POLITICAL ECONOMY SECTION - CALL FOR PROPOSALS 2022

We hope this call for papers finds you all well and resilient in the face of recent challenges! The Political Economy Section of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) invites the submission of proposals for papers and panels for IAMCR 2022, which will be held online from 11 to 15 July 2022. The conference will also have a national hub at Tsinghua University in Beijing. The deadline for submission is 9 February 2022, at 23.59 UTC.

See the CfPs of all sections and working groups >

Conference Themes

IAMCR conferences have a main conference theme (with several sub-themes) that is explored from multiple perspectives throughout the conference in plenaries, in the programmes of our sections and working groups, and in the Flow34 virtual cinema and podcasts stream. They also have many themes defined by our 33 thematic sections and working groups. Proposals submitted to sections and working groups may be centered on an aspect of the main conference theme as it relates to the central concerns of the section or working group, or they may address the additional themes identified by the section or working group in their individual calls for proposals.

The main theme for IAMCR 2022, “Communication Research in the Era of Neo-Globalisation: Reorientations, Challenges and Changing Contexts,” is concerned with possibilities for rethinking communication research agendas in the post-pandemic world, which has seen dramatic shifts in the way we interact and understand our physical, social, cultural, political and material environments.

Eight sub-themes of this central theme have been identified: Reorienting Media and Communication Research in the Era of Neo-Globalisation; Artificial Intelligence in Global Communication Contexts; Cultural Identities and Dis-Identities in the Era of Neo-Globalisation; Communication for Sustainability: Climate Change, Environment, and Health; Media Ethics and Principles in the Digital Age; Media, Communication, and the Construction of Global Public Health; Data/Digital Science and Intercultural Communication; Digital Platforms and Public Service: Science, Technology and Sustainability. See the complete theme description and rationale here.

The IAMCR Political Economy Section hopes you will agree the conference themes are highly topical under current political/economic (and clinical) conditions! We therefore invite papers and panel proposals which investigate the central conference theme from a political-economic perspective. We are interested in submissions that critically interrogate the power relations that inform and deform processes of neo-globalisation as well as the ongoing struggles against the inequities involved in such processes. Furthermore, in engaging with the conference theme on the role of communication research, we also welcome papers that critically examine the role of the political economy of communication tradition within the broader field of communication scholarship or those that suggest new ways forward for this tradition of scholarship.

We therefore encourage participants to critically examine the political-economic logics, structures, and social imaginaries that shape processes of globalisation or neo-globalisation. In what ways do governments, corporations, institutions (or other structures and social formations) inhibit or facilitate peoples’ struggle for human dignity? In what ways, and on what terms, are people struggling for justice and sustainability? What are the emergent alternatives in the struggle over the processes of neo-globalisation? And what role do media or digital platforms provide opportunities to extend or resist these forces?

In addition to and /or in articulation with the conference sub-themes, the Political Economy Section also welcomes submissions on:

Political economy of digital broadcasting, telecommunications, social media and mobile communications
Political economy of audiences
Political economy of journalism
Political economy of gender and feminism in media/communication
Political economy of Big Data, information, and surveillance
Political economy of the media and climate change/anthropocene
Political economy of race, racial inequality, and racial capitalism
Moral economies, gift economies, public goods, and free culture/free economics,
Media, capital, and financialization of corporate media
Civil society, participatory democracy, media activism
Communication/mediation of markets and finance
Media/communication politics, policy, and regulation
Media, citizenship, cultural right and democracy
De-commodification, de-marketization, or de-convergence in communications
Cultural industries, cultural economy, and cultural diversity
Cultural and creative labor in the context of digitization and global capitalism,
Continuities and crises (financial, ecological, moral, others)
Communication experiences of the social media activism around the world
Global capital and media power spatialities/temporalities
Free trade agreements, copyright and communication, and cultural policies
Communication, mediation, and empire formation
Communication, modernities, and neo-globalization
Geopolitics and cultural politics of global communication
Digital universalism and Southern theory

Guidelines for abstracts

Abstracts are requested for the Online Conference Papers component. Abstracts submitted to the Political Economy Section should have between 300 and 500 words and must be submitted online at https://iamcr2022.exordo.com. Abstracts submitted by email will not be accepted.

The deadline to submit abstracts is 9 February 2022 at 23h59 UTC.

See important dates and deadlines to keep in mind

It is expected that authors will submit only one (1) abstract. However, under no circumstances should there be more than two (2) abstracts bearing the name of the same author, either individually or as first author. No more than one 1 abstract can be submitted by an author to the Political Economy Section. Please note also that the same abstract or another version with minor variations in title or content must not be submitted to more than one section or working group. Any such submissions will be deemed to be in breach of the conference guidelines and will be rejected.

Proposals are accepted for both single Papers and for Panels with several papers (in which you propose multiple papers that address a single theme). Please note that there are special procedures for submitting panel proposals. You can find the detailed procedures when submitting your abstract online in the abstract submission system.

Submitted abstracts will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

General coherence and relevance to the political economy section
Evidence of theoretical/ methodological rigor
Empirical or conceptual originality which extends/provokes debate about the field of political economy
Gives voice to subaltern/under-represented groups/countries, or facilitates resistance/praxis

Languages

The Political Economy Section accepts abstracts in will review abstracts in English, French and Spanish but generally encourages the membership and participants to submit and present their papers in English.

For further information about the conference contact beijing2022 [at] iamcr.org

For further information about the Political Economy Section, its themes, submissions, and panels please contact:

Rodrigo Gomez
rgomez [at] correo.cua.uam.mx

Peter Thompson
peter.thompson [at] vuw.ac.nz

Ben Birkinbine
bbirkinbine [at] unr.edu

Yu Hong
hong1 [at] zju.edu.cn

We look forward to receiving your abstracts!

Best wishes on behalf of the IAMCR Political Economy Section.