[Commlist] CfP: Special Section “Digital Memory & Populism” in the International Journal of Communication (IJoC)

 CfP: Special Section “Digital Memory & Populism” in the International 
Journal of Communication (IJoC)

The publication will be open access and authors will not have to pay any 
fees

Guest editors: dr. Manuel Menke (University of Copenhagen) & dr. Berber 
Hagedoorn (University of Groningen)

For a special section on Digital Memory and Populism in the 
International Journal of Communication (IJoC), we invite contributions 
addressing the use of digital memory by populists, their supporters, and 
their opponents online. Not only did populists evoke and exploit the 
past to fuel the Trump presidency and Brexit campaign, but it has also 
become a common populist tool to employ collective memory from local to 
global politics across the world. With the possibility to bypass 
traditional media and reach networked audiences, populist actors are 
increasingly active in digital publics to negotiate the  role of the 
past and their versions of it with their supporters and defend it 
against their opponents. In this process, personal and collective 
memories become a contested field in discourses on identity, belonging, 
and political ideology used to mobilize for or against populist agendas 
online.



We welcome submissions shedding light on how digital memory is shared, 
represented, constructed, and instrumentalized online to promote or 
tackle populist agendas all over the world. We aim at compiling 
international research that investigates, for example, how 
memory-related populist communication strategies and their appeal online 
have become particularly relevant today, how digital memory is 
integrated in political imaginaries of the future, and how populists' 
messages thrive on collective memory discourses salient in contemporary 
digital culture. We also invite research studying the potential of 
digital memory to challenge populist narratives, and that examines the 
creative uses of the past to mobilize and organize bottom-up political 
engagement by the means of digital media, networked communication, and 
memory.



This special section broadens the theoretical and empirical 
understanding of the relationships between populism, memory, and the 
digital by asking:



●        How do populists, their supporters, and/or their opponents use 
digital memory to gain support for their political convictions, 
positions, and agendas?

●        How do populists, their supporters, and/or their opponents 
employ digital memory as an affective feature in their communication?

●        How are digital media adopted by populists, their supporters, 
and/or their opponents to add, resist, share, and play with personal and 
collective memories in online discourses?

●        Which creative, strategic, or mundane digital mnemonic 
practices evolve in accordance with or opposition to populist agendas, 
and in which digital formats do personal and collective memories enter 
discourses online?

●        How can analytical concepts of populism and models of populist 
communication be complemented by digital memory studies perspectives and 
vice versa?

●        Which innovative theoretical approaches and empirical methods 
can be developed and applied to study the relationships between 
populism, memory, and the digital?



Abstracts of 500 words (excluding tables, figures, and references) 
should outline the research topic as well as the theoretical and 
methodological approach. All abstracts will be subject to peer review. 
Please submit an anonymized abstract and a separate cover page including 
the names, affiliations, and contact details (email) of the author(s) in 
an editable format (e.g., .docx) by 7 May 2021 to 
manuel.menke[at]hum.ku.dk. Notifications for full paper invites will be 
sent by the end of May 2021. If invited, the manuscript of max. 8000 
words will be due on 31 October 2021. All manuscripts will undergo the 
usual double-blind peer review process of IJoC. Publication of the open 
access special section is planned for summer 2022.

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