[Discussion] Special Issue of Communication Theory: “Succeeding Failure:

[gpultar@cstgroup.org]

CFP: Special Issue of Communication Theory: “Succeeding Failure: openings
in communication and media studies”

Call for Papers

Special Issue of Communication Theory:
“Succeeding Failure: openings in communication and media studies”

Succeeding Failure: openings in communication and media studies is the title of
a special journal issue planned for Communication Theory. This issue will be
guest edited by Briankle G. Chang and Garnet C. Butchart of the Department of
Communication at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

“Failure” typically implies a kind of breakdown, defeat, or impasse.
However, “failure” may also be read as a productive concept, one
that indicates an opening rather than a closure, a point of departure rather
than a terminus. For example, whenever one thing is said but another is heard,
it is the failure of, or discord within, such an exchange that enables one to
question the possibility of communication to begin with. In this sense, failure
succeeds. This special issue invites critical essays that interrogate the ways
in which failure may open onto and succeed in generating innovative responses to
pressing questions of theory, politics, and ethics as they relate to
communication and media studies. Topics for critical reflection may include, but
are not limited to:

• Aesthetics and arts
• Globalization and media
• Social interaction
• Identity and ethnicity
• Consciousness and language
• Subjectivity
• Freedom, privacy, and citizenship
• Hermeneutics
• Being and presence
• Alienation, recognition, and community
• Event, symptom, and truth
• Representation and ideology

Regardless of topic, submitted essays must offer a critical interrogation of the
concept of failure as a productive entry point into the contemporary study of
communication and media. Manuscripts must conform to the guidelines of
Communication Theory and be received by May 15, 2006 to be considered for this
issue.

The manuscript should include a title page with complete contact information
(address, telephone, FAX, and email), as well as a brief biography (full name,
highest earned academic degree, institution granting that degree, current
academic title) for each author. Manuscripts must conform to the specifications
of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.),
and authors should verify that the reference list is complete and in appropriate
form.

Authors may submit inquires and manuscripts electronically to
Briankle G. Chang at bchang@comm.umass.edu
or to
Garnet C. Butchart at garnet@comm.umass.edu.

Briankle G. Chang
Department of Communication
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003

Garnet C. Butchart
Department of Communication
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003


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http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1050-3293