Youth, New Media and Social Change

New Media

YOUTH, NEW MEDIA AND SOCIAL CHANGE

CALL FOR PAPERS:

‘YOUTH, NEW MEDIA & SOCIAL CHANGE’

Media Annual Conference:

Organised by the School of Social Sciences, Park Campus, University of Northampton, UK

Date: Saturday 8th May 2010

Venue: LT-C101, University of Northampton, Park Campus, Boughton Green Road, Northampton NN2 7AL, UK

Why this conference?

This conference gathers academics, journalists, researchers, policy makers and civil society organisations to discuss youth use of new media and the implication this has on identity construction, public opinion, citizenship and social change. Although their development is a recent phenomenon, new media have not only opened up new opportunities for journalism but also empowered audiences and civil society organisations with unprecedented platforms for ‘free’ expression and social activism around the world. New technologies are said to have reinvigorated a sense of a ‘transnational public sphere’ and strengthened marginalized communities and provided a platform for subcultural groups and the voiceless. The possible consequences of such rapid developments on social and political change are not hard to imagine. The sweeping victory of US president elect Barak Obama (in the latest American presidential elections) characterised by the unprecedented outreach to marginalised communities including the youth through YouTube, Facebook, and other internet platforms is a case in point.

This conference aims to map out the above mentioned phenomena, focusing on the role of new media in the perceived social changes. It debates how audiences, users, civil society organisations, political/social groups and subcultures have understood and found in these technologies the right tools and strategies to power their work sustainably.

Conference themes:

This conference will cover (but not necessarily limited to) the following areas of enquiry:

- Blogging and bloggers as citizen journalists; are bloggers making a social difference?

- Satellite TV and the internet as cites of resistance/alternative media or sets of ‘censored national enclosures’

-E-campaigning and political/social groups

- How are  activists/the youth interacting with platforms like ‘YouTube’, ‘MySpace’, ‘Flicker’, ‘Faithtube’, ‘Facebook’ and ‘Blogging’ to pursue their objectives?

- Challenges of the Internet in war zones

- The new media and women empowerment amongst ethnic minorities.

- Youth subcultures and new media, what is going on?

- In the absence of real democracy in some parts of the Arab and Muslim world is new media creating a new form of social/political capital: e-democracy?

- What functions are the internet and satellite TV playing in mobilising public opinion?

- What expectations and perceptions are there regarding changes in cultural and political values?

Attendance: Participation in this conference will be open to academics, researchers, policy makers, government agencies, youth workers, students, parents and other members of the public.

Fees: £35 waged; £10 non-waged and students

Call for submissions: Abstracts of no more than 400 words, along with a short bio should be submitted by the 30th November 2009. Papers should reflect one or more of the conference themes mentioned above. Particularly welcome are papers based on empirical work and a clear research method (s). Deadline for full papers is 10th April 2010.

Selected conference papers will be published in an edited volume.

Contact: Please send all submissions and enquiries to:

Dr Noureddine Miladi (conference coordinator),

Senior Lecturer in Media & Sociology

School of Social Sciences

University of Northampton

Park Campus

NORTHAMPTON

NN2 7AL

UK

Tel: +44 (0) 1604892104

E-mail: noureddine.miladi@northampton.ac.uk + www.northampton.ac.uk

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Peter Townsend Memorial Conference

Peter Townsend

PETER TOWNSEND MEMORIAL CONFERENCE

 

Conway Hall

25 Red Lion Square

London, WC1 (nearest tube: Holborn)

Friday 20th November 2009

10.00am to 4.00pm

For free tickets please send an e-mail to: townsend-memorial@bristol.ac.uk

This free one day memorial conference for Peter Townsend will consist of four panels of speakers about Inequalities in Health, Older People, Poverty & Social Exclusion and Social Policy.  The aim of the conference is to be forward looking rather than only reminiscing about the past.  Speakers will be asked to spend at least half their time talking about what still needs to be done (both academically and politically) and how this can be achieved.  Each session will have time for discussion.

Speakers will include: Julio Boltvinik (El Colegio de México), Jonathan Bradshaw (University of York), Roger Bullock (Social Research Unit at Dartington), Danny Dorling (University of Sheffield), David Gordon (Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research), Kate Green (Child Poverty Action Group), Paddy Hillyard (Queen’s University, Belfast), Hilary Land (University of Bristol), Ruth Levitas (University of Bristol), Roy Parker (Centre for Social Policy), Allyson Pollock (University of Edinburgh), Asuncion St.Clair (University of Bergen), Randall Smith (University of Bristol), Nick Spencer (University of Warwick), Peter Taylor-Gooby (University of Kent), Alan Walker (University of Sheffield) Margaret Whitehead (University of Liverpool), and  Nicola Yeates (Open University)

This memorial conference is designed to complement the memorial celebration that will be held at St Martins in the Field, Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 4JJ, between 11.00am and 12.30pm on Thursday 19th November – all are invited.

The conference is being supported by Academy of Social Sciences, British Academy, Child Poverty Action Group, Comparative Research Programme on Poverty, Fabian Society, Social Policy Association, Social Research Unit at Dartington and the University of Bristol.

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Resisting the Capitalist Production of Space

RESISTING THE CAPITALIST PRODUCTION OF SPACE

http://boiteaoutils.blogspot.com/2009/11/resisting-capitalist-production-of.html
Resisting the Capitalist Production of Space is a ten days conference organized in Brooklyn by Oppositional Architecture proposing discussions between sociologists, architects, geographers, historians, economists about resisting the systematic embodiment of capitalism in urban spaces.

Here is the program:

Ten Days for Oppositional Architecture Towards Post-Capitalist Spaces

Location: Gair Building No 6, 81 Front Street , Brooklyn NY 11201 / York stop on the F Train

Wednesday, November 11 // 6 pm
Opening Reception

Thursday, November 12 // 7 pm
The Decommodification of Housing
Discussion with James deFilippis, geographer, Rutgers University, New Brunswick · Esther Wang and Helena Wong of CAAAV, Organizing Asian Communities, New York

Friday, November 13 // 7 pm
Bar + programming by Lize Mogel and Alexis Baghat, An Atlas of Radical Cartography*

Saturday, November 14 // 7 pm
The Real Estate Crisis, Private Property and the Prospects of Planning
Discussion with David Kotz, economist, University of Massachusetts Amherst · Teddy Cruz, architect, San Diego

Sunday, November 15 // 7 pm
Bar + programming by tba*

Monday, November 16 // 7 pm
On the Commons: Taking versus Granting Rights
Discussion with Peter Linebaugh, historian, University of Toledo · Brett Bloom of Midwest Radical Culture Corridor, Urbana · Rob Robinson of Picture the Homeless, New York

Tuesday, November 17 // 7 pm
Bar + programming by common room*

Wednesday, November 18 // 7 pm
Territory as a Means of Struggle
Discussion with Veronica Dorsey of United Workers, Baltimore · Neil Smith, geographer, City University New York

Thursday, November 19 // 7 pm
Bar + programming by Amanda Schachter and Alexander Levi of SLO architecture

BELOW HIGH-WATER MARK
An evening of film footage and musical improvisation exploring hidden connections along the water ways of New York City. Musical Improvisation by Joe Warner

Friday, November 20 // 7 pm
Reclaiming Capitalist Spaces
Discussion with Janelle Cornwell and Julie Graham, geographers, University of Massachusetts Amherst · Max Rameau of Take Back the Land, Miami

Saturday, November 21 // 12 pm
Towards Post-Capitalist Spaces
Lecture by David Harvey, geographer, City University New York, 12 pm
Workshops with special guests*, 2 – 6 pm
Final presentation and discussion, 7 pm
Party, 10 pm

Posted her by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Theorizing the Dynamics of Social Processes

The Incident

THEORIZING THE DYNAMICS OF SOCIAL PROCESSES

 

CALL FOR PAPERS
Theorizing the Dynamics of Social Processes
Current Perspectives in Social Theory (Volume 27)
Edited by Harry F. Dahms and Lawrence Hazelrigg

Current Perspectives in Social Theory invites the submission of papers dedicated to theorizing the dynamics of specific social, cultural, political, and/or economic processes. Papers addressing the nature and importance of ‘‘process’’ in studying modern (industrialized, post-industrial, capitalist, postmodern, globalizing, etc.) societies are welcome – at macro, meso, or micro-scale (or, better yet, at cross or inter-scale). Submissions can have a formally, socially, or critically theoretical orientation. Preference will be given to papers that accomplish one (or more) of  the following:

* invent, develop, and/or demonstrate a theory (or theories) of a specific process (or interrelated processes), with sufficient clarity and scope to serve as an exemplar of such theorizing;
* identify, illustrate by example, and analyze specific problems, including problems of conceptualization and measurement, associated with theorizing the dynamics of social, cultural, political, and/or economic processes;
* connect theorizations of process across different disciplines of inquiry, including physical, chemical, and biological sciences insofar as the connections are shown to be relevant to and involve specific processes in social, cultural, political, and/or economic arenas (e.g. diffusion processes, hysteretic processes, aggregation processes).

Use of formal modelling techniques is acceptable (conditional on effective didactic quality in presentation), and should be addressed to more than the cognoscenti few. Priority will be given to intellectual integrity (rather than ideological orientation). We are eager to support venturesome projects of creative impulse, imagination, and insight – projects that show promise of being fruitfully wrong if not impeccably right.

If you are interested in this call, we urge you to contact either or both of us at the earliest convenience, with a general description of the paper you have in mind. The deadline for submissions is January 31, 2010.

Harry F. Dahms, Editor (hdahms@utk.edu)
Lawrence Hazelrigg, Associate Editor (lhazelri@fsu.edu)

Harry F. Dahms, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Director of Graduate Studies, and Associate Head, Department of Sociology University of Tennessee; and Editor, Current Perspectives in Social Theory, 901 McClung Tower, Knoxville, TN 37996-0490. email hdahms@utk.edu, phone (865) 974-7028, fax (865) 974-7013, http://web.utk.edu/~hdahms/

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk