The Political Economy (POE) Section of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) invites the submission of proposals for papers and panels for IAMCR 2025, which will be held in Singapore from 13 to 17 July 2025, hosted by the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University. The deadline for submission is 7February 2025, at 23h59 UTC.
The deadline for submission is 7 February 2025, at 23h59 UTC.
See the list of all sections and working groups and their remits
See the CfPs of all sections and working groups
IAMCR conferences address many diverse topics defined by our 37 thematic sections and working groups. We also propose a single central theme to be explored throughout the conference with the aim of generating and exploring multiple perspectives. This is accomplished through plenary and special sessions, as well as in many of the sessions of the sections and working groups. The 2025 central theme is Communicating Environmental Justice: Many Voices, One Planet.
Consult a detailed description of the main theme
The IAMCR Political Economy Section hopes you will agree the conference themes are highly topical under current political/economic (and ecological) conditions. Political economists in communication have long leaned on critical scholarship – including Marxist, feminist, and critical race theorists, among others – to examine how value is extracted from nature in capitalism, and the binarism of nature and culture. We therefore invite papers and panel proposals that investigate the central conference theme from a political-economic perspective. We are interested in submissions that critically interrogate the power relations that underpin the structure and direction of current global transformations and evolutions, which are driven, amplified, and complicated by media, communication, and technology. We are particularly interested in papers that examine the impact that communication has on the material world. We also encourage scholars to continue engaging with enduring political economic questions by examining these emerging and pressing issues or those that suggest new ways forward for this tradition of scholarship.
We encourage participants to critically examine the ways that governments, corporations, institutions (or other structures and social formation) impede or facilitate struggles for environmental justice, human dignity, survival, and a common future. In what political-economic logics, ideological structures, and social imaginaries are people reshaping or adapting to the environment? In what ways, and in what directions, are people struggling for equities and sustainability? What are the obscured communicative practices or emergent alternatives in a digitized world? And what opportunities do media, technology, or digital platforms provide to extend or resist these forces?
In addition to and /or in articulation with the conference sub-themes, the Political Economy Section also welcomes submissions on:
Political economy of:
- digital broadcasting, telecommunications, social media, and mobile communications
- audiences
- journalism
- AI, AR/VR, Big Data, and surveillance
- the media and climate change/Anthropocene
- cultural industries, cultural economy, and cultural diversity
- urban ecosystem and its relationship to rural and surrounding territories
Critiques of media/communication informed by:
- feminist political economic
- critical race theory
- intersectionality
- critical disability studies
- queer theories
Relationship between media and finance capital:
- Media, capital, and financialization of corporate media
- Communication/mediation of markets and finance
Labor, social movements, and activism
- Civil society, participatory democracy, media activism
- Cultural and creative labor in the context of digitization and global capitalism
- Communication experiences of the social media activism around the world
- Work, labor, and value
- Academic freedom and labor in the context of the corporatization of education
Policy and laws; democracy and citizenship
- Media/communication politics, policy, laws, and regulation
- Media, citizenship, cultural rights and democracy
- Free trade agreements, copyright and communication, and cultural policies
Spatialities/temporalities and capital
- Continuities and crises (financial, ecological, moral, others)
- Global capital and media power spatialities/temporalities
- Smart city and sustainable cities
Rethinking the economy
- Moral economies, gift economies, public goods, and free culture/free economics
- De-commodification, de-growth, de-marketization, or de-convergence in communication
Guidelines for abstracts
Abstracts must be submitted exclusively through IAMCR’s submission system from 3 December 2024 through 7 February 2025, at 23.59 UTC. Abstracts submitted by email will not be accepted.
Abstract should be between 500 and 1000 words. It is expected that each person will submit only one abstract. However, no author’s name should appear on more than two abstracts, either individually or as part of any group of authors and authors should not submit more than one abstract to any single section or working group.
Proposals are accepted for both single Papers and for Panels with several papers (in which you propose multiple papers that address a single theme). Please note that there are special procedures for submitting panel proposals. You can find the detailed procedures when submitting your abstract online in the abstract submission system.
2025 Abstract Workshop
To prepare scholars for abstract submission, the Political Economy Section and guest panelist Peichi Chung (Chinese University of Hong Kong) will run an interactive workshop that addresses:
• Is Political Economy the right section for you?
• What are the criteria to evaluate the abstracts?
• Who are the reviewers?
• How does the section select abstracts?
The workshop will be in English, Cantonese, Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.
Date and time: Thursday 9 January @ 9h00 Hong Kong time (UTC+8). See the time of this event in your current location.
Join the workshop at https://suffolk.zoom.us/my/mickylee
Questions can be addressed to Micky Lee (mlee@suffolk.edu)
Note: this workshop is designed to support scholars in preparing high-quality abstracts. Please note that participation does not influence the selection process for abstract acceptance.
Evaluation criteria
Submitted abstracts will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
- Relevance to the section (How appropriate is this submission for the section? Does the paper directly engage with political economy literature?)
- Use of or contribution to theory (Does the paper make good use of theory? Will it contribute to it?)
- Originality / Significance (Will attendees learn something that they didn't already know from this submission? How original, significant, or thought-provoking is it?)
- Technical Merit (How solid is the presented work? Is the evaluation methodology appropriate? Does the data seem accurate? Are there any fatal flaws in underlying assumptions?)
- Readability (How easy is it to understand the submission? Factors that can affect readability include writing style, organization, grammar, spelling, and inappropriate submission length, among others. Minor grammatical and typological errors can be disregarded and should not be a reason to give a low score.
Beyond the standard criteria for individual papers listed above, additional factors will be considered when determining which papers are ultimately invited for acceptance and participation in the annual conference. These factors include geographic diversity, gender diversity, ensuring a diverse mix of junior and senior scholars, and whether papers give voice to subaltern/under-represented groups/countries, or facilitate resistance/praxis.
Statement on use of AI tools
IAMCR does not encourage or condone the use of generative AI tools to prepare abstracts submitted for consideration for our conferences. IAMCR values originality, integrity, and transparency in academic work, and believes that human-authored contributions best support rigorous and innovative scholarship in media and communication research. Should an author choose to use a generative AI tool in the preparation of an abstract, we require that they include a clear statement within their submission disclosing the tool's use. This statement must specify: (1) the name of any AI tool used; (2) how the tool was used in preparing the abstract, and; (3) the reason for using the tool. Failure to disclose the use of generative AI in accordance with these guidelines may impact the evaluation and acceptance of the submission.
Languages
The Political Economy Section accepts abstracts in English, French and Spanish but generally encourages the membership and participants to submit and present their papers in English.
Deadlines and key dates
The deadline to submit abstracts is 7 February 2025, at 23.59 UTC. For other key dates see https://iamcr.org/singapore2025/keydates. Dates are subject to change.
Contacts
For further information about the Political Economy Section, its themes, submissions, and panels please contact:
Co-Chairs
Ben Birkinbine birkinbineb@uwosh.edu
Gabriela Martínez gmartine@uoregon.edu
Vice Chairs
Mandy Tröger mandytroeger.phd@gmail.com
Micky Lee plee@suffolk.edu
