[Air-L] CfP on Mediated Urbanism

[Zeller Frauke TU Ilmenau]

CALL FOR PAPERS

A special Double Special Issue of the International Communication Gazette to be published by Sage Publishers on

'Mediated Urbanism'
With sections on Designing the Urban Stages & Urban Audience Activities

Guest Editors:
Seija Ridell (University of Tampere, Finland; COST Action ISO906 WG3)
Frauke Zeller (Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada; COST Action ISO906 WG3)

Deadline for abstracts: May 31st 2012
URL to the full CfP: http://www.uk.sagepub.com/repository/binaries/doc/GAZ_cfp.docx

Designing the Urban Stages section (CfP 1 below) focuses on the planning and design aspects of contemporary digitally embedded and media-saturated cities.
Urban Audience Activities section (CfP 2 below) focuses on the diversity of audience activities in the multi-spaced and multiply scaled contemporary cities.

The multiple and multiply divided nature of urban reality has deepened in novel ways through the development of networked digital technologies. The use of portable media devices in particular has rendered urban space increasingly multi-layered, as people may interact with their physically absent communities and visit online places while being on the move in the city. At the same time, through their smart gadgets, people are integrated with the software-supported urban infrastructure which grows out from an equally invisible but nevertheless material global techno-rhizome. This makes them active though not necessarily self-reflexive contributors to the dynamics of spatial power that today conditions the forms of urban communication and agency.

The contemporary urban setting has started in recent years to increasingly fascinate scholars and practitioners as a context for people’s media relations. However, there is, as yet, little research on how the complex processes of city planning and design shape the digitalized and media saturated city and how these processes articulate and are entangled with power relations. Nor is there much research on the ways people shift between various media and technology related modes of action while dwelling in and moving about the city.

In this double special issue Mediated urbanism of the International Communication Gazette, which follows up on the 2008 ICG special issue on Communicative Cities (edited by Gary Gumpert and Susan Drucker), we wish to address the digitally sustained urban environment in terms of public life. Our approach in the issue is to combine the perspectives of city planning and design, on the one hand, with the perspective of people’s activities as urban audiences, on the other. We welcome and strongly encourage for both interrelated sections contributions that foster dialogues across disciplinary boundaries.


Important Dates:
- Abstracts (600-800 words and to include author’s professional status and institutional affiliation) submission: May 31st 2012
- Notifications of acceptance: June 30th 2012
- Full manuscript submission: September 15thth 2012

Submissions (abstracts and full manuscripts), in English, should be sent electronically as Word documents to Seija Ridell (email: seija.ridell at uta.fi<mailto:seija.ridell at uta.fi>) and Frauke Zeller (email: fzeller at wlu.ca<mailto:fzeller at wlu.ca>).

Manuscripts should include an abstract of 100-150 words, with a suggested target of 8000 words (including notes and references) and include 8-10 key words. For specific manuscript submission guidelines, please go to: http://gaz.sagepub.com/

If you have any queries regarding the suitability of your potential contribution or any other inquiries, please contact the guest editors:
Seija Ridell, seija.ridell at uta.fi
Frauke Zeller, fzeller at wlu.ca




PD Dr. phil. habil. Frauke Zeller
Marie Curie Fellow
Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada
Ilmenau University of Technology, Germany
Email: fzeller at wlu.ca; frauke.zeller at tu-ilmenau.de