The Environment, Science & Risk Communication (ESR) Working Group of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) invites proposals 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 is compounded by stark geopolitical, sociocultural and religious tensions in human communities. At this juncture, urgent reflection and research is 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 dire realities of climate and related ecological crises amplify the work of scholars in the Environment, Science and Risk Communication (ESR) Working Group who have a perennial concern with communication and inhabiting the planet. Our focus on how communication creates, performs, and represents ‘environments’, their science, and risks remains the theoretical baseline from which ESR scholarship emerges. In 2023, we explore the tensions and unevenness of inhabiting a digital and living planet where opportunities for transformation and the unshackling of temporal and spatial limitations are revealed, alongside persistent markers of their unevenness. What are the impacts of digitalisation and technological transformations on humans and the societies they inhabit? How are communities inhabiting the planet, be they (say) Western, digital, more than human, industrialised, urban, and not, First Nations, impacted by this era of digital and technological transformations? How is Environment, Science, and Risk Communication figuring these digital and technological transformations and their impacts on people and planet? Beyond this shared platform – and the key theme of IAMCR 2023 we also encourage work that identifies and explores inequality and environmental (in)justice in Environmental, Science, and Risk Communication.
While we welcome papers on the main theme and subthemes for IAMCR Lyon 2023, papers from the full range of Environment, Science, and Risk Communication topics and perspectives are of course also welcomed and considered.
Key conference themes for ESR WG in 2023 will include:
- Science, the environment, and climate change in popular culture
- Media, advocacy, and local/global environmental change
- Environmental and science activism and new media
- Feminist and postcolonial political ecology
- Smart technologies and everyday life
- Science, media, and society
- Public/political engagement in science and environment communication
- Social and political uses/constructions of science, nature, and the environment
- Science/environmental journalism
- Visual environmental communication
- Science and health-related media panics
- Scientific controversies/environmental crises, spin, and news management
- Media-communication roles in environmental crises and disasters
- Media and public understanding of science/environment issues
- Indigenous and First Nations environmental communication research
- More-than-human/interspecies communication
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 Environment, Science & Risk Communication Working Group should be 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.
Abstracts will generally be evaluated on the basis of: 1) theoretical contribution, 2) methods, 3) quality of writing, 4) literature review, 5) relevance of the submission to the work of the working group, and 6) originality and/or significance. Each proposal must include a clear title, name(s), affiliation, institutional address, and email address of the author(s). Bibliographies and author profiles are not required.
It is expected that authors will submit only one (1) abstract. However, 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 Environment, Science & Risk Communication Working Group. 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.
See important dates and deadlines to keep in mind
Languages
The Environment, Science & Risk Communication Working Group accepts abstracts in English, French, and Spanish.
For further information about the Environment, Science & Risk Communication WG, its themes, submissions, and panels please contact:
Kerrie Foxwell-Norton K.Foxwell [at] griffith.edu.au
Maitreyee Mishra maitreyee.mishra [at] manipal.edu
Joana Diaz-Pont Joana.Diaz [at] uab.cat
Pieter Maeseele pieter.maeseele [at] uantwerpen.be
