[ecrea] Cultural Mediators in the Digital Age (CFP)

Symposium—Call for papers
*‘Cultural Mediators in the Digital Age’*
4 September, 2017, King’s College, London 9.30-5.30pm
http://www.culturasocialmedia.com/symposium-cmda

*Keynote speakers:*
Liz McFall,
Open University
Gina Neff,
Oxford University

*Panel speakers:*
Angela McRobbie,
Goldsmiths University
Jennifer Smith McGuire,
Leicester University
Sean Nixon,
Essex University

*Organisers: *
Arturo Arriagada,
University Adolfo Ibanez (Chile)
Joanne Entwistle,
King’s College London
Agnès Rocamora,
London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London

Following from the influential work of Pierre Bourdieu, cultural 
intermediaries (CIs) have been typically analysed within cultural 
studies and sociology (Smith-Maguire and Matthews 2013; Nixon and du Gay 
2002; O’Connor 2015) as significant mediators of culture, shaping 
cultural forms and identities; for example, in fashion (Blumer 1969; 
Braham 1997; Entwistle 2006; Fine and Leopold 1993), music (Hesmondhalgh 
2007), food (Bob, et.al <http://et.al>. 2013) masculinity within popular 
culture (Nixon 1996, 2003). This early cultural intermediaries 
literature was important in establishing a more complex and dynamic 
relationship between production and consumption by examining the work of 
influential ‘taste-makers’ located within key professional spaces and 
institutions (publishing, fashion industry, etc.). However, in the 
digital age, today’s CIs also include fashion bloggers and vloggers, 
Youtubers (Rocamora, forthcoming, 2017), music and food bloggers, and so 
on, who are examples of new forms of labour, as well as practices where 
cultural value is generated and circulated across digital spaces. 
Further, ideas about the ‘prosumer’ and ‘prosumption’ challenge the 
uni-directional view of flows of influence: consumers are emerging as 
‘experts’ of the flows they are consuming (Baym and Burnett 2009), as 
well as ‘cultural mediators’ or ‘intermediaries’ (Arriagada 2014; 
Entwistle 2009; Bourdieu 1984; Rocamora 2011; 2016), bringing ‘a range 
of cultural things to markets: goods, images, tastes, aesthetics’ 
(Entwistle 2009: 15). In addition, science and technology studies (STS) 
and actor-network-theory (ANT) have challenged ideas about mediation to 
include non-human actors within these networks and flows of goods.

In this Symposium we will explore how much of the early cultural 
intermediaries literature within cultural studies (emerging from the 
late 1980s-1990s) and across a range of industries (fashion, music, 
popular media/magazines, for example) is relevant to today’s cultural 
forms in the digital age. Specifically, the aim of the symposium is to 
gather experts on cultural industries to discuss and analyse how 
consumers’ practices performed in digital spaces (e.g. blog, social 
media, and websites) are facilitating the emergency of new cultural and 
economic forms in this industry. It will be cross- disciplinary and 
cross-sector, seeking also to examine the differences, synergies and 
similarities across key cultural industries (for example, fashion, 
music, print/publishing, film, food, gaming).

We invite participants to send abstracts that explore the practices, 
identities, and discourses of cultural mediators in the digital age from 
a broad range of disciplines – including sociology, media studies, 
geography, anthropology, cultural studies, STS. Questions and topics 
include but are not limited to:

-How do CIs create meaning and valorise cultural products in the digital 
age?
-How do their practices vary across industries (e.g. music, media, 
fashion, design, and food) in the digital age?
-What role do digital technologies (particularly social media) play in 
the practices of CIs?
-What forms of labour are emerging from consumers’ social media 
practices of mediation around goods and flows produced in the cultural 
industry?
-How are the off- and online practices of CIs regulated, and by whom?
-What type (s) of value (s) (e.g. economic, symbolic) are consumers 
producing through their online practices of mediation?
-What kind of knowledge do consumers produce and circulate through 
social media in relation to flows and goods produced in the cultural 
industry?
-Theoretically, what kind of sociological, cultural, and economic 
concepts and theories serve to understand online practices of mediation 
in relation to flows and goods produced in the cultural industry?

Please send abstracts (350 words) with a short bio (100 words) by May 
the 3rd to:
(symposiumcmda /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(symposiumcmda /at/ gmail.com)>

The abstract should include theoretical and methodological discussions 
and have to be submitted and presented in English. Please include 
relevant biographical information as well. On submission of the 
proposal, only the proposing author will receive an email confirming 
receipt.

The Symposium organising committee will assess all proposals and 
communicate results by May the 29th.
The program will be available by June the 22nd.
Participation in the Symposium will cost £50 and £30 (students).

This Symposium is organised by the School of Communications at 
University Adolfo Ibanez, the Culture, Media and Creative Industries 
Department at King’s College, and the London College of Fashion, 
University of the Arts London.



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