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Call for Papers: Media Anthropology Network workshop: The rewards of media

11th EASA (European Association of Social Anthropologists) Biennial 
Conference: Crisis and Imagination
Maynooth (Ireland), 24-27 August 2010

Convenors:
John Postill (Sheffield Hallam University, UK)
Philipp Budka (University of Vienna, Austria)

Discussant:
To be announced

Short abstract:
The workshop explores the rewards (social, economic, symbolic, sensory, 
etc.) derived from engaging in specific media practices in different 
sociocultural settings.

Long abstract:
This workshop is a sequel to the Media Anthropology Network workshop on 
media practices held at the EASA conference in Bristol in 2006 that led 
to the edited volume "Theorising Media and Practice" (Braeuchler and 
Postill, in press). Whilst on that occasion the aim was to explore and 
theorise media practices in general, this workshop will focus on a 
single but crucial aspect of mediated practice, namely its rewards (cf. 
Warde 2005). As contemporary social worlds become ever more 
media-saturated - particularly after the huge surge in mobile phone 
uptake in both rich and poor countries - questions arise about the 
considerable amounts of time and money that many individuals and groups 
appear to spend using, learning, sharing and making all kinds of media 
technologies (mobiles, blogs, wikis, radio, social networking sites, 
YouTube, etc.). Presenters may wish to address (but are not limited to) 
questions such as:

* What are the rewards (cultural, social, economic, symbolic, sensory, 
etc.) that people derive from engaging in specific media practices?
* Why do people around the globe devote scarce temporal and financial 
resources to certain media practices and not others?
* In keeping with the conference theme of 'Crisis and Imagination', how 
do people caught up in the global turmoil use old and new media 
technologies to seek or create new job opportunities, imagine future 
economic scenarios or perhaps 'forget' their financial woes?

References:
Bräuchler, B. and J. Postill (eds) (in press). Theorising Media and 
Practice. Oxford and New York: Berghahn.
Warde, A. 2005. Consumption and theories of practice, Journal of 
Consumer Culture 5: 131-53.

Papers should be proposed via NomadIT's online system. Please note that 
this year EASA is requesting a single abstract of 150 words which will 
be displayed both online and in the conference book.

Submission of abstracts:
http://www.nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa2010/panels.php5?PanelID=648

Deadline: 1 March 2010

General information on the conference:
http://www.easaonline.org/conferences/easa2010/index.htm

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact either of 
the panel convenors.

-- 
Philipp Budka
+43 (0) 650 95 28 244
Dreyhausenstrasse 18/7
1140 Wien, Austria
[log in to unmask]
http://www.philbu.net

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