Calls for Papers
"Managing Popular Culture?: Emergence, Strategy and the Development of Popular Phenomena"
30 January – 1 February 2014
Karlshochschule International U, Karlsruhe
Keynote Lecture: Angela McRobbie, Goldsmiths, U of London
www.popkongress.de
Call for Papers:
The 6th Annual Convention of the "Popular Culture and Media" division within the German Association for Media Studies will explore the question “How does popular culture develop?” We invite presenters from different backgrounds and disciplines to a lively discussion on the intersections of economic, cultural and social aspects that form popular phenomena.
Academic scholarship so far has often drawn a strict borderline between strategic management approaches on the one hand, and subversive approaches, which draw on the creative and uncontrollable potential of popular culture on the other. While the first idea is associated with producers’ interests to control and operate a chaotic condition, the latter is predominantly linked to aesthetic and/or socio-analytical methods that all too often leave aside the economic context of popular phenomena.
The conference Managing Popular Culture? will question and challenge schematic descriptions which play on top-down vs. bottom-up explanations by deconstructing dichotomies such as management vs. emergence or design (planning) vs. rhizomatic development. We seek to highlight the impact of commercial agents, cultural policies, the media, and social interactions for the development of popular phenomena. We strive to present analyses how these mechanisms and automatisms create trends and hypes as well as more general practices and discourses within the sphere of popular culture.
The conference is open for all kinds of work that connect the terms of ‘pop’, ‘management’ and ‘economy’ (not only in financial reference), all taken as cultural practices. Possible topics include – but are by no means limited to – papers that investigate models of popular funding such as crowdfunding, phenomena of Creative Commons or the app-culture to name but a few. Equally, we include presentations that critically ask for ‘popular economies’ beyond the market or explore how economy itself may obtain ‘pop-status’ as we have seen with brands such as Apple, RedBull or even with top-managers from Rockefeller to Steve Jobs.
Proposals:
The 6th Annual Convention – “Popular Culture and Media” is an interdisciplinary conference (and thus) open for proposals from all fields of study that explore the structures, impacts and phenomena associated with popular culture. Theoretical, empirical and critical approaches are equally welcome. Applicants are not required to become a member of the Association.
We support an internationally orientated exchange and invite proposals both in English and German.
Please send an abstract of no more than 300 words and a short CV (max. 150 words) to
proposals@popkongress.de.
Deadline is 15 September 2013.
Conference Organizers:
Lioba Foit (Paderborn), Christian Stiegler (Karlsruhe), Martin Zierold (Karlsruhe)
team@popkongress.de, www.popkongress.de
U of Oregon in Portland, Oregon
24-26 April 2014
Documentaries continue to play important roles in defining, exposing, and transforming social realities. Today, we are witnessing an explosion of documentary making enabled by new digital production and distribution technologies, even as traditional news media may seem compromised and in decline.
We will gather at the U of Oregon’s Portland campus from 24-26 April 2014, to explore the past, present and future of documentary in all its forms. The conference will feature a unique coalescing of media scholars and students, media professionals, independent media producers, government and community officials, as well as interested community groups and the public. The event will feature keynote speakers, roundtables, paper presentations, and screenings, in an attempt to answer questions about the changing nature of documentary.
We welcome proposals that address any and all forms of documentary – film, video, radio, audio, photography, print, digital media, online, etc. We especially welcome paper/presentation proposals on the following topics (as well as others):
Send 250-word proposals by 1 October 2013, to:
Janet Wasko (jwasko@uoregon.edu) or Gabriela Martinez (gmartine@uoregon.edu)
School of Journalism and Communication
University of Oregon
Eugene, Oregon 97405, USA