Apologies for cross posting.

>
> Reply-To: "D.J.Hesmondhalgh" <[log in to unmask]>
>
>
> Media Change and Social Theory
>
> A major international conference organised by the ESRC-funded Centre 
> for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC) at The Open University 
> and The University of Manchester (in association with the Centre for 
> Media, Culture and History, New York University)
>
> Venue: St Hugh’s College, Oxford
>
> Dates: 6-8 September 2006
>
> Confirmed plenary and keynote speakers:
>
> Annabelle Sreberny (School of Oriental and African Studies, London)
>
> Daniel Hallin (University of California San Diego)
>
> Faye Ginsburg (New York University)
>
> Karel Williams (The University of Manchester)
>
> Liesbet van Zoonen (University of Amsterdam)
>
> Nick Couldry (London School of Economics)
>
> Philip Schlesinger (University of Stirling)
>
> Purnima Mankekar (Stanford University)
>
> Tony Bennett (The Open University)
>
>
>
> This conference aims to bring together media scholars and social 
> theorists to try to push forward media theory. We need to enrich the 
> intellectual resources we draw upon to understand the media. To do so, 
> critical work on the media needs to engage much more intensively with 
> social and political theory than it has in recent years. For example, 
> important work in the following areas has barely been addressed in 
> most media studies:
>
> *	Critical theory – the contemporary Frankfurt School and 
> Anglo-American resonances
> *	Field theory – Bourdieu, his associates and those influenced by them
> *	Governmentality and neo-Foucauldian approaches to discourse and 
> institutions
> *	Actor network theory
> *	Theories of democracy, deliberation and difference
>
> In other areas, pioneering work has been carried out but needs further 
> extension and development:
>
> *	Revisions and elaborations of notions of the public and the public 
> sphere
> *	Critical media anthropology, especially ethnography
> *	Feminist theory: politics and identity in the era of Butler and 
> beyond
> *	Critical political economy of the media
> *	Theories of self, subjectivity and society
>
> We welcome papers that address these and other areas of media and 
> social theory, across the following conference strands:
>
> *	Media politics: political communication, journalism and the role of 
> the media in the contemporary polity
> *	Media histories: empiricism, historicism and the illumination of the 
> present
> *	Media spaces: nations and transnationalism, regions and localities
> *	Media economics: from neo-classical models to gift economies and 
> cultural commodities
> *	Media and power: is ideology a moribund concept; can we talk about a 
> field of media power?
> *	Media and culture: representation, pleasure and identity
>
> However, we should emphasise that an engagement with theory need not 
> imply a neglect of empirical material, and we welcome papers that 
> explain how particular empirical projects might contribute to the 
> theoretical enrichment of media scholarship.
>
> Abstracts for papers and panels by 31 March 2006 to 
> [log in to unmask] (300 words per paper maximum, please indicate 
> preferred strand)
>
> Conference committee: Marie Gillespie, David Hesmondhalgh, Jason 
> Toynbee, Farida Vis, Helen Wood
>
> www.cresc.ac.uk <http://www.cresc.man.ac.uk/events>  or put CRESC in 
> your search engine
>
> CRESC directors: Tony Bennett, Mike Savage, Karel Williams
>
> ***************************************************************
>
> Understanding Media, the new Open University media course and book 
> series: http://www.open.ac.uk/socialsciences/courses/da204
>
> www.openupusa.com/understandingmedia
>
> http://mcgraw-hill.co.uk/openup/ou
>
>
>