The 7th European Communication Conference of ECREA will be held in Lugano, Switzerland, between 31st October and 3rd November 2018. The conference will be hosted by USI – Università della Svizzera italiana together with the City of Lugano. The main theme of the conference is Centres and Peripheries: Communication, Research, Translation.
Local organisers invite participants to challenge and deconstruct these relevant keywords in media and communication research from several perspectives. Lugano is in fact the perfect place to think about a topic of this kind. It is in the south of Switzerland (the Gottardo separating Svizzera italiana from other Swiss regions) and its official language is Italian – whereas the majority languages in the country are German and French. At the same time, the Italian border is 20 kilometres away: so Italy is very close culturally but at the same time far away politically and economically. In sum, Lugano (and the entire Italian speaking part of Switzerland) can be considered either peripheral or central. Thus, discussing communication, research and translation in this venue seems to be more than appropriate.
At the same time, the conference theme is so broad that potentially most scholars in media and communication research can be inspired to contribute from their angle of research. In this regard, the local organisers would love to receive papers that aim to “stretch” media and communication research as much as possible, obviously without losing its identity or – better – identities. So the theme”s keywords should be understood as a stimulus to look into different directions, potentially beyond borders.
The first two keywords of the theme are centres and peripheries. From a disciplinary point of view, organisers invite applications stemming from the central fields of research as well as – and in particular – from its “peripheries” that deal with understudied niches and subcultures, practices, resistance and dialogues, or failed and alternative pasts and presents. But of course, centre and periphery also have a geographical connotation. And there is no doubt that nowadays some geographical places and areas are communicative hubs while others remain peripheral or even excluded from the main flows of communication. As this geographical relevance can change rapidly, the fragility of these two concepts merits close attention.
Then, communication is a rather taken-for-granted keyword in our discipline. However, when paired with centres and peripheries, it might invite scholars to deal with issues of power, peripheral and central practices, and the exclusions and divides that are increasing worldwide. As flows of communication are related to flows of information and flows of people, the 7th ECC could (and should) also address issues related to migration and voluntary and involuntary mobility.
Research and translation are the last two keywords of the conference theme. They highlight that scholars from other disciplines than media and communication research are also invited to participate. The 7th ECC conference aims, in fact, to be considered a place where research in different fields is translated, appropriated and incorporated within communication and, reversely, where scholars using communications as case studies can feel welcome. It might be time to “stretch” media and communication research a bit in order to broaden its social impact. Thereby, “translation” addresses the variety of European theoretical traditions and languages – and again Lugano as a melting pot of different languages seems to be the ideal venue. Contributions might thus consider the borders (geographical, cultural, theoretical or paradigmatic ones) of media and communication research, rediscovering the European traditions but also trying to learn, for example, from Asian, South American, and African research. Participants are also invited to discuss and to challenge the scientific power of the English language, an aspect that needs to be questioned in a plurilingual setting such as the Swiss context.
Lugano, historically a place at the centre and (at the same time) at the periphery from a political, economic, geographic, and cultural view will welcome all participants willing to discuss and to advance media and communication studies under these perspectives.
The full Call for Proposals can be found here (submission deadline 28 February 2018).
Please follow the news from the 7th ECC on the conference website http://www.ecrea2018lugano.eu/ or Twitter account @ECREA2018Lugano, and #ECREA2018. The local organisers can be reached at info@ecrea2018lugano.eu
A presto, à bientôt, bis bald, see you in Lugano!
Gabriele Balbi, Katharina Lobinger and Lorenzo Cantoni, The Local Organising Committee of ECC Lugano 2018, Università della Svizzera italiana
