October 13-14, 2023

University of the Arts (UdK) Berlin (Hardenbergestraße)

Deadline: June 15, 2023

A symposium

This international symposium engages with the concept of domestication as it stands today. It celebrates on this occasion the first ever international Routledge Handbook of Domestication of Media and Technology, scheduled for release in summer of 2023.

(https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Handbook-of-Media-and-Technology-Domestication/Hartmann/p/book/9781032184142). The conference brings together authors from the book with other researchers as well as interested colleagues and students from the UdK. The symposium focuses on questions such as:

• What is the domestication concept’s potential value for future research? 

• How does it differ from other concepts - or where are the overlaps? 

• How does domestication work in times of surveillance capitalism?

The concept of domestication of media and technology is not new. In fact, it was first formulated in the late 1980s, early 1990s. While it has never managed to take center stage, researchers in media and communication studies have used it ever since and the application and development of the concept are still thriving. Additionally, it has been used in other fields, such as technology assessment studies, in design studies, in management studies. 

It focuses primarily on the question of what users (of media and/or technologies) do with these, especially when they are new. How do they adopt them into their everyday lives, how do they adapt to the technologies (and vice versa)? These practices are seen to relate to values that are developed over time (the moral economy of the household), both individually as well as socially. The concept also offers an emphasis on the combined notion of media as technology (object) and content (double / triple articulation). At the time of its first development, the emphasis on the users’ ability to act and interpret was high. Since then, this has seen quite a bit of differentiation. Today, the question of the relationship between users and producers as well as technologies is facing new challenges, to which the domestication concept is seen to contribute important notions.

A keynote by Prof. Maria Bakardjieva (University of Calgary, CAN) will introduce some of the key concerns. Throughout two days, the symposium’s contributors will delve into the above-mentioned questions both theoretically as well as with reference to current empirical material. 

The symposium will take place at the University of the Arts (UdK) Berlin (Hardenbergestraße).

It will begin with a book launch on Thursday, the 12th of October 2023. This will be followed by a symposium on Friday and Saturday (13-14 October), ending mid-day on Saturday.

Interested parties are invited to submit an abstract (300-500 words) to Maren Hartmann (hartmann@udk-berlin.de) until the 15th of June, 2023.

Feel free to contact us with any additional questions/ comments you might have - and feel free to circulate amongst domestication lovers :-)