New special issue: Power, Multidirectionality and Contingency
The special issue “Power, Multidirectionality and Contingency. Political Struggles over Representation, Decision-Making and Technology” has been published in “Comunicazioni Sociali – Journal of Media, Performing Arts and Cultural Studies”. The special issue is edited by Vaia Doudaki and Nico Carpentier.
(Image removed) This special issue, focusing on different case studies and drawing from different examples, addresses issues of political struggle, contextualized by multidirectionality and contingency. Using different starting and entry points (based, inter alia, on journalism studies, organizational communication, game studies, discourse theory, visual communication), the collection of articles included in this special issue sheds light on the logics of political struggle. In particular, this special issue allows reflecting on the distinction between struggles over and struggles through, very much in line with Plekhanov’s distinction between the means and aims of political struggle, and his argumentation for the alignment of both in socialist strategy.
The articles in this special issue demonstrate that struggle can, on the one hand, be associated with conscious acts of re/appropriation or dominance over specific issues, discourses, positions (struggle over), but, on the other hand, also with the means, tactics, strategies through which struggles are waged (struggle through). Furthermore, the special issue also allows showing that there are different ‒ albeit interconnected ‒ fields over which political struggles are waged, and that there are different mechanisms through which political struggles are organized.
The collection offers a snap-shot of the complexity of political struggles, the fields over which the struggles are waged, and the mechanisms that are used to wage these struggles. Even if many other fields and mechanisms can be distinguished, this special issue hopefully provides an already rich overview of the different fields and mechanisms that play a role in political struggles. Moreover, and even more importantly, this special issue shows the omnipresence and variety of political struggle in contemporary society, and the relevance of this concept for the study of social phenomena in the 21st century
Table of contents of the special issue
More information about the special issue: Comunicazioni Sociali – Journal of Media, Performing Arts and Cultural Studies, 1 January-April 2018. Power, Multidirectionality and Contingency Political Struggles over Representation, Decision-Making and Technology.
Nico Carpentier, professor in media and communication studies at the Department of Informatics and Media, Uppsala University.
Vaia Doudaki, associate professor in media and communication studies at the Department of Informatics and Media, Uppsala University.
Therese Monstad, senior lecturer in media and communication studies at the Department of Informatics and Media.
Claes Thorén, senior lecturer in information systems at the Department of Informatics and Media.
Mats Edenius, professor in information systems at the Department of Informatics and Media.
Special issue: Power, Multidirectionality and Contingency – Table of contents
An Introduction to Power, Multidirectionality and Contingency. Political Struggles over Representation, Decision-Making and Technology (pdf, open access). Nico Carpentier & Vaia Doudaki.
When the Wrong Kind of Authority Neutralizes Journalism: Cold War Enmity, Journalism and the US Presidential Race. Barbie Zelizer.
Change Processes, Practices of Authority and Communication: Authority Negotiations between Managers and Employees in Two Medical Companies. Therese Monstad.
Deconstructing Nationalist Assemblages: A Visual Essay on the Greek Cypriot Memorials Related to Two Violent Conflicts in 20th Century Cyprus. Nico Carpentier.
De-Naturalizing Antagonistic Nationalism through an Academic Intervention. The Reception of Two Photography Exhibitions on the Memorialization of the Cyprus Problem (pdf, open access). Nico Carpentier, Vaia Doudaki, Yiannis Christidis & Fatma Nazli Koksal.
Digital Disconnect and Assemblages of Power: Exploring Technology Non-use in the Age of the Post-digital. Claes Thorén & Mats Edenius.
Between Global Competition, Marketing, Deviant Play, and Cheating: High-End Raiding in ‘World of Warcraft’. Patrick Prax.
Interpellated Citizens. Suggested Subject Positions in a Deliberation Process on Health Care Reimbursement. Mathieu Berger & Benjamin De Cleen.
Lurkers, Opponents and the Struggle for Recognition: Accounts from Active Participants in Online Political Discussions. Jakob Svensson.