The ESA 2015 submission deadline has by the local and central organising 
committees been extended to February 15 - so submissions for the RN18 
panel "Critical Media Sociology Today" are further open until then.

On 26/01/2015 12:52, Christian Fuchs wrote:
> Call: RN18 Panel “Critical Media Sociology Today”
> 12th Conference of the European Sociological Association
> August 25-28, 2015. Prague
>
> Abstract Submission Deadline: Feb 1
> Submission: http://esa12thconference.eu/abstract-submission
>
> Call text: http://fuchs.uti.at/1338/
>
> Critical Media Sociology Today
>
> We live in times of ongoing crisis, the extension and intensification of
> inequalities concerning class, gender, and race, a return of the
> importance of the economy and political economy, a lack of imaginations
> of alternatives to neo-liberalism and capitalism, an intensification of
> right-wing extremism and fascism all over Europe, a lack of visions and
> power of the political Left, an intensification and extension of
> extremely repressive forms of state power such as communications
> surveillance conducted by secret services, ideological scapegoating
> conducted by conservative and far-right parties, and law and
> order-politics. Left-wing movements and parties have in some countries
> emerged or been strengthened, but the crisis has overall brought a
> further political shift towards the right and an intensification of
> capitalism and inequality.
>
> We today require politically a renewal of the Left. For critical media
> sociology this means that it needs to ask questions, theorise, and
> conduct critical analysis of media and communications in the context of
> capitalism, class, ideologies, racism, fascism, right-wing extremism,
> gender, state power, activism and social movements, challenges for
> public service, media reforms, crisis, globalisation, the rise of China,
> digitalisation, consumer and advertising culture,
> information/cultural/media work, digital labour, the new international
> division of cultural and digital labour, warfare and military conflicts,
> the new imperialism, financialisation, etc.
>
> ESA RN 18 calls for contributions that shed new light on questions that
> Critical Media Sociology needs to ask today and on theoretical and
> analytical insights that help to shape Critical Media Sociology in the
> 21st Century.
>
> RN18’s panel at the ESA 2014 Prague Conference “Differences,
> Inequalities Sociological Imagination” and its contributions are
> organised in the form of specific session topics.
>
> ESA RN18 calls for contributions to the following sessions:
>
> RN18_1: Critical Media Sociology and Karl Marx Today:
> What is the role and legacy of Karl Marx’s works and Marxist theory for
> critical media sociology today?
>
> RN18_2: Critical Media Sociology and Capitalism Today:
> How does capitalism shape media and communications today?
>
> RN18_3: Critical Media Sociology and Critical Theory Today:
> What is a critical theory of 21st century society? What role do
> communication, media and culture play in such a theory?
>
> RN18_4: Critical Media Sociology and Stuart Hall Today:
> How do Stuart Hall’s works, projects, and collaborations matter for
> critical media sociology today?
>
> RN18_5: Critical Media Sociology and Cultural Materialism Today:
> How does Raymond Williams’ approach of cultural materialism matter today
> for understanding the sociology of media and communications?
>
> RN18_6: Critical Media Sociology, Patriarchy and Gender Today:
> What is the role of and relationship of identity politics and
> anti-capitalism for feminist media sociology today?
>
> RN18_7: Critical Media Sociology and the Critique of the Political
> Economy of the Internet and Social Media:
> How does capitalism shape the Internet and social media?
>
> RN18_8: Critical Media Sociology and Ideology Critique Today:
> What are the main forms of ideology today and how do they operate in the
> media? Which forms and approaches of ideology critique do we need to
> understand them?
>
> RN18_9: Critical Media Sociology, Right-Wing Extremism and Fascism Today:
> What is the relationship of far-right movements and parties, the media
> and communication?
>
> RN18_10: Critical Media Sociology and Digital Labour Today:
> What forms of digital labour and digital class struggles are there and
> how can they best be theorised, analysed, and understood?
>
> RN18_11: Critical Media Sociology and the Left:
> How could a 21st century Left best look like and what is the role of
> media and communications for such a Left? What is the historical,
> contemporary, and possible future relationship of critical media
> sociology to the Left? What is the role of media, communications, the
> Internet, and social media in left-wing movements? What problems do such
> movements face in relation to the media, communications, the Internet,
> and social media?
>
> RN18_12: Critical Media Sociology and China:
> How can critical media sociology understand the media in China and the
> role of China and Chinese media in global capitalism? What are
> differences and commonalities between European and Chinese media
> understood with the help of critical media sociology?
>
> RN18_13: Critical Media Sociology, Democracy and the Public Sphere Today:
> How can we best theorise and understand potentials and limits for the
> mediated public sphere in the 21st century?
>
> RN18_14: Critical Media Sociology, the Commons, and the Alternatives Today:
> What are the problems and post-capitalist potentials of alternative
> projects such as cultural and media co-operatives, left-wing and radical
> media projects, alternative social media, alternative online platforms,
> alternative media, community media projects, commons-based media, peer
> production projects, etc.?
>
> RN18_15: Critical Media Sociology and State Power Today:
> How does the relationship of media, communication and state power’s
> various forms of regulation, control, repression, violence and
> surveillance look like?
>
> RN18_16: Critical Media Sociology, the University and Academia Today:
> What are the challenges and problems for teaching and conducting
> research about the media and communication from a critical perspective?
> What can be done to overcome existing limits and problems?
>
> RN18_17: Critical Media Sociology and Cultural and Communication Labour:
> What are characteristics of cultural and communication labour in
> capitalism today? Are there potentials that they can transcend
> precarity? What is the role of alternative economic models such as
> co-operatives (self-managed companies) in this respect?
>
> RN18_18: Critical Media Sociology and Political Communication:
> What is the role of political communication for a critical sociology of
> the media?
>
> Notes
> Please submit only to one session. Abstracts should not exceed 250
> words. Each paper session will have the duration of 1.5 hours. Normally
> sessions will include 4 papers. Abstracts must be submitted online to
> the submission platform, see below. Abstracts sent by email cannot be
> accepted. Abstracts will be peer-reviewed and selected for presentation
> by the Research Network; the letter of notification will be sent by the
> conference software system in early April 2015.
> http://esa12thconference.eu/abstract-submission
>
> Conference fee: http://esa12thconference.eu/fee
>
> ESA/RN18 membership:
> Paying members of ESA and RN18 have strongly reduced conference fees:
> http://www.europeansociology.org/membership.html
>
> Mailing list, Facebook:
> You can join RN18′s media sociology mailing list
> http://lists.jacobs-university.de/mailman/listinfo/esa-rn18 and follow
> RN18 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/esarn18?ref=ts&fref=ts
>
>