[Air-L] Call for Papers - Mobile Media & Communication

[Marie Santini]

Dear colleagues,

We invite you to submit papers for the Special Issue: Messaging
Applications and Global Cultures of Mobility in the journal Mobile Media &
Communication, an international and interdisciplinary journal dedicated to
publishing academic research analyzing the intersection of communication
and mobility.

This special issue, edited by Rose Marie Santini (Federal University of Rio
de Janeiro), James Fitzgerald (Dublin City University), Rosana
Pinheiro-Machado (University College Dublin), and Débora Salles (Federal
University of Rio de Janeiro), seeks papers that critically analyze the
intersections between messaging applications and practices of mobility in
both local and global contexts.

Once conceived as simple alternatives to SMS, messaging applications have
transformed into multimedia ecosystems central to contemporary life, with
uses ranging from real-time tracking to political and economic organization
across different cultural contexts. While much of the academic literature
emphasizes their risks—such as disinformation, surveillance, and illicit
activities—it is equally important to examine their productive potential,
from reducing social isolation to integrating businesses and increasing the
visibility of marginalized groups. This special issue thus aims to bring
together contributions that deepen the understanding of these multiple
dynamics and their local and global impacts.

The CFP encourages regional and interdisciplinary contributions from
scholars at all career stages, to investigate how and why messaging
applications intersect with mobility, while analyzing their impacts on
individuals, politics, culture, and society. We welcome single-platform
case studies as well as comparative analyses of two or more applications,
with a special emphasis on contributions from the Global South to ensure
geographical and conceptual diversity.

We are particularly interested in articles that address topics such as:

   -

   Cultures of mobility on messaging applications in the Global North and
   South;
   -

   Messaging applications as tools for real-time political resistance and
   organized protest;
   -

   Messaging applications as sites of (state or private) surveillance;
   -

   Differences in cultures of mobility across different messaging
   applications, within the same territory or across different regions;
   -

   The impact of specific business models on mobility within messaging
   applications;
   -

   The use of messaging applications for formal and informal economic
   activities, and their implications for boundaries between legal/illegal and
   formal/informal practices;
   -

   How messaging applications shape the geographies of commercial
   activities;
   -

   The effects of artificial intelligence integration on new or transformed
   practices of mobility.

Important dates:

   -

   Submission of extended abstracts (500–700 words): November 1, 2025
   -

   Notification of accepted abstracts: November 15, 2025
   -

   Submission of first full drafts (8,000 words): March 15, 2026
   -

   Submission of second drafts: July 15, 2026
   -

   Final acceptance: November 15, 2026

Please submit abstracts by November 1, 2025 to:
marie.santini at eco.ufrj.br and james.fitzgerald at dcu.ie

Further information is available at:
https://journals.sagepub.com/page/mmc/messagingapplications