[artinfo] Call ESA 2015 Conference: "Critical Media Sociology Today"

[Christian Fuchs]

Call: RN18 Panel "Critical Media Sociology Today"
12th Conference of the European Sociological Association
August 25-28, 2015. Prague

Abstract Submission Deadline: Feb 1
Submission: http://esa12thconference.eu/abstract-submission

Call text: http://fuchs.uti.at/1338/

Critical Media Sociology Today

We live in times of ongoing crisis, the extension 
and intensification of inequalities concerning 
class, gender, and race, a return of the 
importance of the economy and political economy, 
a lack of imaginations of alternatives to 
neo-liberalism and capitalism, an intensification 
of right-wing extremism and fascism all over 
Europe, a lack of visions and power of the 
political Left, an intensification and extension 
of extremely repressive forms of state power such 
as communications surveillance conducted by 
secret services, ideological scapegoating 
conducted by conservative and far-right parties, 
and law and order-politics. Left-wing movements 
and parties have in some countries emerged or 
been strengthened, but the crisis has overall 
brought a further political shift towards the 
right and an intensification of capitalism and 
inequality.

We today require politically a renewal of the 
Left. For critical media sociology this means 
that it needs to ask questions, theorise, and 
conduct critical analysis of media and 
communications in the context of capitalism, 
class, ideologies, racism, fascism, right-wing 
extremism, gender, state power, activism and 
social movements, challenges for public service, 
media reforms, crisis, globalisation, the rise of 
China, digitalisation, consumer and advertising 
culture, information/cultural/media work, digital 
labour, the new international division of 
cultural and digital labour, warfare and military 
conflicts, the new imperialism, financialisation, 
etc.

ESA RN 18 calls for contributions that shed new 
light on questions that Critical Media Sociology 
needs to ask today and on theoretical and 
analytical insights that help to shape Critical 
Media Sociology in the 21st Century.

RN18's panel at the ESA 2014 Prague Conference 
"Differences, Inequalities Sociological 
Imagination" and its contributions are organised 
in the form of specific session topics.

ESA RN18 calls for contributions to the following sessions:

RN18_1: Critical Media Sociology and Karl Marx Today:
What is the role and legacy of Karl Marx's works 
and Marxist theory for critical media sociology 
today?

RN18_2: Critical Media Sociology and Capitalism Today:
How does capitalism shape media and communications today?

RN18_3: Critical Media Sociology and Critical Theory Today:
What is a critical theory of 21st century 
society? What role do communication, media and 
culture play in such a theory?

RN18_4: Critical Media Sociology and Stuart Hall Today:
How do Stuart Hall's works, projects, and 
collaborations matter for critical media 
sociology today?

RN18_5: Critical Media Sociology and Cultural Materialism Today:
How does Raymond Williams' approach of cultural 
materialism matter today for understanding the 
sociology of media and communications?

RN18_6: Critical Media Sociology, Patriarchy and Gender Today:
What is the role of and relationship of identity 
politics and anti-capitalism for feminist media 
sociology today?

RN18_7: Critical Media Sociology and the Critique 
of the Political Economy of the Internet and 
Social Media:
How does capitalism shape the Internet and social media?

RN18_8: Critical Media Sociology and Ideology Critique Today:
What are the main forms of ideology today and how 
do they operate in the media? Which forms and 
approaches of ideology critique do we need to 
understand them?

RN18_9: Critical Media Sociology, Right-Wing Extremism and Fascism Today:
What is the relationship of far-right movements 
and parties, the media and communication?

RN18_10: Critical Media Sociology and Digital Labour Today:
What forms of digital labour and digital class 
struggles are there and how can they best be 
theorised, analysed, and understood?

RN18_11: Critical Media Sociology and the Left:
How could a 21st century Left best look like and 
what is the role of media and communications for 
such a Left? What is the historical, 
contemporary, and possible future relationship of 
critical media sociology to the Left? What is the 
role of media, communications, the Internet, and 
social media in left-wing movements? What 
problems do such movements face in relation to 
the media, communications, the Internet, and 
social media?

RN18_12: Critical Media Sociology and China:
How can critical media sociology understand the 
media in China and the role of China and Chinese 
media in global capitalism? What are differences 
and commonalities between European and Chinese 
media understood with the help of critical media 
sociology?

RN18_13: Critical Media Sociology, Democracy and the Public Sphere Today:
How can we best theorise and understand 
potentials and limits for the mediated public 
sphere in the 21st century?

RN18_14: Critical Media Sociology, the Commons, and the Alternatives Today:
What are the problems and post-capitalist 
potentials of alternative projects such as 
cultural and media co-operatives, left-wing and 
radical media projects, alternative social media, 
alternative online platforms, alternative media, 
community media projects, commons-based media, 
peer production projects, etc.?

RN18_15: Critical Media Sociology and State Power Today:
How does the relationship of media, communication 
and state power's various forms of regulation, 
control, repression, violence and surveillance 
look like?

RN18_16: Critical Media Sociology, the University and Academia Today:
What are the challenges and problems for teaching 
and conducting research about the media and 
communication from a critical perspective? What 
can be done to overcome existing limits and 
problems?

RN18_17: Critical Media Sociology and Cultural and Communication Labour:
What are characteristics of cultural and 
communication labour in capitalism today? Are 
there potentials that they can transcend 
precarity? What is the role of alternative 
economic models such as co-operatives 
(self-managed companies) in this respect?

RN18_18: Critical Media Sociology and Political Communication:
What is the role of political communication for a 
critical sociology of the media?

Notes
Please submit only to one session. Abstracts 
should not exceed 250 words. Each paper session 
will have the duration of 1.5 hours. Normally 
sessions will include 4 papers. Abstracts must be 
submitted online to the submission platform, see 
below. Abstracts sent by email cannot be 
accepted. Abstracts will be peer-reviewed and 
selected for presentation by the Research 
Network; the letter of notification will be sent 
by the conference software system in early April 
2015.
http://esa12thconference.eu/abstract-submission

Conference fee: http://esa12thconference.eu/fee

ESA/RN18 membership:
Paying members of ESA and RN18 have strongly reduced conference fees:
http://www.europeansociology.org/membership.html

Mailing list, Facebook:
You can join RN18Åås media sociology mailing list 
http://lists.jacobs-university.de/mailman/listinfo/esa-rn18 
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https://www.facebook.com/esarn18?ref=ts&fref=ts