[spectre] Call: ENCLOSURE, EMANCIPATORY COMMUNICATION AND THE GLOBAL CITY

[Sarah Kanouse]

Apologies for cross-postings.

ENCLOSURE, EMANCIPATORY COMMUNICATION AND THE GLOBAL CITY:
AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE UNION FOR DEMOCRATIC COMMUNICATIONS*

* *

*     Hosted by the School of Communication, Simon Fraser University  *

*    October 25-28, 2007  *

*PROPOSAL DEADLINE: MARCH 15, 2007*

The field of culture and communication manifests struggles between
contradictory tendencies.  On the one hand, pressures from capital and
state sometimes promote various forms of /enclosure/ -- the private
appropriation, suppression or marginalization of socially-produced
public expression.  Enclosure comes in many guises: the
commodification of information; concentration and hyper-commercialism
in media industries; the corporatization of universities; restrictive
"intellectual property" regimes; or market authoritarianism as a mode
of governance.

On the other hand, progressive forces, from artists and academics to
broad social movements, are not only resisting  such enclosure, but
developing practices and policies that prefigure/ emancipation/ -- new
ways of re-organizing culture and communication democratically.  These
include struggles over alternative media, state cultural policies,
communication rights, reform of media and cultural institutions,
audience empowerment, urban public space, and much else.

At the nexus of changing national cultures and policies, of
transnational migrations and markets, of media flows and audiences, of
consumption and surveillance, the /global city/ is emerging as a key
site for such contestation.

The Union for Democratic Communications invites proposals, from
artists, activists and media scholars, for presentations, roundtables,
workshops and panels that examine and critique the relationship
between forces of enclosure and emancipation, especially in the
context of the global city (broadly defined).  Other topics relevant
to democratic communication are also very welcome.

The keynote address will be delivered by Mike Davis, author of /City
of Quartz/, /Ecology of Fear/ and, most recently, /Planet of Slums/.
Other featured speakers, including Dan Schiller, Nick Dyer-Witheford
and Dee Dee Halleck (UDC Smythe Award recipient), will be complemented
by presenters on a wide range of topics, video and other media
presentations, and interaction with local activist and artistic groups
concerned with democratizing communication.  The conference coincides
with Vancouver's annual Media Democracy Day, featuring an Independent
Media Fair at the city's architecturally acclaimed public library.

For the first time, the UDC conference will be held in downtown
Vancouver, Canada, hosted by Simon Fraser University's School of
Communication; co-sponsors include the SFU Institute for the
Humanities and the British Columbia Libraries Association.  Vancouver
is about 120 miles north of Seattle, and offers direct flight
connections to many cities in Canada and the US.  Vancouver is surely
a 'global city': Canada's "gateway to the Pacific" and host to the
upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics, perched amidst spectacular mountain and
coastal scenery and recreation, but also home of Canada's poorest
urban district and historically an incubator of influential social
movements.

Proposals are invited for both individual papers and panel or workshop
sessions.  Individual paper proposals should include a title, a brief
(maximum 250 word) abstract of the presentation, and contact
information including name, title, institution, mailing address,
telephone, fax and email address.  Panel session proposals should
include titles, contact information, and a brief (maximum 250 word)
abstract for /each/ panel member; they should also include a short
(maximum 100 word) description of the overall panel theme and contact
information for the panel chair.  Proposals from artists for
individual presentations or panel sessions should also include samples
of the work to be presented.  Please identify any audio-visual needs
in your proposal as we may not be able to accommodate later requests.

All proposals should be submitted by email to udc2007 at sfu.ca in the
form of a Word or PDF attachment.