[ecrea] CfP New Media, New Politics? (post-)Révolutions in Theory and Practice, London (UK), 26 April 2013

CALL FOR PAPERS

New Media, New Politics?

(post-) Revolutions in Theory and Practice

Conference organised by the

Arab Media Centre

Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI),

Date: Friday 26 April, 2013

Venue: University of Westminster, Regent Street Campus,

309 Regent Street, London W1B 2UW

Deadline for abstracts : December 10th, 2012

It has been two years since the world witnessed millions of Arabs march, 
strike and fight to remove their repressive regimes. As the Arab popular 
struggles coincided with a deepening global economic crisis, they found 
resonance across the globe. We saw the Occupy Movement and Spain’s 
indignados referring to Tahrir Square, exchanging mutual messages of 
support. The combination of satellite and internet communication and its 
contribution to such exchanges and to people’s political consciousness 
was unparalleled in the history of revolutions. Yet much has changed in 
two years and the region remains susceptible to interventions at local, 
regional and global levels.

While initial analyses of media’s role in the turmoil were erratic, at 
least scholarly tendencies to essentialise the Middle East were shaken. 
The revolutions simultaneously undermine and foster dominant modes of 
knowledge production and compel us more strongly than ever to situate 
our research in the context of state and class power. Accelerating 
digitisation of culture continues to shape and reshape the way political 
movements operate, calculate and narrate their politics. There is 
ultimately a single continuum of contradiction: the revolutions were and 
are strongly shaped by contradictions, making them notoriously complex 
and difficult to understand at the levels of theory and mediation. 
Instead of reiterating prevailing views, this conference will benefit 
from a two-year perspective on the uprisings to engage in deep critical 
reflection.

We identify three key phases of analysis: pre-revolution (to December 
2010), tipping-point (to March 2011), post-revolution (to the present). 
Unwrapping the revolutionary epoch in this manner allows new social 
patterns and dialectical relations to emerge. The conference will 
address two main tasks. The first is to deconstruct media-related 
interactions during the three phases. The second is to consider the 
framing of analytical interventions and mediated articulations of the 
Arab revolutions in order to question the production of knowledge about 
them. We welcome papers from scholars and activists that engage 
critically with sub-themes that may include, but are not limited to, the 
following:

·       The role of media and communication technologies during previous 
(e.g. anti-colonial) struggles and what these past experiences tell us 
about the present

    * ·       Rethinking legacies and lessons of key paradigmatic 
trends (Orientalism, postmodernism, liberalism, Marxism)
    * ·       How Arab activists’ self-portrayals compare with 
mass-mediated projections
    * ·       Geo-political interests at work in investigations into 
internet activism
    * ·       Socio-political implications of the global financial 
crisis and/or imperialism for different media and communication technologies
    * ·       Everyday utilisation of new media in different 
demographies (gender, age etc) and geographies (urban/rural, 
centre/periphery)
    * ·       The impact of digital culture on popular perceptions and, 
in due course, the construction of collective memory.

We aim to publish selected papers in an edited volume focusing on the 
juxtaposition of new media, new political organising and alternative 
frames of analysis.

PROGRAMME AND REGISTRATION

This one-day conference, taking place on Friday, 26th April 2013, will 
consist of plenaries and parallel workshops to raise new critical 
insights across disciplinary and geographical boundaries in a 
collaborative manner. The fee for registration for all participants, 
including presenters, will be £99, with a concessionary rate of £49 for 
students, to cover all conference documentation, refreshments and 
administration costs. Registration will open in February 2013.


DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACTS

The deadline for abstracts is December 10th, 2012. Successful applicants 
will be notified early in January 2013. Abstracts should be 300 words. 
They must include the presenter’s name, affiliation, email and postal 
addresses, together with the title of the paper and a 150-word 
biographical note on the presenter.  The abstract should be sent by 
email to the Events Administrator, Helen Cohen, at 
(journalism /at/ westminster.ac.uk).



TRAVEL EXPENSES

The Arab Media Centre intends to apply for funding to assist with travel 
bursaries of selected participants whose own institutions are unable to 
provide the necessary support. Anyone anticipating that they will need 
support should make this known when sending their abstract but should 
also make alternative arrangements in case the funding application is 
unsuccessful.




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