Popular Culture Working Group - Call for Proposals 2023

The Popular Culture Working Group (POP) of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) invites proposals for IAMCR 2023, to be held in Lyon, France, from 9 to 13 July (Lyon23) with an Online Conference Papers (OCP23) component from 26 June to 5 July.

The deadline for submission of proposals is 9 February 2023 at 23h59 UTC.

See the CfPs of all sections and working groups >

Conference themes

IAMCR conferences have a main conference theme that is explored from multiple perspectives throughout the conference in plenaries and other moments, including the programmes of the thematic sections and working groups. Additionally, each section and working group also defines some of its own themes, which are described in their individual calls for proposals. Proposals for contributions to the conference are submitted to the sections and working groups and may focus on an aspect of the main conference theme as it relates to the concerns of the section or working group, or address a theme identified by the section or working group.

Main theme – Inhabiting the planet: Challenges for media, communication and beyond

The main theme for IAMCR 2023, “Inhabiting the planet: Challenges for media, communication and beyond”, is concerned with possibilities for rethinking communication research agendas at a time when the irreversible effects of climate change is compounded by stark geopolitical, sociocultural and religious tensions in human communities. At this juncture, urgent reflection and research is needed on how we can hope to flourish today and in the future, and also how media and communication tools and environments can be positive forces and spaces for change.

Five sub-themes of this central theme have been identified: Humanity and progress; democracy; media, information and communication; cities and territories; and environmental accountability.

Consult a detailed description of the main theme and its sub-themes

IAMCR’s Popular Culture Working Group (POP) examines and explores the many relationships between the production and consumption of popular culture from a range of perspectives that are theoretically informed and empirically grounded.

In keeping with the 2023 conference theme, POP is concerned with how this theme of ‘inhabiting the planet’ reorients, challenges and changes the contexts of popular culture production and consumption, and with their implications. POP eagerly invites papers and panel proposals that investigate how popular culture in all its modes of creation, circulation and contestation fit within an era in which our inhabitation of the planet is at stake.

Members of POP are especially interested in the academic intersections that the study of popular culture engenders. POP welcomes perspectives from various disciplines, including, but not limited to, media and cultural studies; studies of identity, subjectivity and diversity; audience and consumer studies; industry and production studies; and literary, cinema, theatrical and visual culture studies.

Topics addressing the central theme

POP rests upon examining the ever-changing nature of the social, political and economic forces that implicate communication processes and, specifically, the communicative role of popular culture. We premise the study of popular culture on the idea that popular culture, in its many forms, offers sites for understanding how both structural and subjective agents, both institutions and individuals, come into being and interface with each other. In keeping with IAMCR/Lyon 2023’s theme, POP invites submission of abstracts and panel proposals that explore the following:

Narratives of democracy and activism in popular culture
Technologies and the digital future in popular culture
Structures of and resistance to popular representations of digital humanity
Popular narratives of gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, age, and ability
Global religious imaginaries and popular culture
Celebrity, fandom, and on/offline communities
Popular media industries and sustainability
Ethical perspectives on the digital society in popular culture
Imaginaries of “truth” in/by popular culture
Aesthetics and aestheticization in popular digital landscapes
Nation, the national, nationalism, and populism in popular culture
Consumer subjectivities/identities and the representation of digital humanities
Surveillance, big data/datafication, and agency
Social justice, human rights, equality, and inclusion in popular narratives
Ecology, climate, sustainability and popular culture in a neo-global terrain

Themes within abstracts and panel proposals not mentioned above but still relevant to the study of popular culture will also be considered.

Contributing to the conference: Lyon23 and OCP23

There will be two ways of joining IAMCR2023:

If you are not able to or don’t want to join the face-to-face conference in Lyon but do want to submit an online-only paper, submit your abstract to OCP23 only. If accepted, you’ll later submit your full paper to the online platform, which will be open for discussion from 26 June to 5 July.
If you do want to join the face-to-face event, submit your abstract to Lyon23 and OCP23. If accepted you’ll submit your paper to the online platform and present it at the face-to-face conference.

Guidelines for abstracts

Abstracts submitted to the POP Working Group should be between 300 and 500 words and must be submitted online here. Abstracts submitted by email will not be accepted.

The deadline to submit abstracts is 9 February 2022 at 23h59 UTC.

It is expected that authors will submit only one (1) abstract. However, under no circumstances should an author submit more than two abstracts as a single author or as the lead author of a co-authored paper and no author will submit more than one abstract to the Popular Culture Working Group. The same abstract or another version with minor variations in title or content must not be submitted to more than one section or working group. Any such submissions will be deemed to be in breach of the conference guidelines and will be rejected.

Proposals are accepted for both single papers and for Panels with several papers (in which you propose multiple papers that address a single theme). Proposals for panels can only be submitted to Lyon23 and OCP23. Panel submissions must include an abstract for each paper submitted here and a description & supplemental information submitted via this form on the conference website

See important dates and deadlines to keep in mind