[Commlist] CFP Pramana International Conference: Technology, Ecology and Extinction: Narratives of Survival and Loss

CFP:  Pramana International Conference, Fourth Edition
*
Theme:* *Technology, Ecology and Extinction: Narratives of Survival and Loss
Date: 5-6 March 2027, Pune, Maharashtra, India
*
*Organisers: *Symbiosis Centre for Media and Communication (SCMC), 
Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, India
*
Abstract:*
The Global Environment Outlook (GEO-7) predicts that planet-warming 
greenhouse gas emissions could rise to 75 billion tonnes by 2050, 
affecting nearly 9 billion people and contributing to 2–4 billion human 
deaths (UN Environment Programme). If global temperatures increase by 
2°C over the next 50 years, nearly 18% of terrestrial species may face 
extinction. Simultaneously, the rapid expansion of artificial 
intelligence and digital infrastructures including AI data centres, have 
intensified demands on our finite ecological resources, consuming 
enormous quantities of energy and water. These crises unfold alongside 
huge investments in speculative fiction-oriented technological futures 
like the extraordinary public fascination and media frenzy surrounding 
IPD projects such as SpaceX. The glorification of an individual’s 
trillion-dollar net worth reflects a contemporary techno-utopian 
imagination which should prompt us to ask systemic questions about 
capitalistic futures and the inequal distribution of wealth. 
Techno-optimistic visions of AI and planetary colonisation coexist with 
ecological collapse, inequality and resource scarcity. At the same time 
the mediascape surrounding us do not merely report these crises; it 
actively constructs, sets agenda, and frames narratives through which 
technological progress and planetary futures are imagined and legitimised.

Thinking and writing about extinction are a strange coming together of 
our current geological reality and imagination that borders on 
speculation. It is an act that opens the ecological and the ontological, 
simultaneously interrogating the disappearance of humans from the 
planetary scene. The imagination of self-annihilation is a precarious 
zone for a writer, discharging a kind of nervousness for the reader. The 
crisis facing us now is how to disentangle extinction as a kind of 
placelessness, as an empty space beyond time. How do we, as a species on 
the edge of the Sixth Mass Extinction, make sense of Rosi Braidotti’s 
statement, “‘We’ are in this together, but We are not one and the same” 
(Braidotti 2020)? Is the meaning of extinction limited to the effects of 
extensive destruction of natural resources and widespread ecological 
imbalance (permeating lives of animals and vulnerable tribes, habitat 
and biodiversity loss) or does it extend to the uncertain conditions of 
existence of all lives under neoliberal capitalism, to a new social 
class, the ‘precariat’ (Butler 2015)?

Such contemporary crises as extractive capitalism and species extinction 
demand new forms of witnessing, storytelling and advocacy. Media has 
evolved beyond journalism into a complex assemblage of algorithmic 
platforms, AI, influencers, satellite imagery, surveillance systems and 
synthetic media that shape how crises are visualised, circulated and 
remembered. Sustainability itself is increasingly mediated through 
advertising, branding, corporate storytelling and influencer cultures, 
raising critical questions about environmental communication and 
greenwashing (Westerveld 1986). As platform logics privilege engagement, 
optimisation and entertainment over public deliberation, media 
increasingly determines not only what we know about ecological crisis 
but also how we imagine possible futures. Advertising, public relations, 
platform infrastructures, creator cultures and data-driven audience 
systems are continuously shaping what sustainability means, whose 
futures become desirable and whose vulnerabilities remain invisible.

All things and beings discharge stories. Humans narrate their histories, 
animals pass it on through genetic codes, and landscapes through rocks, 
fossils and ecological traces (Colebrook 2014). Storytelling becomes a 
way of making sense of planetary entanglements and shared vulnerability, 
and with this we tell stories to preserve our past, monitor our present 
and forge a sustainable future. Narratives of ending, existence and 
endurance are ways of creating shelters, communities and tribes that are 
built on shared vulnerabilities and sufferings. As digital platforms 
reshape labour, creativity and visibility through the gig, creator and 
orange economies, communication itself becomes central to understanding 
whose futures are imagined, whose suffering is visible, and how 
technological progress leaves ecological scars. We are especially 
interested in narratives (lived / speculative / fictive) of suffering, 
trauma, loss and survival. In this event, we would like to create an 
archive of human and nonhuman stories that inevitably carry the burden 
and scars of technological progress.

Topics may include, but are not limited to the following:
*1. Technology, AI and Ecological Futures*
Environmental Costs of Digital Technologies
AI, Automation and Sustainable Futures
Data Centres, Energy Consumption and Climate Crisis
Digital Waste, E-Waste and Circular Economies
Critical Approaches to AI
AI Ethics, Environmental Governance and Responsible Innovation
Smart Cities, Urban Data and Algorithmic Governance
Data-driven Media and Advertising Infrastructures: Energy, Carbon and 
Accountability

*2. Media Representation and Ecological Storytelling*
Climate Journalism and Environmental Reporting
Media Representations of Extinction and Survival
Documentary, Film, and Ecological Narratives
Photography and Narratives of Sustainability
Sustainability Branding and Consumer Culture
Representing Climate Responsibility in Media and Advertising
Advertising Creativity, Copy and Ecological Persuasion
Brand Storytelling and Visual Cultures of Sustainability

*3. Media, Advocacy and Ecology*
Digital Activism and Climate Advocacy
Environmental Misinformation and Digital Propaganda
Communication Strategies for Climate Action
Digital labour, Gig Economy and Environmental Impact
Sustainable Marketing Practices
Greenwashing and Corporate Environmental Narratives
Corporate Communication, Public Relations and Environmental Accountability
Influencer Marketing and the Commercialization of Climate Advocacy
Sustainable Events and Experiential Communication

*4. Humanities, Society and Planetary Futures*
Environmental Humanities and Ecocriticism
Sociology of Climate Change and Risk
Political Ecology and Environmental Justice
Indigenous Knowledge and Ecological Wisdom
History, Memory and Environmental Change
Law, Rights and Ecological Citizenship
Ecofeminist Critiques of Media, Advertising and Consumer Culture
Urban Ecology, Planning and Environmental Justice

*5. Posthumanism, Multispecies Worlds and More-than-Human Futures*
Human–Nonhuman Relationships
Multispecies Narratives and Storytelling
Cyborgs, Transhumanism and Future Bodies
Quantum Futures and Multiverses
Brain Uploading and Afterlives
Hybrid Creatures and Interspecies Bonding
Speculative Futures and Utopia / Dystopia

*6. Crisis, Trauma, Resistance and Survival*
Ecological Grief, Trauma and Mourning
Conflict, War, and Environmental Destruction
Migration, Displacement and Climate Refugees
Disaster, Recovery and Community Resilience
Social Movements and Environmental Resistance
Archives of Loss and Survival
Crisis and Risk Communication in Environmental Emergencies
Organizational Response, Public Trust and Environmental Disasters

*7. Media, Markets, Brands and Sustainable Futures*
Sustainable Branding, Brand Purpose and Consumer Trust
Green Consumer Behaviour and Sustainable Consumption
Advertising Creativity, Copy and Environmental Persuasion
Corporate Communication, ESG Narratives, Public Relations and Reputation
Influencer, Creator and Platform Economies
Media Analytics, Attention Metrics and Audience Behaviour
AI-enabled Marketing, Data Ethics and Consumer Autonomy
City Branding and Communication for Sustainable Urban Futures
Sustainable Events, Sponsorship and Experience Design

*Submission guidelines:*
Please submit abstracts (no longer than 300 words) of your proposed 
20-minute presentations, together with a short biographical note, by 
30th October 2026

*Submit your abstracts to:* (pramana.conference /at/ scmc.edu.in) 
<mailto:(pramana.conference /at/ scmc.edu.in)>


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