Preconference: Varieties of Publics and Counterpublics

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

To reinvigorate public debates about publics and public spheres and their implications for democratic politics, this preconference invites submissions that highlight the rich varieties of publics and counterpublics in modern societies. We encourage scholars to interrogate the assumptions of unified publics and to examine the forms, meanings and functions of multiple publics and counterpublics. This includes interrogations of the role of different media in the formation and transformation of publics and counterpublics. While we welcome studies of all aspects related to publics and public spheres, special consideration will be given to submissions that focus on experiences of reception, consumption, or circulation and their role in forming publics.

We invite submissions of abstracts of individual papers as well as panels related to the theme to communication-public@asc.upenn.edu by November 20, 2016. Panelists whose abstracts are accepted will develop them into papers that will be distributed in May to preconference attendees in advance of the event. Participants will present their papers as in a series of sessions and panels.

Possible paper/panel topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:

Readers (of books, newspapers, fiction, etc) as publics
Bookstores and publics
Reading clubs as publics
Alternative media and publics
Underground press and publics
Radio/theatre/film publics
Twitter/Facebook/Instagram/WeChat/Weibo and publics
Blogs and publics
Zines and publics
Sound and publics
Aesthetics and public spheres
Cartoons, comics, posters, street art and publics
Online fiction/non-fiction publics
Music and publics
Mobile or fluid publics
Fan communities as publics
Conservative publics
Religion and publics
Social movements as publics
Transnational publics and public spheres


This pre-conference, if accepted, will be a special forum for Communication and the Public, an international refereed journal jointly published by Zhejiang University and SAGE, launched in 2016. The first two years' conferences, co-organized by ZJU, UW-Madison, and Penn, were held at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou and at Penn Wharton China Center in Beijing. The organizers would like to make this annual conference – the third annual CAP conference – as an ICA preconference in the future to enhance its global visibility and attendance, and to offer a new platform of academic exchange and publication for all ICA members and attendees. We hope to publish special issue or symposium based on the presentations at the preconference. For more information about the journal, please visit http://ctp.sagepub.com/.

Sub Unit

• Sponsored Sessions

Chairs

• Guobin Yang, U of Pennsylvania

• Zhongdang Pan, U of Wisconsin - Madison

• Lu Wei, Zhejiang U