ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

April 13-17, 2026

IUC, Dubrovnik

Call for participation in the post-graduate course and research conference 

The third wave of autocratization is spreading in democracies and deepening in existing autocracies around the world which now outnumber democracies 91 to 88 for the first time in 20 years - only 29 countries remain liberal democracies (V-Dem, 2025, March). Global freedom has also declined for the 19th consecutive year, primarily in relation to political rights and civil liberties including freedom of expression. 

The current expansion of autocratization is unfolding in the digital network society (Castells 2006, 2019), a global space connected by various digital communication networks, in which communication technologies and services have penetrated all societal domains and become unavoidable for most social interactions (Bolin & Hepp 2017). This  transformation of communication structures makes the present autocratization wave different from the previous ones in terms of its practices, strategies and participating actors. This major communicative shift has been largely neglected in important studies of autocratization in the 21st century.

Attempts to repress media freedom appear before visible changes to institutions of government and elections in later stages of autocratization and provide an early warning. Democratic indicators that have substantially declined over the last decade are all related to media freedom or freedom of expression, and government censorship of media along with media capture have significantly risen, while academic and artistic freedom as well as journalistic safety have deteriorated. Another important element is increased political polarization, fuelled by the dynamics of the hybrid media system, as well as the incursion of AI into the communication mix of both editorial media and social media.

The course & research conference will discuss new research on autocratization and the media in a comparative fashion. 

Course directors:

• Zrinjka Peruško, University of Zagreb
  
• Carmen Ciller, University Carlos III - Madrid
  
• Susanne Fengler, Technical University Dortmund
  
• Göran Bolin, Södertörn University
  
• Epp Lauk, University of Tartu
  
• Paolo Mancini, University of Perugia
  
• Slavko Splichal, University of Ljubljana
  
• Miklós Sükösd, University of Copenhagen

This 14th "slow science" IUC-CMS is an interdisciplinary research conference & post-graduate course open to academics, doctoral and post-doctoral students in media, communication and related fields engaged with the issue of media and media systems, that wish to discuss their current work with established and emerging scholars and get relevant feedback. 

Invited research conference participants will deliver keynote lectures with ample discussion opportunities. In this unique academic format, student course attendees will have extended opportunity to present and discuss their current own work with the course directors and other lecturers and participants in seminar form (English language) and in further informal meetings around the beautiful old-town of Dubrovnik (UNESCO World Heritage) over 5 full working days (Monday to Saturday). 

The working language is English. 

Participation in the course for graduate (master and doctoral) students brings 3,5 ECTS credits, and for doctoral students who present their thesis research 6 ECTS. The course is accredited and the ECTS are awarded by the Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb (www.fpzg.unizg.hr). All participants will also receive a certificate of attendance from the IUC.

Enrolment

To apply, send a CV and a motivation letter to zrinjka.perusko@gmail.com Students who wish to present their research should also send a 300 word abstract. The course can accept 20 students, and the applications are received on a rolling basis. After notification of acceptance you need to register also on this web page  https://iuc.hr/programme/1844. 

The IUC requires a small enrolment fee from student participants. Participants are responsible for organizing their own lodging and travel. Affordable housing is available for IUC participants. Stipends are available from IUC for eligible participants, further information at  https://www.iuc.hr/iuc-support.php. For information on these matters please contact the IUC secretariat at iuc@iuc.hr. 

Venue Information

The Inter-University Centre was founded in Dubrovnik in 1972 as an independent, autonomous academic institution with the aim of promoting international co-operation between academic institutions throughout the world. Courses are held in all scientific disciplines around the year, with participation of member and affiliated universities.

Additional Information

For further information about academic matters please contact the organizing course director: professor Zrinjka Peruško zrinjka.perusko@gmail.com, Centre for Media and Communication Research (www.cim.fpzg.unizg.hr), Department of Media and Communication, Faculty of Political Science (www.fpzg.unizg.hr), University of Zagreb (www.unizg.hr). 

August 11-12

Malmö University Malmö, Sweden

Deadline: March 30, 2026

In collaboration with Malmö Research Centre for Imagining and Co-Creating Futures, AoIR invites participants to its annual Flashpoint symposium.

For those interested in participating in the symposium, the deadline to submit an abstract of up to 300 words is March 30, 2026.

Confirmed keynote plenary speakers are

• prof. Annette Markham, Utrecht University, Netherlands
  
• prof. Susana Tosca, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
  
• prof. Kat Jungnickel, Goldsmiths University of London, UK
  
• prof. Sarah T. Roberts, UCLA, USA

As technologies evolve, our relationship to the technological world changes, and so should our methods of studying the world around us. The methods we use to conduct research matter in understanding what can be studied, how the studies reflect the world, and how the groups we are studying (with) relate to academia. Internet research faces challenges in recruitment, data quality, practicality, and ethics, leading to questions about sampling bias, data truthfulness, and other issues that require creative solutions. We need to question and challenge many of the dominant approaches and find ways to reimagine methods that fit contemporary research challenges. Research methods need to evolve with the world, respect its diversity and be open to inventive ways to involve research participants in knowledge co-creation.

Creative research methods can be methods that draw on creative self-expressions of research participants or researchers, including visual, text, sound, and materials. They may also involve creative use of technologies as part of the research process and outcome – apps, mash-ups, data visualisations, APIs, etc. In addition, creative methods can encompass transformative approaches, including participatory, speculative, artistic, worldbuilding, decolonising, activist and community-based research approaches that are designed to reduce the power imbalances and include diverse voices in academic research. Mixed and hybrid methods that challenge researchers to question the paradigmatic assumptions of their work may also be understood as creative research practices. 

In the spirit of challenging established academic traditions, the symposium invites scholars interested in method-related discussions to join us in imagining and co-creating methods for a new era of internet research. 

We invite individual abstracts for papers, performances, spoken word pieces or artistic creations that highlight creative research methods or focus on the process of creating new methods. Please submit an abstract no longer than 300 words, five keywords and a short bio (including contact details) by March 25, 2026. 

The symposium will charge a fee of 500 SEK (~47 EUR/~56 USD/~41 GBP) that will cover lunches and coffee, and AoIR will also sponsor dinner for symposium participants. If you do not want to share any work but would still like to be part of the symposium, you can also sign up as a participant after March 15. PhD students and early-career scholars are particularly welcome, and AoIR will provide some fee waivers for the early-career scholars (available at a later stage when registration opens). 

Submit your contribution to the symposium: Imagining and Co-creating Methods for Internet Research AoIR Flashpoint Symposium at Malmö – Fill out form (https://forms.office.com/e/yzLEg9T0fb)

Important dates:

• Deadline for abstract submission: March 30, 2026
  
• Registration opens March 15, 2026
  
• Notification of acceptance: mid-April, 2026
  
• Deadline for registrations June 15, 2026
  
• Symposium in Malmö 11-12 August, 2026

More information about Malmö Research Centre for Imagining and Co-Creating Futures: https://mau.se/en/research/research-centres/imagining-and-co-creating-futures/

The Symposium organiser is prof. Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt

(contact: pille.pruulmann.vengerfeldt@mau.se), The scientific committee includes Prof. Andra Siibak and prof. Julia Velkova.

The pre- and post-conferences programme for the European Communication Conference 2026 (ECC2026) is now available. Delegates are invited to apply to a diverse range of pre-conferences addressing key and emerging topics in communication and media research. These events offer an opportunity for focused discussion, networking, and collaboration. Full details of the individual calls for abstracts and participation requirements can be found at:https://ecrea2026brno.eu/pre-post-conferences-call-for-abstracts/.

June 1, 2026

Online

Deadline: April 1, 2026

The growing complexity arising from the integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) into creative practices requires equally complex theoretical, conceptual, and methodological approaches across different disciplines and fields of research (Ruszev et al. 2025). Likewise, the functionalities of the new generative models, its multi-level adoption, and the expanding range of uses, establish a paradigm that goes beyond the generation of isolated outputs towards a complete reconfiguration of creative workflows (Santoso & Wijayanti, 2024; Valverde-Valencia, 2025).

In this context, the notion of workflow seems to call for a renewed approach, distinct from more traditional uses and definitions. Traditionally envisioned as a sequential organization to complete any type of work (Oxford UP; Cambridge UP), the concept has been expanded to accommodate the complexity of human-technology relationships within production processes, focusing on the design, coordination and adaptation of work processes through and with technology (Nicoll and Keogh, 2019). The emergence of Generative AI and its integration into creative practices requires a further expansion of this concept to encompass notions such as distributed agency (Celis Bueno et al. 2024) or Human-AI collaboration (Geroimenko, 2025), which frame these processes not as sequential but as dynamic and co-evolutionary (Moruzzi, 2023). Therefore, Human-AI creative workflows can be understood as an entanglement of relationships between actors, practices, and artifacts that includes mutual learning, feedback loops, iteration, strategies and social, ethical, and labour implications. However, this renewed interest in the concept of workflow also raises new questions: How is learning organized and performed in these iterative processes? How do the stages of creative work adapt when Generative AI plays a role in the process? How can the labour implications of these changes be addressed? How do we negotiate value and authenticity when creative agency is distributed? How can we redefine and reimagine the concept of workflows? And conversely, how this might change our understanding of creativity?

Considering these questions and the challenges posed by Generative AI in creative fields, this International Online Symposium on Human-AI Creative Workflows aims to bring together scholars, professionals and creative practitioners who are embracing complex approaches to the study of these topics. More specifically, we invite proposals that address, but are not limited to, the professional fields such as the Audiovisual Industry, Visual Arts, Videogames, Journalism, Music or Advertising while connecting with the following lines of interest:

• Educational approaches: Teaching-learning processes, contexts and strategies in Human-AI Creation and the role of AI Literacy.
  
• The political economy of Human-AI workflows: monopolisation of workflows (Young et al. 2025), Human-AI co-creation from the perspective of labour, shifts in industry dynamics, business models, and labour conditions.
  
• Agency and Authorship: How is the authorship framed in Human-AI Creativity? Negotiations of control and autonomy in collaborative workflows.
  
• Conceptual contributions: How to redefine the concept of workflow?; which novel theoretical frameworks can we deploy to examine this phenomenon?
  
• Case studies: Case studies on GenAI implementation in studios, newsrooms, agencies... Resistance, workarounds, and/or adoption patterns.
  

BiD (special issue)

Deadline: September 30, 2026

Dear colleagues,

We are pleased to invite submissions for Issue 57 of BiD,  titled  "Digital Communication and Social Practices under Algorithms: Challenges and Opportunities":

Predictive artificial intelligence and personalization algorithms in recommendation systems have become key mediators of everyday activities on digital platforms. These systems process personal data to offer lists of content that, in theory, adapt to citizens’ tastes and interests. By shaping cultural and informational consumption, this process introduces dynamics that are largely invisible to users, who often perceive it as “useful” and “accurate” due to the high level of personalization.

This personalization, as part of the broader phenomenon of platformization, has transformed the communication industry and altered sociocultural habits, at times limiting the diversity of perspectives on issues such as politics, culture, health, and lifestyles, among others. It also raises questions about privacy and about how these technologies influence the ways in which identities and communities are constructed.

This special issue section seeks contributions that critically analyze the interactions between citizens and recommendation systems on digital communication platforms, exploring how these algorithms shape experiences, sociocultural practices, and creative processes. Beyond identifying risks, it is essential to reflect on the capacities and tools that enable people to interact with these technologies in a conscious and critical manner.

Understanding these dynamics requires studying the systems themselves, but also strengthening algorithmic literacy as an essential competence for questioning and managing the logics that govern personalization, avoiding a passive relationship with systems that influence cultural, informational, and social decisions.

We invite the submission of contributions that delve into the following thematic axes. Nevertheless, research that goes beyond these points and analyzes the social role of algorithms and predictive systems in practices of cultural consumption and communication will also be considered.

Proposed thematic axes:

- Algorithmic literacy: the set of knowledge (formal, informal, and non-formal) that users develop to interact and coexist with recommendation algorithms, considering the actors involved in this learning process and the competencies required.  

-Tactics of evasion and algorithmic shaping:  analysis of the active strategies that citizens use to interact with algorithms and influence the content they receive, as well as to avoid exposure to unwanted content.

-Bias, discrimination, hate speech, and normalization of patterns: how algorithms can reinforce social stereotypes or normative patterns (such as canonical bodies or gender roles) and expose users to objectifying content or hate speech, including racism, xenophobia, and LGBTIQphobia, exacerbating discrimination and disadvantage in cases of intersectional bias. 

-Algorithms and migratory and ethnic experience:  understanding how algorithmic personalization conditions the representation and sense of belonging of migrants, as well as ethnic communities. 

- Algorithms in opinion formation and polarization:  analysis of algorithmic influence on the configuration of political and social opinions. 

-Modification of citizens’ everyday practices:  algorithmic influence on consumption practices and habits, such as exercise and diets, as well as fashion, brand consumption, the idealization of relationships, the commodification of authenticity, personal vulnerability, among others.

-Creativity and algorithm-mediated cultural production: analysis of how recommendation systems influence content creation, transform creative processes, and redefine authorship in digital environments. 

We warmly encourage colleagues across communication, media studies, digital sociology, cultural studies, and related fields to submit their work and to share this call within their networks.

Submission Process and Key Dates

Full Paper Submission Deadline 30/09/2026 in the journal system:

https://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/bid/about/submissions 

No payment from the authors will be required.

This forthcoming special issue is open access, and welcomes original research articles in English, Spanish, and Catalan.

Link to the journal full text of the CFP: https://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/bid/announcement/view/982

Please note that this invitation does not guarantee publication, all full manuscripts will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process.

We look forward to your submissions.

The special issue editors, 

Fernanda Pires (fernanda.pires@uab.cat - Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
,

Celina Navarro (celina.navarro@uab.cat) Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)  

Liana Pithan ( liana.pithan@gmail.com - Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul)

Deadline: February 15, 2026

Call for Chapter Proposals

We are preparing a proposal titled Aging and Communication: Rethinking Later Life in a Digitized Society. The book is edited by Francesca Comunello, Mireia Fernández-Ardèvol, Simone Mulargia, and Cora van Leeuwen, and builds on the work of the ECREA Temporary Working Group on Aging and Communication.

The volume aims to strengthen European scholarship on aging and communication by critically examining media representations of later life, digital ageism, communication practices of older adults, and their participation in civic and public life. It takes a critical and intersectional approach, highlighting older adults as active communicators and agents shaping media cultures.

Abstract deadline: 15 February 2026

Notification of acceptance: 1 March 2026

More information on the attached PDF. If you are interest in submitting your proposal, please contact the editors: ecrea.aging.communication@gmail.com

Communication and the Public (special issue)

Deadline: March 20, 2026

https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ctp

In recent decades, environmental challenges—ranging from climate change and air pollution to biodiversity loss and resource scarcity—have increasingly shaped not only policy agendas but also the very texture of public life globally. Responding to these crises, digital technologies—including sensor networks, big data analytics, algorithmic systems, and artificial intelligence—have become constitutive elements in how environmental issues are rendered visible, knowable, and actionable.

These technologies do more than document ecological change. They actively intervene in the communicative infrastructures through which publics emerge, take shape, and act. Systems of sensing, modeling, and prediction increasingly define what counts as “environmental risk,” thereby shaping understandings of responsibility, urgency, and agency. At the same time, these infrastructures operate unevenly: algorithmic filtering, platform governance, and unequal access to data intensify existing inequalities in visibility, participation, and recognition—particularly in contexts of rapid or uneven environmental degradation.

As a result, environmental publics are increasingly co-produced through the interaction of ecological conditions, technological systems, and communicative practices. Yet many existing theories of publicness and communication—largely premised on stable media environments and human-centered deliberation—struggle to account for publics constituted through algorithms, sensors, platforms, and predictive ecologies.

This special issue seeks to advance scholarly understanding of how technological systems reshape environmental communication and how ecological crises, in turn, reconfigure the communicative, institutional, and imaginative infrastructures of public life. By foregrounding the mutually constitutive relationship between technology, publics, and ecological transformation, the issue aims to deepen theoretical debates on public formation, algorithmic governance, mediated knowledge production, and collective action in an era of planetary uncertainty.

Scope and Themes

We welcome conceptual, methodological, and empirical contributions that examine how digital technologies mediate environmental governance, identity formation, activism, and the circulation of ecological knowledge. Contributions may engage with one or more of the following (non-exhaustive) themes:

• Algorithmic infrastructures and the formation of environmental publics
  
• Datafication, environmental knowledge, and public authority
  
• Public communication of climate models, predictive ecologies, and digital simulations
  
• Networked environmental activism and hybrid public mobilization
  
• Communicative agency among scientists, Indigenous communities, and climate advocates
  
• Surveillance ecologies, risk governance, and public trust
  
• Digital platforms, environmental legitimacy, and contestations of power
  
• Environmental media propaganda, misinformation, and AI-generated narratives

We especially encourage submissions from underrepresented regions (Asia, Africa, Latin America, Indigenous contexts) and interdisciplinary perspectives across communication studies, STS, environmental governance, and political ecology.

Submission Process and Key Dates

• Abstract submission deadline: March 20, 2026
  
• Notification of invitations to submit full papers: March 30, 2026
  
• (Please note that an invitation does not guarantee publication; all full manuscripts will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process.)
  
• Full paper submission deadline: July 31, 2026
  
• Planned publication: 2027
  

Abstract Submission Guidelines

Please submit an abstract of up to 500 words, in English, to all guest editors with the subject line: “CAP Special Issue Submission”

Guest Editors:

Dr. Dechun Zhang, University of Copenhagen (dezh@hum.ku.dk)

Dr. Weiai Xu, University of Massachusetts Amherst (weiaixu@umass.edu)

Dr. Han Lin, Soochow University (linhan741@gmail.com)

Full call for paper: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zAr6qNL5YtkC9YKQtj9VexGcPmZxelaq/view?usp=sharing

Culture Unbound (Special Issue)

Deadline (EXTENDED): February 20, 2026

Editors: Johanna Dahlin and Hossam Sultan

In many countries, research ethics in qualitative and ethnographic research—including digital and online ethnographies—are increasingly subject to formalized governance. A growing tendency toward bureaucratization introduces standardized procedures that often reflect criteria and expectations from clinical or laboratory settings. While these frameworks aim to ensure accountability, they can clash with the relational, adaptive, and context sensitive nature of ethnographic practice. Requirements such as detailed pre-study protocols, rigid consent forms, and extensive documentation can in some cases,—such as recordings, the management of sensitive data, or consent forms requested by ethics approval authorities—pose risks to participants and lead to over-bureaucratization for researchers. In other contexts, such as participant observation in large groups, it may be practically impossible to obtain informed consent from everyone involved. These developments raise fundamental questions about how ethical review systems can accommodate the complexity and unpredictability inherent in ethnographic research, without reducing ethics to formal procedures and the ticking of boxes.

The governance of research ethics is not a neutral or purely technical matter—it shapes what kinds of knowledge can be produced, whose voices are heard, and which methods are considered legitimate. As ethical review systems become increasingly standardized and bureaucratized, there is a risk that flexible, context-sensitive approaches such as ethnography are marginalized or forced into compliance frameworks that do not fit their epistemological foundations. These developments have implications not only for researchers but also for participants, communities, and the broader public.

By critically examining these transformations, this special issue aims to advance scholarly debate on how ethical governance can protect participants and uphold integrity without undermining methodological diversity and innovation. We invite academic contributions that analyze tensions, unintended consequences, and creative responses to current systems, as well as conceptual and empirical work proposing alternative approaches that better align with the relational and processual nature of ethnographic practice. The purpose is to generate knowledge and critical perspectives that can inform future discussions and scholarly agendas for ethical governance—agendas that respect both accountability and the complexity of qualitative research.

Types of Contributions

This special issue invites contributions in the form of full papers (8000 words) or short commentaries (3000-4000 words) that reflect upon current transformations in the regulation of ethics in ethnographic research with focus tensions, emergent questions, work arounds and future agendas that they see needed to be put in place. We welcome:

• Empirical studies, including shorter vignettes, examining how ethical review systems shape research practices in different contexts.
  
• Theoretical and conceptual analyses of ethics as practice, situated ethics, and reflexivity in relation to governance.
  
• Methodological reflections on alternative consent models (oral, processual, participatory) and their recognition within formal systems.
  

Contributors can reflect upon questions such as, but not limited to, the following:

• How can ethics be understood as relational and processual rather than fixed and standardized?
  
• What risks arise when journals and institutions impose “one-size-fits-all” requirements on diverse research practices?
  
• How might digital, online and hybrid ethnographies challenge existing assumptions about consent, privacy, and data security?
  
• In what ways can critical and postcolonial perspectives inform the design of ethical review systems?
  
• What strategies can researchers and institutions adopt to balance accountability with methodological flexibility?
  

Contributions are welcome from scholars working in a variety of fields and disciplines that engage in ethnographic research. The special issue will be published in the international open-access journal Culture Unbound. All submissions will undergo double-blind peer review.

Timeline:

• 20 February 2026: Deadline for Abstract submission. Please send a 500-word extended abstract to johanna.dahlin@liu.se and hossam.sultan@liu.se. Please indicate whether the intended manuscript is going to be a full article (up to 8000 words) or a short commentary (up to 4000 words).
  
• 2 March 2026: Notification of acceptance of proposal for paper.
  
• 15 August 2026: Submission of full papers
  
• 30 October 2026: Reviews in
  
• 31 December 2026: Revised manuscripts due
  
• Spring 2027: Publication in Culture Unbound
  

Submit your proposals and any queries to johanna.dahlin@liu.se and hossam.sultan@liu.se

August 21-22, 2026

Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, India

Deadline: March 1, 2026

The 6th Mobile Studies Congress invites researchers, creative practitioners, designers, filmmakers, and industry professionals to submit papers and proposals for presentations, workshops, screenings, showcases, and panel discussions on the theme "Go Mobile, Stay Connected." This annual event examines the transformative impact of mobile media, cellphilming and smart technologies on our lives, society, and creative industries. The congress will explore new ways to connect with culture, country, and communities. The 6th Mobile Studies Congress will also feature a screening of the Mobile Innovation Networks and Association (MINA) smartphone film festival. Selected conference papers and projects will be published in a special issue and edited collection.

Details: https://www.6thmobilestudiescongress.org/

June 27, 2026

Dublin, Ireland

Deadline: March 15, 2026

This pre-conference hosted by IAMCR’s Communication in Post- and Neo-Authoritarian Societies Working Group (CPN), examines public and communicative processes around (de-)industrialisation in Europe and North America, focusing on questions of voice, visibility, representation, and inequality. It takes a pluralist approach, combining analyses of public discourse with research grounded in lived experience.

Call for proposals

Authors are invited to submit abstracts of 250-300 words (excluding references, figures, and tables) by 15 March 2026 (23:59 CEST / 21:59 UTC).

Download the full call for papers

Abstracts must include name, affiliation, and contact information. Submissions should be written in English and include the main research question(s), research interest, theoretical framework, methodological approach, and key empirical findings (if applicable).

A selection of papers presented at the pre-conference will be invited to contribute to a special issue of the open-access, double-blind peer-reviewed Global Media Journal (German edition).

Date and time

Saturday, 27 June 2026

10:00–17:00 (to be confirmed)

Location

Dublin (venue to be confirmed)

About the pre-conference

Industrialization in Europe and North America was associated with profound societal transformations, most notably the urbanisation of populations and the creation of mass workforces. Across generations, many families expected their children to follow established occupational trajectories into mines, steelworks, docks, mills, and factories. For much of the twentieth century, heavy industries offered relatively stable employment and social security, contributing to gradual improvements in working-class conditions up to the 1960s.

Deindustrialization, by contrast, has often been experienced as a process of decline and loss – in economic as well as social terms. Beyond the erosion of material living standards, it has entailed the loss of pride, security, and self-worth among urban working-class communities. As industries disappeared, so too did the social infrastructures that sustained everyday life. Urban spaces fell into decay, amenities declined, and the voices, values and identities of communities were increasingly marginalised within broader national imaginaries. For many affected communities, this history continues to shape present experiences of being voiceless, unrepresented, and neglected.

The proposed pre-conference seeks to explore these dynamics by examining the public and communicative processes around (de-)industrialization. It aims to take a pluralist approach to industrial transformation, attending both to macro-level public discourses and to the lived experiences of communities navigating industrial decline and post-industrial restructuring. By foregrounding communication as a central site through which industrial transformation is interpreted, contested, and experienced, the pre-conference invites critical engagement with questions of inclusion/exclusion, voice, (in)visibility, (mis/under-)representation and inequality in societies shaped by ongoing processes of deindustrialization.