FINAL CALL FOR PAPERS AND PANELS
Submission system closes on December 9
Geomedia 2017: “Spaces of the In-Between”
Karlstad, Sweden, 9-12 May 2017
Welcome to the 2nd international Geomedia conference! Geomedia 2017 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.
Conference scope and theme
Geomedia is a relatively new term that has been given only a few definitions so far (see, e.g., Thielmann, 2007, 2010; Lapenta, 2011, 2012; McQuire, 2016). What these definitions have in common is that they refer to geomedia as a particular technological condition. This condition, in turn, is associated with the most recent decades of rapid digital development, which has led to the interweaving of “locative media” and “mediated localities” (Thielmann, 2010). However, the notion of geomedia may also carry a wider ontological and epistemological purchase than the obvious fusion of geography and media (as suggested by the term itself). It may then refer to the expanding interdisciplinary research terrain at the intersections of media studies and geography where various ontologies and epistemologies of space/time and mediation/mediatization come together. The terrain of geomedia studies deals with the fundamental (and historical) role of multiple media in organizing and giving meaning to processes and activities in space. It includes both mediated representations of space/place and the “logistical” properties of media that arrange people and property into time and space (Peters, 2008). It also includes the geographical qualities of media per se – for example, the flows of digital signals between particular places and the infrastructure carrying those flows – and their consequences for society. The Geomedia conference addresses geomedia in this latter, broader and more inclusive, sense.
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, agents in the production of spaces and places that fall in-between or resist dominant categorizations. Such spaces include, firstly, 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.
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 / Nikki Usher – George Washington University, USA / Philip Napoli – Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA / Lars Nyre – University of Bergen, Norway / 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 panel 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 website: 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