[Discussion] CFP: New Media and Activism (Hungary) (6/14/04; 10/14/05-10/15/05)

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

From: Bodo Balazs <bodo@axelero.hu>

Please feel free to forward this call!


CALL FOR PAPERS AND PRESENTATIONS
The Budapest University of Technology and Economics, the Central European
University, the Open Society Institute, and the Annenberg School for
Communication at the University of Pennsylvania invite submissions for a
conference on RE:activism: Re-drawing the boundaries of activism in a 
new media
environment which is to take place in Budapest, October 14-15, 2005

Deadline for submission of abstracts: June 14, 2005

SUBMISSION SITE
http://www.re-activism.net/

RE-DRAWING THE BOUNDARIES OF ACTIVISM
The emergence of the internet and other information technologies gave 
birth to a
plethora of new social and communicative activities. Cheap, 
decentralized and
horizontal communication channels have been exploited by a wide spectrum of
actors from antiglobalization activists and users of file-sharing 
networks to
creative commons licensees and locative guerilla artists. As new media
technologies have triggered various forms of activities, the New Left hopes
about emancipatory social agency have also been resuscitated. In spite 
of the
undeniable democratic potential inscribed in new information and 
communication
technologies, there seems to be little agreement as to what consequences new
media bring on existing structures of cultural, economic and political 
power.
Those analysts and activists envisioning a more democratic, equitable and
culturally diverse society have maintained high hopes concerning the 
progressive
potential of new media. Meanwhile, skeptical voices can also be heard: 
research
focus has been reoriented towards threats and uncertainties concerned 
with new
technologies. Many analysts have addressed various aspects of the
commercialization of new media, the possibilities of digital 
surveillance and
states' and corporations' constant efforts to limit, by means of 
regulation, the
liberatory potential of new technologies.

Addressing the above hopes and disappointments, the conference RE:activism
serves as a large scale, international social and academic event which 
brings
together academics, activists and artists to explore and discuss some of the
most important aspects of transforming cultural and political practices 
in the
context of new media. The organizers are particularly interested in the
following problems:

- How the boundaries separating center (accepted/valuable) and periphery
(illicit/worthless) are redrawn through the negotiations of new media 
actors, be
they individual music consumers, expert groups, creative commons licensees,
social movements, nation states or corporate representatives?

- Does the enabling potential of new technologies trigger, in reality, 
new forms
of social and communicative activities? What turns new media enabled 
activities
into "activism"? What does activism mean in the context of new media?

- Under what conditions do unusual uses of new media induce social 
change and
subvert old structures of the production and the distribution of loyalties,
identities, culture and knowledge?

Participants of the conference are invited to explore the promises and
limitations of new media along the above broad themes of "center/periphery",
"activism" and "change".


CONFIRMED PARTICIPANTS
The list of confirmed participants is regularly refreshed at our 
website. At the
moment (4/14/2005) the following academics and activists confirmed their
attendance:

Yochai Benkler (Yale Law School), Douglas Kellner (UCLA), Saskia Sassen 
(Univ.
of Chicago), Nicholas Jankowski (Univ. of Nijmegen), Michael X. Delli 
Carpini
(Annenberg School for Communication, Univ. of Pennsylvania), Henry 
Perritt (Kent
College of Law), Kembrew McLeod (Univ. of Iowa), Barbie Zelizer, 
(Annenberg),
Andy Bichlbaum (rtmark.org), Dr. Richard Barbrook (School of Media, Arts &
Design, University of Westminster), Giles Lane (Proboscis.org), Michael 
Keith
(Boston College), Alexander H. Trechsel, (European University Institute),
Jonathan Zittrain (Berkman Center for Internet & Society), Martin 
Cloonan (index
on censorship)


CALL FOR PAPERS TO BE PRESENTED IN THEMATIC CONFERENCE PANELS
The RE:activism conference offers eight panels, each of them
representing an important approach from which the transformative
potential of new media can be meaningfully addressed. We invite academic
participants to present papers and take part in round table discussions
with activists in one of the following panels:

- Political economy of peer production networks
- State intervention and regulatory issues in the Information Age
- Digital culture jamming
- Digitalized memory: new forms of archiving and journalism
- Civic uses of new media technologies
- New media and global civil society
- New media and democratic elections
- New media activism and the urban fabric

For more information about the eight panels, please, visit the conference
website: http://www.re-activism.net/

Organizers of the conference invite submissions of graduate students, 
scholars,
researchers mainly from the fields of anthropology, media studies, law 
sciences,
sociology, art theory and political science.


CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS OF ACTIVIST OR ARTISTIC PROJECTS
We invite members of activist groups of all kinds (from the smallest DIY
community to transnational movements) and artists working with new media
technologies to present their projects connected to any of the above 
conference
panels and to take part in round table discussions with academics.


TYPES OF SUBMISSION
- Academic paper (abstract max. 750 words)
Single or multi-author submissions of a single paper
Participants are expected to submit full papers to the conference 
organizers by
September 30, 2005.

- Aesthetic presentation (abstract max of 750 words, audiovisual material)
Presentation of old or new media based artistic projects or performances 
related
to activism.

- Presentation of activist projects (abstract max of 750 words)
Presentation of activist projects exploring activist uses of the Internet.


WHY BUDAPEST?
Budapest is the dynamically developing capital of Hungary, a 
not-too-long-ago
communist state and a very recent member of the European Union. 
Budapest, with
its recent history marked by the process of system change, with its 
population
aiming to leave behind the city's almost-a-century-long periphericity 
and with
its vibrant civic and cultural life feeding various forms social and 
cultural
activism is the par excellence site embodying the main theoretical 
challenges
faced by activists and addressed by the RE:activism conference. Budapest 
offers
a very hospitable environment for the community of conference participants.
Among the city's most appealing aspects for new media researchers we could
mention the surprisingly high number of researchers interested in new media
technologies, an uniquely viable Budapest based on-line community (see 
wiw.hu),
or the Hungarian capital's coffee house and thermal bath culture, 
maintaining
sites for public discussion.

A longer presentation of the political and media system in Hungary is 
available
on the conference site.


FUNDING
The organizing institutions contribute to the travel and housing expenses of
invited participants.


FOR MORE INFORMATION
Please contact Balazs Bodo, at submissions@re-activism.net

Balazs Bodo
assistant lecturer
Budapest University of Technology,
Department of Sociology and Communications
Center for Media Research and Education

http://www.bme.hu/
http://mokk.bme.hu/



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