[ecrea] CfP for international conference on scandals

Call for Papers
1st International Conference in Scandalogy
The current state of research on a social phenomenon

University of Bamberg
Department of Communication Studies and Department of German Studies
Bamberg, Germany
7-8 April 2016

Various academic disciplines have started to intensify research on 
scandals as social phe-nomena. Especially communication and media 
studies and political science place emphasis on researching scandals, as 
a number of thematically relevant publications and conferences within 
these disciplines illustrate (e.g. ECREA conference on “The mediation of 
scandal and moral outrage”).
‘The scandal’ as a social phenomenon can be approached from several 
academic perspec-tives. Arguably, ‘the science of scandals’ qualifies as 
a distinct interdisciplinary research field.
The aim of this conference is to foster exchange between “scandalogists” 
from different aca-demic disciplines in order to gather and present 
recent findings from a wide range of theoret-ical approaches. Hence this 
call is addressed to all researchers who have a scientific interest in 
scandals.
We especially invite scholars of communication and media studies, 
political science, literary studies, sociology, psychology, ethnology, 
and history to contribute. Papers may address a diverse range of topics 
including the following:

Communication and media studies
Under what conditions are violations of social norms publicly condemned, 
creating a “media scandal” (Burkhardt, 2006)? How do social agents, e.g. 
journalists, contribute to such dy-namics of scandalization? What 
accounts for the great interest of media users in scandalized topics? Do 
media and communication history contribute to a better understanding of 
the om-nipresence of mass-mediated scandals today?

Sociology
Do “cultures of scandal” (Hondrich, 2002) , which determine specific 
patterns of action and topical selections of scandalization, exist?

Ethnology and cultural studies
Do typical conflict-patterns of scandalization constitute an 
anthropological constant which allows us to derive trans-historically 
and -culturally valid observations about social coexist-ence?

Psychology
What effect does ‘scandalized’ discourse have on media agents and media 
users? Do scan-dals have a specific function for individuals, for 
instance as regards moral attitudes?

Political science
What functions do scandals have in democratic societies and to what 
purpose are scandals communicated in illiberal regimes? Do scandals 
exist in dictatorships in the same sense as in democratic societies?

Literary studies
When are scandals used as a marketing strategy? Is it possible to 
calculate the risks and opportunities of literary scandals? Is the 
literary scandal a phenomenon where the artist is merely ‘doing her job’ 
by using competencies and resources of her public image to an 
eco-nomical end? Are there also specific milieus and target-groups where 
the literary scandal is a possibility to channel a latent hostility 
towards ‘art’?

Confirmed keynote speakers
Prof. Dr. Steffen Burkhardt (Hamburg University of Applied Sciences)
Prof. Dr. Martina Wagner-Egelhaaf (WWU Münster)

Abstracts should not exceed 300 words. Please include an additional 
short biographical note of no more than 150 words.
As the selection of abstracts will be peer-reviewed anonymously, we ask 
contributors to in-clude a separate title page containing title, 
author/s, affiliation/s, and the address, phone, fax, and e-mail of the 
first author.
All submissions will be evaluated on relevance and originality, clarity 
of research purpose, grounding of theoretical and methodological 
approach, focus, and organization.
A publication of selected articles is planned.
Please email abstracts to (andre.haller /at/ uni-bamberg.de) or 
(hendrik.michael /at/ uni-bamberg.de) by September 30th, 2015. Notifications 
will be sent out in early December.


---


Dr. André Haller

Institut für Kommunikationswissenschaft
Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg
An der Weberei 5 / Raum 04.069
D-96045 Bamberg

E-Mail: (andre.haller /at/ uni-bamberg.de)
Website: http://www.uni-bamberg.de/kowi

---------------
ECREA-Mailing list
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier and ECREA.
--
To subscribe, post or unsubscribe, please visit
http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
URL: http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/
--
ECREA - European Communication Research and Education Association
Chauss�de Waterloo 1151, 1180 Uccle, Belgium
Email: (info /at/ ecrea.eu)
URL: http://www.ecrea.eu
---------------