Society for the Social Study of Mobile Communications


The Society for the Social Study of Mobile Communication (SSSMC) is intended to facilitate the international advancement of cross-disciplinary mobile communication studies. It is intended to serve as a resource and to support a network of scholarly research as to the social consequences of mobile communication.




Friday, August 19, 2016

CFP: Geomedia 2017: “Spaces of the In-Between"


CFP: Geomedia 2017: “Spaces of the In-Between”

Karlstad, Sweden
9-12 May 2017
http://geomedia.se/conference/2017/call-for-papers/

Welcome to the 2'nd international Geomedia conference! The term /geomedia/ captures the fundamental role of media in organizing and giving meaning to processes and activities in space. It also refers to the geographical qualities of media, for example flows of digital signals between particular places and the infrastructure carrying those flows. The rapid expansion of mobile media, location-based services, geographical information systems and increasingly complex patterns of surveillance/interveillance has amplified the need for critical studies and theorizations of geomedia. The 2'nd Geomedia Conference welcomes contributions (full sessions/panels as well as individual papers) that analyze and problematize the relations between the any and all communication media and various forms of spatial creativity, performance and production across material, cultural, social and political dimensions. Geomedia 2017 provides a genuinely interdisciplinary arena for research carried out at the crossroads of geography, media and film studies. It also builds bridges to such fields as urban studies, rural studies, regional planning, cultural studies and tourism studies.

Keynote speakers:

Christian Licoppe – Télécom ParisTech, France
Scott McQuire – University of Melbourne, Australia
Gillian Rose – The Open University, UK *Plenary panel – “Geographies of News”:*
Julie Firmstone – University of Leeds, UK
Philip Napoli – Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA
Lars Nyre – University of Bergen, Norway
Nikki Usher – George Washington University, USA
Henrik Örnebring (chair) – Karlstad University, Sweden


Film screenings and directors:

/Reflections/ – Sara Broos, Sweden (2016) 
/I Am Dublin/ – David Aronowitsch, Ahmed Abdullahi, Anna Persson and Sharmarke Binyusuf,
Sweden (2015)


Art installation:

/Fragmentarium/ – Jacek Smolicki, Sweden


Abstract submissions:

Geomedia 2017 welcomes proposals for individual papers as well as thematic panels in English through the conference website: www.geomedia.se
Individual paper proposals:
The author submits an abstract of 200-250 words. Accepted papers are grouped by the organizers into sessions of 5 papers according to thematic area.

Thematic panel proposals:
The chair of the panel submits a proposal consisting of 4-5 individual paper abstracts (200-250 words) along with a general panel presentation of 200-250 words.


Suggested themes include, but are not limited to:
  • Art and event spaces
  • Cinematic geographies
  • Cosmopolitanism
  • Everyday communication geographies
  • Epistemologies and methodologies of geomedia
  • Geographies of media and culture industries
  • Geographies of news
  • Historical perspectives of geomedia
  • Lifestyle and tourism mobilities
  • Locative and spatial media
  • Material geographies of media
  • Media ecologies
  • Mediatization and space
  • Migration and media
  • Mobility and governance
  • Policy mobilities and power
  • Power geometries and mobility capital
  • Surveillance and spatial control
  • Urban and rural media spaces

Conference timeline

September 26th 2016: Submission system opens
December 9th  2016: Deadline for thematic panels and individual paper proposals
January 23rd 2017: Notes of acceptance and registration opens
February 28th 2017: Early Bird pricing ends
March 20th 2017: Last day of registration

Conference website:

Information about registration, conference program, venue, social events and practical arrangements will be posted continuously at the conference www.geomedia.se



Contact:

You can reach us at  info@geomedia.se


Organizers and venue:

Geomedia 2017 is hosted by the Geomedia Research Group at the Department of Geography, Media and Communication, Karlstad University, Sweden.

Conference Director: Linda Ryan Bengtsson 
Conference Coordinator: Lena Grip
Director of the Geomedia Research Group: André Jansson 

Conference theme
The special theme of Geomedia 2017 is “Spaces of the In-Between”. The theme will be addressed through invited keynote talks, a plenary panel, film screenings and artistic installations. Participants are also encouraged to submit proposals for paper sessions addressing the conference theme. “Spaces of the In-Between” sheds light on how media are, and have been, part of producing spaces and places that fall in-between or resist dominant categorizations. Such spaces include, firstly, more or less fluid media spaces that bridge or problematize the divisions of, for example, work and leisure, home and away, production and consumption. Secondly, spaces of the in-between are produced through various forms of mobility, related to for instance commuting or migration, that are shaped by and giving shape to particular media forms. Finally, the conference theme highlights mediations of concrete places that can be understood as “neither/nor”. Such places can be found on the margins of society or fall in-between dichotomized geo-social constructs like urban vs. rural, front-stage vs. back-stage, etc.


Ultimately, the conference theme opens up for critical discussions of what forms of power and domination are expressed through the mediated/mediatized production of various in-between spaces.