[ecrea] Cfp: "Our Group First! Historical perspectives on Minorities/Majorities, Inclusion/Exclusion, Centre/Periphery in Media and Communication"

ECREA Communication History Section Workshop

"Our Group First! Historical perspectives on Minorities/Majorities, 
Inclusion/Exclusion, Centre/Periphery in Media and Communication”

Budapest, 7-9 September 2017 **

“Our group first!” A familiar chant, which echoes past times in 
contemporary voices has recently gained momentum in the political 
discourse in Europe and the United States with resonance all over the 
globe. The claim and focus of such demands is however not new, but 
rather restorative with illustrious historical predecessors. Throughout 
history, communication has always been used to disseminate stereotypes, 
narratives and social myths aimed to the end of creating clear 
distinctions between a superior “us” and the “other”. Drawing lines 
between “us” and “them” is functional in negotiating senses of community 
and belonging and goes way beyond its political use. However, inclusion 
always harbors exclusion as well and the identity of groups also demarks 
their boundaries. For this workshop the /ECREA Communication History 
Section/ invites scholarly presentations to shed light on questions of 
inclusion/exclusion, minorities/ majorities and centre/periphery in 
communication.

The goal is to understand such practices throughout a variety of 
historical and cultural settings and to learn from the past for 
contemporary challenges. The workshop allows for a scope ranging from 
the macro level of national or supranational societies, to very peculiar 
particularities of social groups and issue communities. The workshop is 
also interested in work that helps to deconstruct or re-evaluate 
assumptions about minorities/majorities, exclusion/inclusion, 
centre/periphery in a variety of contexts and as they are constructed or 
stabilized in academic work. Submissions dealing with the topics below 
are specially welcomed, even though the workshop will be opened to 
papers dealing with other aspects of the relation between media, 
minorities and majorities.


*Minorities through the eyes of the Majorities and vice versa*

In different historical locations the media have claimed to reflect 
societies in which they operate, disseminating cultural and social 
values that are accepted by the social structure in place, contributing 
to the imagination of community. In many cases this has led the media to 
focus their attention on majorities, while minorities are mostly ignored 
or represented in a negative fashion. Many authoritarian regimes, for 
example, have used all sorts of communication technologies, from posters 
and literature to broadcasting and newspapers, to promote fear and hate 
against minorities while exalting the qualities of those who are said to 
be the true patriots.

The concern about how minority groups are represented in public 
communication and how they engage in media production has deserved 
academic attention with the publication of books and journal issues 
dealing mostly with how mainstream media treat disabled citizens and 
gender, ethnic and religious minorities, migrants or refugees. We are 
interested in submissions addressing the logics, motives and uses of 
communicative constructions of normality and deviance, homogenization of 
cultural norms, dealing with heterogeneous concepts of life, alteration 
and hybrid identities. The workshop will focus on the creation of 
different types of minority groups as in-groups and out-groups, the 
alteration of their positions, identities and histories.


*Different by choice*

Differentiation and distinction are important ingredients for identity 
work. We are interested in communication phenomena and styles, which 
aimed at differentiating perspectives and creating alternative 
communities (e.g. hackers, tech-nerds) or establish alternative cultural 
scenes (e.g religious groups such as the Amish). This ranges from 
subcultures to the doing identity of political, LGBT, or activist groups 
and the conflicts and struggles they engaged in. Research is invited, 
which analyses special media formats produced by or addressing specific 
niches in the “small life-worlds of modern man” or highlight specific 
(protest) campaigns or identity management practices of such groups. 
Also representations of such minorities by choice through the lens of 
majorities, the mainstream media or popular culture are welcomed.


*Inclusion and exclusion *

Minorities are often excluded from possibilities of communication that 
are taken for granted and offered to majorities. Policy makers and 
commercial driven companies often consider as unprofitable bringing 
communications in unpopulated areas which leads to the exclusion of 
specific groups of people or specific region. Moreover, people tend to 
self-exclude themselves from too difficult, too expensive, and too 
complicated forms of communication. The workshop welcomes contributions 
on the history of communication divides (analogue and digital), and 
histories of political or business practices aiming to exclude groups of 
potential users.


*Minority Media, Majority Practices*

With the decline of mass communication and the slow disappearance of 
large audiences the lines between minorities and majorities get blurred 
when it comes to reception practices and habits. The discussion on how 
majorities and minorities use communication (technologies) and how they 
are represented on the media should also take into account the role of 
alternative media that, in many different historical contexts, have been 
created and operated by minorities. While cases like the Jewish press 
comes immediately to mind, feminist magazines and community radio 
stations are also examples of how different groups have used the media 
to promote their ideas and ideologies among fragmented audiences and 
compartmentalized collective identities. Many of these media played a 
role in in-group identity construction, frequently transcending borders 
and linking transnational audiences. The use of technologies that has 
widely disappeared or retracted to small niches or the nostalgic 
rediscovery of past media devices that are considered minoritarian will 
also be discussed.


*Centre and periphery *

Majorities are often at the centre and minorities at the periphery of 
infrastructures and networks. While at the centre the flow of 
communication is more intense and the speed of connections is higher, at 
the peripheries connections can be unstable and less reliable. 
Nevertheless, peripheries are also places where unexpected and 
minoritarian uses of media and communication emerge. In different 
historical periods, cities such as Athens, Rome, Venice, London, and New 
York have been at the centre of communication flows while places distant 
from the centre have to deal with their peripheral status. Case studies 
and papers dealing with the consequences of being central or peripheral 
in communication will be welcomed.


*“Us and them” through the history of communication studies *

Another field of inquiry the workshop is interested in is the role of 
academic research in observing and thus preserving logics of inclusion 
and exclusion through academic work. How do and did media and 
communication scholars normalize some media practices and pathologize 
others? What was the role of media and communication scholarship in 
stabilizing social in-groups while alienating outsiders (e.g. through 
links to political propaganda, psychological warfare and similar 
manipulation strategies or corporate advertising)? Which myths and 
narratives are cultivated by media research and how do prevalent 
concepts, eligible methods and accessible sources shape and foster 
certain understandings of media history, highlighting specific groups 
while sidelining others, thus creating an implicit invisible mainstream? 
Is thus a biased understanding of majority and minority groups at a 
given created in communication history? Which strategies could be used 
to deconstruct and re-evaluate existing assumptions in the light of 
gender, postcolonial or non-Western perspectives? How can subgroups 
hidden in the alleged communication mainstream be made visible? How are 
in-groups and out-groups (mainstream and outsider perspectives) 
constructed within the academic field of (historical) communication 
research?


Abstracts of 500 words (maximum) proposing empirical case studies as 
well as theoretical or methodological contributions should be submitted 
no later than *29 April 2017*. Proposals for full panels (comprising 4 
or 5 papers) are also welcome: these should include a 250-word abstract 
for each individual presentation, and a 300-word rationale for the 
panel. Send abstracts to: *(sipos.balazs /at/ btk.elte.hu)* 
<mailto:(sipos.balazs /at/ btk.elte.hu)>*.* Authors will be informed regarding 
acceptance/rejection for the conference no later than *15 May 2017*. 
Early career scholars and graduate students are highly encouraged to 
submit their work. Please indicate if the research submitted is part of 
your thesis or dissertation project. The organizers will aim to arrange 
for discussants to provide an intensive response for graduate students 
projects. For more information on the workshop please visit: 
https://ecreahistorybudapest2017.wordpress.com


---------------
The COMMLIST
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier. Please
use it responsibly and wisely.
--
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit http://commlist.org/
--
Before sending a posting request, please always read the guidelines at
http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
URL: http://nicocarpentier.net
---------------