[ecrea] CfP EastBound 2012: 'Bootleg Socialism'

>Call for Papers:
>EastBound 2012 ⬠'Bootleg Socialism'
>
>The 2012 themed issue of EastBound <http://eastbound.eu/> on â¬ÜBootleg
>Socialismâ¬" seeks to cover forms of ingenious and unpredicted practices
>of
>media use in socialist and early post-socialist societies. We are
>looking
>for ethnographic case studies based on social, cultural and economic
>practices linked with the phenomenon of piracy and other informal
>media
>economies, and more widely, with unorthodox ways in which media and
>communication technologies were shaped by private users.
>
>The project is focused on electronic media: VCRs, satellite TV, home
>computers, radio receivers, ham radios, tape recorders, and telephones.
>Due
>to the political framing of culture, combined with economic factors,
>individuals and groups in socialist countries were routinely forced to
>seek
>access to media forms through unauthorized uses and sources of
>available
>media; often, unique forms of informal practices emerged from these
>sites.
>
>In the project, both periods of socialism and post-socialism are
>included.
>The fast growth of early turbo capitalism and â¬Sprivate initiatives⬝
>resulted
>in the rapid development of sometimes even transnational informal
>media
>networks. Such networks were responsible for instance for the rapid
>spread
>of local turbofolk music via cassettes on the Balkans, as well as for
>the
>quick establishment of black markets in urban centers ⬠such as
>Petrovka
>Market in Kyiv â¬, selling Western music, software and films. Pre-1989
>similar networks distributed samizdat publications, porn (prohibited in
>the
>era), and other cultural goods that werenâ¬"t necessarily prohibited, but
>were
>certainly excluded from the official and state controlled production
>and
>distribution systems.
>
>Primarily we aim to gather studies on bootleg media practices from the
>period of socialism and the years after 1989 but preceding the
>dissemination
>of digital technology and the Internet, which radically changed this
>copy
>culture.
>
>Possible areas we are looking to cover:
>
>- Distribution networks of samizdat
>- Software â¬ÜSneakernetsâ¬" of the 8- and 16-bit computer era
>- Distribution of tolerated or prohibited musical genres
>- Super8 and VHS porn culture
>- Early VHS market development
>- Electronics smuggling
>- COCOM export ban circumvents
>- The early days of satellite dishes
>- Cassette copying and distribution networks (both small and
>â¬Üindustrialâ¬"
>scale)
>- Hardware hacking
>- Pirate-radio broadcasting
>- Ham radio culture
>
>We will be accepting 300 word proposals for articles, which are both
>based
>on empirical material and are theoretically grounded. The deadline for
>the
>submission of proposals will be the 1st of March 2011, and the deadline
>for
>the submission of the completed articles in the case of accepted
>proposals
>will be the 1st of February 2012.
>
>For further information about the special issue, or to express interest
>in
>contributing an article, please contact Trever Hagen (hagen.trever
>-aatt-
>gmail.com).
>
>
>The special issue editors are:
>
>Balázs Bodó M.A., Ph.D. candidate, Eötvös Lóránd University, Hungary is
>an
>economist, assistant lecturer and researcher at the Budapest University
>of
>Technology and Economics, Department of Sociology and Communications,
>Center
>for Media Research and Education. He was a Fulbright Visiting
>Researcher at
>Stanford Law School in 2006/7. He is a Fellow at the Center for
>Internet and
>Society at Stanford. He is the project lead for Creative Commons
>Hungary and
>the member of the National Copyright Expert Group. His academic
>interests
>include copyright and economics, piracy, media regulation,
>peer-to-peer
>communities, underground libraries, digital archives. He wrote his
>Ph.D.
>dissertation on the role of copyright pirates in the cultural ecosystem
>from
>the printing press to peer-to-peer networks.
>
>Trever Hagen M.A., Ph.D. candidate, University of Exeter, UK is
>focusing on
>the use of music-as-resource in the building of community, based on the
>case
>of the Czech Underground. He completed his M.A. in sociology and
>social
>anthropology at Central European University in Budapest and a
>Fulbright
>award at Charles University in Prague.
>
>Patryk Wasiak Ph.D. (patrykwasiak -aatt- gmail.com) pursued an M.A.
>degree
>in sociology and another M.A. degree in art history at Warsaw
>University. He
>wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on transnational informal communication
>networks of visual artists in the Soviet Bloc (i.e. mail-art exchange
>system). He has received the VolkswagenStiftung, and also research
>fellowships from the Herder Institut and the Deutches Polen Institut.
>Currently he is conducting research on hobby computing and computer
>oriented
>subcultures in communist countries. Currently a freelance researcher,
>and a
>visiting fellow in Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam in
>2011.
>
>
>ABOUT EASTBOUND
>EastBound is a peer-reviewed online journal aimed at creating an
>international platform for Western and Eastern European researchers
>engaged
>in the multidisciplinary field of media and cultural studies. The
>journal
>features articles, reviews and interviews dealing with social and
>political
>implications of the rise of entertainment media and mediated popular
>culture, the appearance of global media players, and the spread of new
>forms
>of politics and information technologies. These transformations have
>presented a new cultural context for peopleâ¬"s cultural practices, from
>the
>minor aspects of everyday consumption to the large-scale reproduction
>of
>national identities and cultural heritage. EastBound addresses recent
>media
>and cultural realities, both from regional and international
>comparative
>standpoints.
>
>EastBound is published by:
>MOKK Media Research
>Department of Sociology and Communications,
>Budapest University of Technology and Economics,
>and
>Center for Media and Communication Studies (CMCS)
>Central European University
>
>http://eastbound.eu/

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