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CfP: From Global Justice to Occupy and Podemos: Mapping Three Stages of Contemporary Activism

From Global Justice to Occupy and Podemos: Mapping Three Stages of Contemporary Activism

Call for Abstracts/Contributions

Special issue of tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique. Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society

Special Issue Editors:

Todd Wolfson, Rutgers University, US
Emiliano Treré, Autonomous University of Querétaro, Mexico / Lakehead University, Canada
Paolo Gerbaudo, King’s College London, UK
Peter Funke, University of South Florida, US


Across the last few decades the logic of activism, and of digital activism in particular, have changed dramatically. We have experienced what could be regarded as three waves of protests from the early 1990s to the present. Each of these waves is connected both by the transformations in global capitalism and the rise of the digital age, while still displaying differences or rather developments in movement-based organizing. Together however, we can conceive these three waves as part of one broader epoch of contention. Those particular waves of contention are: Global Social Justice, Occupy/Arab Spring, Syriza/Podemos. In this special issue, we propose to look at the logics of these waves of protest (or generations of digital activism) in order to explore their similarities and differences. The goal of the special issue is to mine history assuming a diachronic perspective, but more concretely to understand the strengths and weaknesses of this epoch of contention as we watch the current wave of struggle unfold.

Some of the questions that will be tackled in the issue are:

– How have capitalist transformations informed the emergence of the current epoch of contention and how has the activists’ relation to communication technologies evolved and shaped the logics of protests and mobilizations?

– Can we conceive of underlying meta-logics of movement politics informing the three waves of protests, and how are they best conceptualized, similar as well as differently enacted?

– How have the communication repertoires of social movements evolved, and how have the role of alternative media and activists’ media practices changed in an oversaturated media environment, where the influence of digital capitalism has grown and corporate media are increasingly dominating the digital activism scenario?

– What are the main challenges and the tensions that social movements and their communication face when they crystallize into political parties?

–   What lessons have we learned from the analysis of this epoch of contention and what are the future horizons of digital activism and protest?

Specifications and Key dates: 

Please send 300 words abstracts-proposals by 20 December 2015 to both the following email addresses: wolfsont@gmail.com AND pnfunke@gmail.com – with “Two generations special issue” as an object, indicating: tentative title, full name, affiliation and email. The abstract will have to include the methods deployed and the principal findings or, in case of more theoretical contributions, the main authors and theories used.

We particularly welcome original contributions that defy traditional understandings of social movements, digital activism, and digital politics, and critically reflect on their evolution in a diachronic and comparative perspective. Case studies and experiences from non-Western countries and contexts are also especially welcomed.
Other Key Dates: 

– Acceptance of selected proposals sent on January 20, 2016

– Deadline for complete papers for review on May 20, 2016

– Reviews are due to authors on July 20, 2016

– Papers with revisions due on September 10, 2016

– Publication of the special issue: October 2016

About tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique, http://www.triple-c.at

tripleC is a journal for the critical study of communication in capitalism, using approaches such as critical theories, Marxist theory, political economy of communication, etc. It has a special interest in disseminating articles that focus on the role of information in contemporary capitalist societies. For this task, articles should employ critical theories and/or empirical research inspired by critical theories and/or philosophy and ethics guided by critical thinking as well as relate the analysis to power structures and inequalities of capitalism, especially forms of stratification such as class, racist and other ideologies and capitalist patriarchy.

All articles in tripleC connect a specific studied phenomenon to the broader societal context, especially capitalism as economic formation and a form of the organisation of society. Papers should reflect on how the presented findings contribute to the illumination of conditions that foster or hinder the advancement of a global sustainable and participatory information society.
tripleC is edited by Christian Fuchs (University of Westminster) and Marisol Sandoval (City University London).
Registration as reader (to receive content updates) is possible here:
http://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/user/register

tripleC is indexed in databases such as Communication and Mass Media Complete and Scopus

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