The special issue of Journal of Multicultural Discourses

Deadline: September 1, 2019

Guest editors: Elena Vartanova & Anna Gladkova (Lomonosov Moscow State University)

Today, we observe how Russia, Brazil, India, China, South Africa and other countries (Argentina, Australia, Colombia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and others) the term ‘Emerging States’ has been sometimes applied to, are fast becoming important players on the international stage (Jaffrelot, 2009). The historical path of ‘Emerging States’, accompanied by major social and political transformations, territorial shifts and changes of political regimes in the 20 th century, as well as the growing presence of these countries in global economy, politics, culture and communication, defined by scholars as ‘the rise of the ‘rest’ (Amsden, 2001), make them an interesting and timely case to study.

Yet often, scholars approach multicultural discourses in ‘Emerging States’ from a ‘Western’ perspective which is not always applicable or suitable to countries with a different historical path of development, as well as political, social and cultural legacy. In this special issue, we will discuss how social, political, economic, technological and cultural transformations ‘Emerging States’ evolved in 20-21st centuries influenced cross-cultural communication in these countries from a cultural discourse studies perspective (Shi-xu, 2015), as well as the impact these major events had upon people’s identities (e.g. Wojnowski, 2015; Davies, 1997; Tishkov, 2008). Furthermore, we argue that regardless of national specifics and current peculiarities of ‘Emerging States’’ communication systems, there are challenges in all multicultural/multi-ethnic societies in that region that they are facing under ongoing digitalization process.

In this special issue, we will look at communication in the multicultural societies of ‘Emerging States’ through the following lenses:

• Social, political, economic, cultural, technological transformations of ‘Emerging States’, and their impact upon cultural discourses;
• Digital communication as a dimension of ‘soft power’ in ‘Emerging States’;
• Diasporas and multicultural discourses;
• Digital inequalities in access/skills/benefits of cultural and ethnic groups leading to new social divides;
• Development of multiculturalism models in ‘Emerging States’ under current digitalization process;

• Constructing ethnic/cultural/linguistic/religious identities in ‘Emerging States’;
• Ethnic media in the new digital environment: audiences, content strategies, roles and functions of journalists;
• Digital media consumption of cultural and ethnic groups, the rise of digital natives;
• Communication policy and its role in supporting intercultural communication across various groups in the society / between societies on a global level.

We welcome contributions from diverse fields of study and methodologies. The special issue is open for general submissions and decisions about inclusion will be quality based, relying on peer reviewing.

Send abstracts (300-500 words indicating central questions, methodology, and theoretical framework).

More details and submission guidelines available here