[ecrea] CFP / "Communication and emerging cultural practices vs the neoliberal imaginary" - IC Journal

CALL FOR PAPERS: Communication and emerging cultural practices versus 
the neoliberal imaginary: hegemony and dissidence

Deadline for proposals 15/06/2014.

IC Scientific Journal of Information and Communication 
(http://ic-journal.org/)

All submissions should be made via IC´s OJS platform at: 
http://www.icjournal-ojs.org/

For more information, please contact María Eugenia Gutiérrez at: 
(megutierrez /at/ us.es)

Description

During the 1980s and 90s, postmodern culture and the alleged end of the 
great narratives was a central theme of academic debate (see Lyotard, 
1984, and Habermas, 1981, among others). Over the last few years, there 
has been a notable shift towards studying the way in which the 
neoliberal hegemony has colonized large swathes of social and 
institutional bodies (Crouch, 2004, or Couldry, 2012), and a great 
number of authors consider that these have been emptied of democratic 
content (Martí, 2006). Since 2011, the way in which the institutions of 
the EU have managed the sovereign debt crisis has broadened the 
visibility and scope of this diagnosis to other non-academic sectors. 
Social protest – linked to the boom in emerging cultural practices – can 
be seen as a more specific expression of “alternative imaginaries”. They 
oppose a model based on economics-orientated premises defended with 
growing force by the institutional and financial elites who implement 
their strategies through the mass media (Castells, 2010).

The reference to the concept of hegemony has a fully Gramscian context 
and refers to the field of propaganda as a way of building (or 
maintaining) social imaginaries. Inequality as regards access to the 
propagandistic discourse disseminated by the media allows the narratives 
of the elites to transmit dominant values and enjoy a huge advantage 
when imposing their agendas on others. But is another type of hegemonic 
propaganda possible under current conditions? Can the cultural and 
communication practices that have been emerging and consolidating 
themselves over the past few years contribute to an alternative 
hegemony? The exploration of these issues will undoubtedly enrich the 
ongoing debate on the issue.

Using copyleft formulas for copyright management, flashmobs as palpable 
manifestations of the power of collective will, crowdfunding, 
co-working, collaborative digital libraries, idea incubators, urban 
media labs, the search for an art far-removed from the myth of the 
romance author, the boom of collective decision-making and deliberation 
practices, or even local, cooperative organic vegetable gardens, are 
just a few examples of these disparate practices. These phenomena could 
point to a counter cultural movement characterized by its horizontal and 
cooperative nature, in the interest of communality opposed to the 
central values that have managed to dominate “cognitive capitalism.”

The editors of IC Journal believe that it is increasingly necessary to 
explore the similarities defining these practices in a context marked by 
the tense coexistence of opposing cultural and communication paradigms 
in their struggle for hegemony. Therefore, we would be delighted to 
receive submissions of original papers addressing the following issues, 
for publication in the 11th number of our journal:

• New emerging cultural and communication practices with a capacity for 
promoting social change.
• New cultural macro narratives: cooperation versus competitiveness, 
horizontality in contrast to hierarchy, communality or public deliberation.
• Subjectivity and collectivity in the context of the new cultural 
practices of dissidence.
• The current impact of Gramscian and neo-Marxist thought applied to 
discursive practices or the cultural industries in the current context 
of crisis.
• Humour as a discourse of resistance: new formats and practices.
• Novel artistic and academic practices for building a new hegemony.
• Political economy and appropriation of social networks: YouTube, 
Facebook and Twitter.
• Cyber-activism and the concept of the Rhizome applied to new forms of 
political, social and communication action.
• Transparency as a dissident space: from data journalism to WikiLeaks
• Consumption patterns of the discourses of resistance, propaganda and 
counter-propaganda.
• Visualization practices of discontent and self-contention in TV, the 
press and advertising.

Contact

María Eugenia Gutiérrez
Lecturer in Communication Studies
Facultad de Comunicación (Universidad de Sevilla)
Avda. Américo Vespucio S/N (41092)
Sevilla / Spain
(megutierrez /at/ us.es)
Tel. +34 954556396


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