.
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<http://www.c-s-p.org/Flyers/Participation-and-Media-Production--Critical-Reflections-on-Content-Creation1-84718-453-7.htm>http://www.c-s-p.org/Flyers/Participation-and-Media-Production--Critical-Reflections-on-Content-Creation1-84718-453-7.htm 

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European Communication Research and Education Association
Web: http://www.ecrea.eu
----------------------------
ECREA's Second European Communication Conference
Barcelona, 25-28 November 2008
http://www.ecrea2008barcelona.org/
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E-mail: (Nico.Carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
Web: http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/
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