[ecrea] cfp: International Toy Research Association

The International Toy Research Association (ITRA) is an association, 
which was created in 1993 for the purpose of promoting, stimulating and 
encouraging toy and plaything research all over the world in order to 
broaden and spread knowledge about toys and promote the development of 
good toys for children. ITRA further aims to support and cooperate with 
local, national, and international organizations having the same 
purposes, to organize and arrange meetings and issue publications 
concerning the purpose of the association.

The International Toy Research Association currently comprises 96 
members from 23 countries. ITRA is run by an executive Board, which is 
elected every three years in ITRA conferences.

The Association holds international conferences every three years.

So far six international conferences have been organized in Halmstad, 
Sweden (1996 & 1999), in London, England (2002), in Alicante, Spain 
(2005), in Nafplion, Greece (2008), and in Bursa, Turkey (2011).





The ITRA Board are pleased to announce that 7th ITRA World Conference 
will take place at the Catholic University of Portugal, Braga, Portugal, 
23-24-25 July 2014. The overarching theme of the conference is " Toys as 
Language and Communication".


All play media and play objects are included in the concept of "toys". 
The relevance of toys in the development of language and communication 
is high. Toys and playing with toys relates to many issues of 
establishing human relations and building social interactions and 
therefore they are inextricably linked to the history of human 
civilization. In fact, it remains an important task to analyse and 
understand toys as instruments fostering well-being, interaction and 
knowledge. Thus, the connection between toys and other elements of 
communication and language can be seen as an inevitable theme for toy 
researchers.

Language in its different features and modalities is a research subject 
in Communication Sciences. We therefore address verbal and non-verbal 
language as a means to foster and evidence human intelligence as well as 
human communicative and social skills.

Toys promote language development as well as communication. Toys and 
playing with toys are also significant on a practical level: from 
language development to education, health, therapy, art, craftsmanship, 
design and engineering.

Papers, panels and poster sessions are especially invited on any of the 
following congress themes:

1 - Toys, signs and meanings
2 - Toys as verbal and non-verbal language
3 - Toys, narratives and metaphors
4 - Toys as texts in spatial, historical and socio-cultural contexts
5 - Toys creativity and design
6 - Toys, gender and generations
7 - Toys, education, health and environment
8 - Toys and media: production, marketing, advertising and consumption
9 - Toys, games and new Technologies



 While the dominant theme of the 7th World Congress is "Toys as 
Language and Communication", other topics pertaining to toys are also 
welcome.


You may find the full text of this Call for papers at:
http://itratoyresearch.org/ITRA_Conference_2014_CfP.pdf



kind greetings,

Luísa Magalhães
Professora
(luisamagal /at/ gmail.com)











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