The theme of the conference is communication between domination and emancipation.
Communication can be viewed, analyzed and conceived of as a means or even form of domination. Communicative domination can be operationalized as control, persuasion, propaganda or influence, as well as other forms of “strategic” communication. At macrosocial levels, domination can also be viewed as hegemony.
Communicative emancipation, on the other hand, is often associated with the liberating potential of communication. The liberating potential of communication can be embodied in knowledge, truth, empathy, education, ritual and, at macrosocial levels, in democracy.
These are vast areas of human experience and of corresponding communication research. Thus, the idea of communication at the opposite ends of the spectrum sometimes may seem as having few discernible common features. The goal of the conference is to explore the various aspects of the theoretical concept and practice of communication, as well as to probe the middle ground and offer research that would shed more light on the most defining feature of humanity, community and society.
In this context, language and other communication media are especially important because they may often reflect various communicative intents or contain specific features that can be identified and related to different communicative intents, i.e., “dominational” or “emancipatory”, for example, in communication analysis.
Especially interesting and potentially valuable research would also be welcome in the area of identifying relationships of certain forms of domination or emancipation with forms and content of communication, at various communication levels, from interpersonal to mediated (public) communication.
The question of relationship between communication and democracy being perennial, here it would be interesting to explore the potential of either dominational or emancipatory communication in bettering democracy.
Participants are welcome to explore the main theme within different paradigms, from the functionalist and cognitive to the critical and cultural one. Papers are welcome in, but not limited to, the following communication clusters of traditional subfields and topics: 1) codes and media (semiotics, language, visual and nonverbal communication, media technologies); 2) levels and contexts (interpersonal/small group/speech/ mass communication – drama/film, journalism, public relations, advertising; social media; organizational, political and educational communication; (trans) cultural/ethnic/gender/group communication); 3) topics (surveillance, privacy, defensive and violent communication, conflict resolution and peacemaking, dialogic communication, democratic communication, mediatization); 4) communication theory and philosophy.
We invite you to submit you abstracts for this conference! Please go to the abstract/paper submission pages for instructions on and submissions of your abstracts (and papers).
