[Commlist] CFP: Convergence Journal Special Issue - Utopian Media Studies

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CFP: Convergence Journal Special Issue
Utopian Media Studies: Research for collective forms of becoming otherwise
Website: <https://textaural.com/utopianmediastudies/>
PDF version 
<https://textaural.com/utopianmediastudies/CFP_UtopianMediaStudies_extended.pdf>

Guest editors:
Steve Jankowski (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Jakko Kemper (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands)

Deadline for Abstract Submissions: March 1, 2025
Deadline for Full Papers: 15 August, 2025
Expected date of publication: March, 2025

There is growing sentiment within new media studies that the work of 
researchers must not only diagnose current issues around media, but also 
provide strategies for hope. As a recent issue of the journal Media 
Theory indicated, critique is not a silver bullet for the concerns of 
media, as it comes “with its own intellectual and political limitations” 
(Phelan et al 2024: 3). Nonetheless, critique remains a fundamental and 
necessary activity to articulate the matters of concern that are the 
roiling subtext of contemporary life: from surveillance capitalism to 
data colonisation, from labor exploitation to ecological disaster. Yet 
how do media studies researchers move with and beyond critique? To what 
degree is it possible for research to provide meaningful and hopeful 
perspectives that, at a minimum, enable just forms of coping with the 
contemporary plurality of crises and sow the seeds of thought and 
actions that lead to human and non-human flourishing? One answer can be 
found within the sub-branch of media archaeology that studies “imaginary 
media.” Over ten years ago, Eric Kluitenberg argued that while critique 
is necessary, media archaeologists must also learn “how to retain a 
certain utopian potential for the media” (2011: 55). This insight runs 
in line with Ernst Bloch’s belief that “philosophy will have conscience 
of tomorrow, commitment to the future, knowledge of hope, or it will 
have no more knowledge” (Greenaway 2024: 6). Luckily, it is not 
necessary to devise a completely new research program for media studies 
to have consciousness of tomorrow. This call for papers is dedicated to 
exploring the ways media studies scholars are doing utopian work when 
they critique, reconstitute and reimagine their research objects – and 
therefore serves to unite the disparate activities that are happening 
within the field today.

One common approach has been to first deconstruct popular metaphors 
about new media and then reverse-engineer them. For instance, in the 
final chapter of Transcoding the Digital (2014), Marianne van den Boomen 
moves beyond a mere critique of prominent metaphors to discuss what it 
means to “hack” these metaphors in order to “organize and regulate 
digital space in different ways, thereby implicating different political 
orders” (2014: 192). Relatedly, we have seen a flurry of lexicons which 
stand as sets of ideas that encourage readers to approach media with 
fresh eyes. Examples of work in this vein are the Internet Policy 
Review’s “Glossary of decentralised technosocial systems” (Ferrari, 
2021), Picard et al.’s Wastiary (2023), Thylstrup et al.’s Uncertain 
Archives (2021), Braidotti and Hlavajova’s _Posthuman Glossary_ (2018) 
and its followup More Posthuman Glossary (Braidotti et al. 2022). These 
works find good company with the recently released _Digital Media 
Metaphors_ (2024), in which Farkas and Maloney state that scholars often 
“uncritically adopt or produce metaphorical buzzwords with damaging 
consequences” (7). In contrast, _Digital Media Metaphors,_ like the 
other glossaries discussed here, re-emphasises “the need for ongoing 
collective and critical engagement with the metaphoric construction of 
our digitally mediated lives” (9). These efforts speak to the need to 
define, reclaim and mobilise the shifting terms that have been enlisted 
to imagine ourselves otherwise.

There are still other efforts where critique is woven into creation. 
Here, fables, short stories, scenarios, and road maps work to either 
take current trajectories and push them to their extremes or create 
intellectual pathways that present alternate possible futures. Examples 
in this genre of scholarship have been Donna Haraway’s “The Camille 
Stories” in _Staying with the Trouble_ (2016), Mark Graham et al.’s _How 
to Run a City Like Amazon and other Fables_ (2019), Peter Frase’s _Four 
Futures_ (2016), James Muldoon’s _Platform Socialism_ (2022), and 
concluding chapters of works like Rosi Braidotti’s _The Posthuman_ 
(2013) and James Bridle’s _Ways of Being_ (2022) that offer critical 
speculations. Additionally, there has been an influx of journals 
dedicated to combining critique with creation, such as _The Journal of 
Media Art Study and Theory_ which began in 2020 as well as the final 
issue of _The Journal of Peer Production_ (Antoniadis and O’Neil 2022). 
In this context, we can also think of design projects like _Feral Atlas_ 
(Tsing et al. 2021) and the card game _The Oracle of Transfeminist 
Technologies_ (Varon 2023) that engage in playful and pedagogical 
practices of future-making.

But producing utopian works within media studies is not limited to 
creative writing, making media art, or discussing grounded speculations 
about the future of media. It has also been observable in the designing 
of activist publics. Examples of this are found in the development of 
forums built to engage citizens with the ideas of data activism 
(Kazansky and Milan 2021), or manifestos concerning feminist data 
practice (Cifor et al. 2019), and public service media (Unterberger and 
Fuchs 2021). Similarly, there is the Amsterdam-based Critical 
Infrastructure Lab – with its pronounced focus on the co-development of 
research that moves from a “reactionary” approach to more “proactive” 
approaches that facilitate the emergence of new technological 
imaginaries (Ten Oever et al. 2024). In each of these cases, the purpose 
is to create localised social conditions in which citizens and academics 
can work together to bring about different visions of our media.

Each of these types of research activities – dedicated to creating 
lexicons for new thought, producing literature and art, as well as 
designing publics – are as much indebted to critique as they are to 
creative efforts that establish a groundswell of hopeful activity. In 
this regard, these activities all speak to Steven Jackson’s suggestion 
that “it may be the patient nurturing and mutual transmission of hope, 
rather than the always disappointed search for revolutionary 
transformation or a historical agent, that forms the central task and 
challenge of critical scholarship today” (Jackson, 2024: 428). However, 
it is perhaps because of their heterogeneity that it has been difficult 
to see them as part of a cohesive and comprehensive way of doing media 
studies – a situation that was similarly identified in sociology’s 
latent method of utopia (Levitas 2013). As such, this special issue aims 
to gather together critiques and reconstitutions of media studies 
research that are utopian in their goals and practice.

## Special issue topics
Submissions may include (but are not limited to) explorations of the 
following topics:
–     Media theorists, collectives, and projects that have contributed 
to media studies’ utopian tradition.
–     The utopian disciplinary visions of the political economy of 
communication, feminist media studies, new materialism, cybernetics, the 
environmental humanities, etc.
–     Media studies collectives/conferences/working groups dedicated to 
critiquing and reconstituting digitally mediated societies.
–     The genres of utopian media studies research such as the 
manifesto, participatory research with civil society, new media art and 
design, the speculative or fabulatory final chapter of monographs, 
policy recommendations reports.
–     The role of hope, optimism and utopian thinking in the study of 
technology.
–     The ways a utopian media studies can avoid the traditional perils, 
risks and exclusionary mechanisms associated with utopian thinking.
–     Reflections on how utopian and hopeful thinking can inform, shape 
and re-orient media studies methodologies.
–     Distinctions between the planetary and the local when it comes to 
media utopias.
–     The question of how utopian traditions can be more structurally 
integrated into media studies programs and curricula.

## Important dates
1. Abstract submission date: 1 March 2025
2. Acceptance/rejection feedback: 30 April 2025
3. Authors submit full papers: 15 August 2025
4. Peer reviews completed: 15 October 2025
5. Revised papers submitted: 15 December 2025
6. Final acceptance: 15 February 2026


## Submission Guidelines
Please submit an extended abstract of 500 words (including references) 
that includes the research question, argument, outlines the theoretical 
framework, and clearly explains the contribution to the special issue 
theme. The submission will also include the names, titles, and contact 
information for 2-3 suggested reviewers. We especially welcome 
submissions from researchers from the Global South.

Please email abstracts to (utopianmediastudies /at/ gmail.com) by 1 March 2025. 
Accepted abstracts must be original, unpublished works. These will 
undergo a blind peer-review process following the usual procedures for 
Convergence. Please take care to follow the submission guidelines of the 
journal. No payment from the authors will be required. If you have 
further questions, please contact the guest editors, Steve Jankowski 
((s.jankowski /at/ uva.nl)) and Jakko Kemper ((j.kemper /at/ uva.nl)). We look forward 
to receiving your contributions.


## Editors
Steve Jankowski is an Assistant Professor in New Media Histories at the 
department of Media Studies Department (University of Amsterdam) and the 
principal investigator of the Wikimedia Foundation-funded project, Slow 
Editing Towards Equity. He has published articles about Wikipedia in 
journals such as _Internet Histories_ and the _Journal of Peer 
Production_ and has published in the _De Guyter’s Handbook of Automated 
Futures_ (2024). He is interested in the intersections between digital 
culture, interface design, and the imaginaries of democracy and knowledge.

Jakko Kemper is Assistant Professor in Digital Aesthetics and Platform 
Vernaculars at the department of Media Studies (University of 
Amsterdam). He is the author of the book _Frictionlessness_ (Bloomsbury, 
2024), co-editor of the volume Imperfections (Bloomsbury, 2021), and has 
published work in, among other journals, _Theory, Culture & Society,_ 
_Media Theory,_ and _Information, Communication & Society._ Currently, 
his research focuses on the environmental implications of generative AI 
and on the representation of nature within digital cultures.

## References
Antoniadis P and O’Neil M (2022) Editorial notes: Researching 
transition, transitioning research. *Journal of Peer Production*, 15, 
http://peerproduction.net/editsuite/issues/issue-15-transition/editorial-notes-goodbye-to-the-jopp/ 
(accessed 11 November 2024).

Boomen M van den (2014) *Transcoding the digital: How metaphors matter 
in new media.* Institute of Network Cultures.

Braidotti R (2013) *The Posthuman.* Polity Press.

Braidotti R and Hlavajova M (2018) *Posthuman Glossary.* Bloomsbury 
Academic.

Braidotti R, Jones E and Klumbyte G (2022) *More Posthuman Glossary.* 
Bloomsbury Academic.

Bridle J (2023) *Ways of Being.* Picador.

Cifor M, Garcia P, Cowan, TL, Rault J, Sutherland T, Chan A, Rode J, 
Hoffmann AL, Salehi N, and Nakamura L (2019) *Feminist Data 
Manifest-No.* https://www.manifestno.com/ (accessed 11 November 2024).

Farkas J and Maloney M (2024) *Digital Media Metaphors: A Critical 
Introduction.* Routledge.

Ferrari V (2021) Introducing the glossary of decentralised technosocial 
systems. *Internet Policy Review,* 10(2).

Frase P (2016) *Four futures: Visions of the World After Capitalism.* Verso.

Fuchs C and Unterberger K (2021) *The Public Service Media and Public 
Service Internet Manifesto.* University of Westminster Press.

Greenaway J (2024) *A Primer on Utopian Philosophy*. Zero Books.

Haraway D (2016) *Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the 
Chthulucene.* Duke University Press.

Jackson S (2023) “Ordinary hope.” In: Papadopoulos D, Puig de la 
Bellacasa M and Tacchetti M (eds) *Ecological Reparation.* Bristol 
University Press.

Kazansky B and Milan S (2021) “Bodies not templates”’: Contesting 
dominant algorithmic imaginaries. *New Media & Society,* 23(2): 363–381.

Kluitenberg E (2011) On the Archaeology of Imaginary Media. In: Huhtamo 
E and Parikka J (eds) *Media archaeology: Approaches, applications, and 
implications.* University of California Press, pp. 48–69.

Levitas R (2013) *Utopia as Method: The Imaginary Reconstitution of 
Society.* Palgrave macmillan.

Graham M, Kitchin R, Mattern S and Shaw J (2019) *How to Run a City Like 
Amazon and other Fables.* Meatspace Press.

Muldoon J (2022) *Platform Socialism.* Pluto Press.

Muliaee M and Mehrvarz M (2020) Mapping media studies: An introduction. 
*MAST,* 1(1): 2–7.

Picard M, Brenchat-Aguilar A, Carroll T, Gilbert J and Miller N (2023) 
*Wastiary: A Bestiary of Waste.* UCL Press.

Ten Oever N, Maxigas, Jansen F, Gorchakova N, Vorndran S, Kuznetsov D 
and Zhang E (2024) *Critical Infrastructure Lab.* 
https://www.criticalinfralab.net (accessed 11 November 2024).

Tsing AL, Deger J, Saxena AK and Zhou F (2021) *Feral Atlas.* 
https://feralatlas.org (accessed 11 November 2024).

Varon J (2023) On envisioning alternative transfeminist futures. In: 
Place A (ed) *Feminist Designer: On the Personal and the Political in 
Design.* MIT Press.


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