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 2023, to be held in Lyon, France, from 9 to 13 July (Lyon23) with an Online Conference Papers (OCP23) component from 26 June to 5 July.
The deadline for submission of proposals is 9 February 2023 at 23h59 UTC.
See the CfPs of all sections and working groups >
Conference themes
IAMCR conferences have a main conference theme that is explored from multiple perspectives throughout the conference in plenaries and other moments, including the programmes of the thematic sections and working groups. Additionally, each section and working group also defines some of its own themes, which are described in their individual calls for proposals. Proposals for contributions to the conference are submitted to the sections and working groups and may focus on an aspect of the main conference theme as it relates to the concerns of the section or working group, or address a theme identified by the section or working group.
Main theme – Inhabiting the planet: Challenges for media, communication and beyond
The main theme for IAMCR 2023, “Inhabiting the planet: Challenges for media, communication and beyond”, is concerned with possibilities for rethinking communication research agendas at a time when the irreversible effects of climate change are compounded by stark geopolitical, sociocultural, and religious tensions in human communities. At this juncture, urgent reflection and research are needed on how we can hope to flourish today and in the future, and also how media and communication tools and environments can be positive forces and spaces for change.
Five sub-themes of this central theme have been identified: Humanity and progress; democracy; media, information, and communication; cities and territories; and environmental accountability.
Consult a detailed description of the main theme and its sub-themes
The IAMCR Political Economy Section (POE) hopes you will agree the conference themes are highly topical under current political/economic (and ecological) conditions. We therefore invite papers and panel proposals that investigate the central conference theme from a political-economic perspective. We are interested in submissions that critically interrogate the power relations that underpin the structure and direction of current global transformations and evolutions, which are driven, amplified, and complicated by media and communication. Furthermore, in engaging with the conference theme on the sociopolitical debate on the digitalization of society and the technological transformation of nature, we also welcome papers that critically examine the role of the political economy of communication tradition within the broader field of these emerging and pressing issues or those that suggest new ways forward for this tradition of scholarship.
We therefore, encourage participants to critically examine the ways that governments, corporations, institutions (or other structures and social formation) impede or facilitate peoples’ mediated struggles for human dignity and a common future. In what political-economic logics, ideological structures, and social imaginaries are people reshaping or adapting to the environment? In what ways, and in what directions, are people struggling for equities and sustainability? What are the obscured communicative practices or emergent alternatives in a digitized world? And what opportunities do media, technology, or digital platforms provide 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 rights, and democracy
- De-commodification, de-growth, 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 social media activism around the world
- Global capital and media power spatialities/temporalities
- Free trade agreements, copyright and communication, and cultural policies
- Communication, modernities, and lifestyles
- Digital transition of smart city and sustainable cities
- Political economy of the urban ecosystem and its relationship to rural and surrounding territories
Contributing to the conference: Lyon23 and OCP23
There will be two ways of joining IAMCR2023:
- If you are not able to or don’t want to join the face-to-face conference in Lyon but do want to submit an online-only paper, submit your abstract to OCP23 only. If accepted, you’ll later submit your full paper to the online platform, which will be open for discussion from 26 June to 5 July.
- If you do want to join the face-to-face event, submit your abstract to Lyon23 and OCP23. If accepted you’ll submit your paper to the online platform and present it at the face-to-face conference.
Guidelines for abstracts
Abstracts submitted to the Political Economy Section should have between 300 and 500 words and must be submitted online here. Abstracts submitted by email will not be accepted.
The deadline to submit abstracts is 9 February 2022 at 23h59 UTC.
It is expected that authors will submit only one (1) abstract. Under no circumstances should an author submit more than two abstracts as a single author or as the lead author of a co-authored paper and no author will submit more than one abstract to the Political Economy Section. 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). Proposals for panels can only be submitted to Lyon23 and OCP23. Panel submissions must include an abstract for each paper submitted here and a description & supplemental information submitted via this form on the conference website
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
See important dates and deadlines to keep in mind
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 full papers in English.
For further information about the Political Economy Section, its themes, submissions, and panels please contact:
Ben Birkinbine
bbirkinbine [at] unr.edu
Gabriela Martínez
gmartine [at] uoregon.edu
Yu Hong
hong1 [at] zju.edu.cn
Mandy Tröger
mandytroeger.phd [at] gmail.com
