ECREA WEEKLY digest ARTICLES

Mobile Media & Communication (Special issue)

Deadline: November 1, 2025

Dear colleagues,

We invite you to submit papers for the Special Issue: Messaging Applications and Global Cultures of Mobility in the journal Mobile Media & Communication, an international and interdisciplinary journal dedicated to publishing academic research analyzing the intersection of communication and mobility.

This special issue, edited by Rose Marie Santini (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), James Fitzgerald (Dublin City University), Rosana Pinheiro-Machado (University College Dublin), and Débora Salles (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), seeks papers that critically analyze the intersections between messaging applications and practices of mobility in both local and global contexts.

Once conceived as simple alternatives to SMS, messaging applications have transformed into multimedia ecosystems central to contemporary life, with uses ranging from real-time tracking to political and economic organization across different cultural contexts. While much of the academic literature emphasizes their risks—such as disinformation, surveillance, and illicit activities—it is equally important to examine their productive potential, from reducing social isolation to integrating businesses and increasing the visibility of marginalized groups. This special issue thus aims to bring together contributions that deepen the understanding of these multiple dynamics and their local and global impacts.

The CFP encourages regional and interdisciplinary contributions from scholars at all career stages, to investigate how and why messaging applications intersect with mobility, while analyzing their impacts on individuals, politics, culture, and society. We welcome single-platform case studies as well as comparative analyses of two or more applications, with a special emphasis on contributions from the Global South to ensure geographical and conceptual diversity.

We are particularly interested in articles that address topics such as:

• Cultures of mobility on messaging applications in the Global North and South;
  
• Messaging applications as tools for real-time political resistance and organized protest;
  
• Messaging applications as sites of (state or private) surveillance;
  
• Differences in cultures of mobility across different messaging applications, within the same territory or across different regions;
  
• The impact of specific business models on mobility within messaging applications;
  
• The use of messaging applications for formal and informal economic activities, and their implications for boundaries between legal/illegal and formal/informal practices;
  
• How messaging applications shape the geographies of commercial activities;
  
• The effects of artificial intelligence integration on new or transformed practices of mobility.

Important dates:

Submission of extended abstracts (500–700 words): November 1, 2025

Notification of accepted abstracts: November 15, 2025

Submission of first full drafts (8,000 words): March 15, 2026

Submission of second drafts: July 15, 2026

Final acceptance: November 15, 2026

Please submit abstracts by November 1, 2025 to:

marie.santini@eco.ufrj.br and james.fitzgerald@dcu.ie

Further information is available at:

https://journals.sagepub.com/page/mmc/messagingapplications

October 29, 2025

The Urbanism/Geography/Architecture Scholarly Interest Group at the Society of Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) invites you to its first virtual event of the 2025-2026 cycle! 

Please join us on Wednesday, October 29th, for a virtual workshop with our special guests Chris Lukinbeal (University of Arizona) and Tara Plath (University of California, Santa Barbara).

The workshop will explore how mapping can be applied in media studies research. Together, we’ll consider how mapping opens up new perspectives on film, media, and space, and you’ll leave with fresh ideas for bringing spatial thinking and mapping techniques into your own work.

For more details and to register: https://luma.com/gw4t4yph

May 21-24, 2026

TU Braunschweig

Deadline: December 10, 2025

https://websci26.org/

Important Dates

• December 10, 2025: Paper submission
  
• February 4, 2026: Notification
  
• February 28, 2026: Camera-ready versions due
  
• May 26-29, 2026: Conference dates
  

About the Web Science Conference

Web Science is an interdisciplinary field dedicated to understanding the complex and multiple impacts of the Web on society and vice versa. The interdisciplinary field is well situated to address pressing issues of our time by incorporating various scientific approaches. We welcome quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research, including techniques from the social sciences and computer science. In addition, we are interested in work exploring Web-based data collection, research ethics, and emerging methods. We also encourage studies that combine analyses of Web data and other types of data (e.g., from surveys or interviews) to help better understand user behavior online and offline.

Theme for Web Science 2026: Managing Risks in the Era of Generative AI - How 20 Years of Web Science Research Can Help

Web content is influencing human experiences more than ever before. The rapid deployment of artificial intelligence (including large language models) has created new risks for humans in the digital environment. These risks include customly crafted misinformation at scale, realistic AI-generated harmful content and deepfakes, as well as fraudulent activities and scams becoming more effective thanks to AI. Trust and community have been eroded during this current era of the Web, and researching means to manage these risks on the Web is as essential as ever. The Web Science community has looked at this complex socio-technical system for 20 years, exploring its structure, dynamics, and impact on society. This year’s conference especially encourages contributions investigating the risks for society on the web in the presence of artificial intelligence. Additionally, we welcome papers on a wide range of topics at the heart of Web Science.

In 2026, we will also be able to allocate a limited amount of funding for student travel provided by SIGWEB and WebIST.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

Understanding the Web

• Trends in globalization and fragmentation of the Web
  
• The architecture, philosophy, and evolution of the Web
  
• Automation and AI in all its manifestations relevant to the Web
  
• The interrelationship between the structure of the web and social behavior
  
• Critical analyses of the Web and Web technologies
  
• The spread of large models on the web
  

Making the Web Inclusive

• Issues of discrimination and fairness
  
• Intersectionality and design justice in questions of marginalization and inequality
  
• Ethical challenges of technologies, data, algorithms, platforms, and people on the Web
  
• Safeguarding and governance of the Web, including anonymity, security, and trust
  
• Inclusion, literacy, and the digital divide
  
• Human-centered security and robustness on the Web
  

The Web and Everyday Life

• Social machines, crowd computing, and collective intelligence
  
• Web economics, social entrepreneurship, and innovation
  
• Legal and policy issues, including rights and accountability for the AI industry
  
• The creator economy: Humanities, arts, and culture on the Web
  
• Politics and social activism on the Web
  
• Relationships, organization, and social interaction on the Web
  
• Online education and remote learning
  
• Health and well-being online
  
• Social presence in online professional event spaces
  
• The Web as a source of news and information
  

Doing Web Science

• Data curation, Web archives, and stewardship in Web Science
  
• Temporal and spatial dimensions of the Web as a repository of information
  
• Analysis and modeling of human and automatic behavior (e.g., bots)
  
• Analysis of online social and information networks
  
• Detecting, preventing, and predicting anomalies in Web data (e.g., fake content, spam)
  
• Novel analysis techniques for Web and social network analysis
  
• Recommendation engines and contextual adaptation for Web tasks
  
• Web-based information retrieval and information generation
  
• Supporting heterogeneity across modalities, sensors, and channels on the Web
  
• User modeling and personalization approaches on the Web
  

Format of the submissions
Please upload your submissions via EasyChair: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=websci26

There are two submission formats:

• Full paper should be between 6 and 10 pages (including references, appendices, etc.). Full papers typically report on mature and completed projects.
  
• Short papers should be up to 5 pages (including references, appendices, etc.) and primarily report on high-quality ongoing work that is not mature enough for a full-length publication.
  

All papers should adopt the current ACM SIG Conference proceedings template (acmart.cls). Please submit papers as PDF files using the ACM template, either in Microsoft Word format (available at https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template under “Word Authors”) or with the ACM LaTeX template on the Overleaf platform, which is available at https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/association-for-computing-machinery-acm-sig-proceedings-template/bmvfhcdnxfty. In particular, please ensure that you are using the two-column version of the appropriate template. All contributions will be judged by the Program Committee by at least three referees based on rigorous peer review standards for quality and fit for the conference. Additionally, each paper will be assigned to a Senior Program Committee member to ensure review quality.

WebSci-2026 review is double-blind. Therefore, please anonymize your submission: do not put the author(s)’ names or affiliation(s) at the start of the paper, and do not include funding or other acknowledgments in papers submitted for review. References to the authors’ own prior relevant work should be included, but should not specify that this is the authors’ own work. It is up to the authors’ discretion how much to further modify the body of the paper to preserve anonymity. The requirement for anonymity does not extend outside the review process, e.g., the authors can decide how widely to distribute their papers over the Internet. Even in cases where the author’s identity is known to a reviewer, the double-blind process will serve as a symbolic reminder of the importance of evaluating the submitted work on its own merits without regard to the author’s reputation.

Authors who wish to opt out of publication proceedings will be given this option upon acceptance. This will encourage the participation of researchers from the social sciences who prefer to publish their work as journal articles. All authors of accepted papers (including those who opt out of proceedings) are expected to present their work at the conference.

ACM Publication Policies

1. By submitting your article to an ACM Publication, you acknowledge that you and your co-authors are subject to all ACM Publications Policies, including ACM’s new Policy on Research Involving Human Participants and Subjects. Alleged violations of this policy or any ACM Publications Policy will be investigated by ACM and may result in a full retraction of your paper, in addition to other potential penalties, as per ACM Publications Policy.

2. Please ensure that you and your co-authors obtain an ORCID ID to complete the publishing process for your accepted paper. ACM has been involved in ORCID from the start, and we have recently made a commitment to collect ORCID IDs from all of our published authors. The collection process started in 2022 and will be a requirement. We are committed to improving author discoverability, ensuring proper attribution, and contributing to ongoing community efforts around name normalization; your ORCID ID will help in these efforts.

3. For guidelines on the use of generative AI tools, please refer to https://www.acm.org/publications/policies/frequently-asked-questions

Important update on ACM's new open access publishing model for 2026 ACM Conferences!

Starting January 1, 2026, ACM will fully transition to Open Access. All ACM publications, including those from ACM-sponsored conferences, will be 100% Open Access (https://www.acm.org/publications/openaccess).

Authors will have two primary options for publishing Open Access articles with ACM: the ACM Open institutional model or by paying Article Processing Charges (APCs). With over 1,800 institutions already part of ACM Open, the majority of ACM-sponsored conference papers will not require APCs from authors or conferences (currently, around 70-75%).

Authors from institutions not participating in ACM Open must pay an APC to publish their papers, unless they qualify for a financial or discretionary waiver. To find out whether an APC applies to your article, please consult the list of participating institutions in ACM Open and review the APC Waivers and Discounts Policy. Remember that waivers are rare and are granted based on specific criteria set by ACM.

Understanding that this change could present financial challenges, ACM has approved a temporary subsidy for 2026 to ease the transition and allow more time for institutions to join ACM Open. The subsidy will offer:
$250 APC for ACM/SIG members
$350 for non-members

This represents a 65% discount, funded directly by ACM. Authors are encouraged to help advocate for their institutions to join ACM Open during this transition period. You can find an FAQ here: Open Access Model for ACM and SIG Sponsored Conferences: Frequently Asked Questions, and more information here: Open Access Publication & ACM

Program Committee Chairs:

Gianluca Demartini (The University of Queensland, Australia)
Stefan Dietze (Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf & GESIS, Germany)
Jen Golbeck (University of Maryland, USA)

For any questions and queries regarding the paper submission, please contact the chairs at websci26@easychair.org.

April 1 - 3, 2026

Paris, Campus des Cordeliers

Deadline: October 15, 2025

https://encore-network.org/call-for-papers/

Since its inception in 1956, the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) has launched the careers of global stars such as ABBA and Celine Dion. Multicultural and multilingual, and unmatched in scale outside the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the ESC has become a fixture of the European public media landscape. In 2025, the contest reached 166 million television viewers and garnered 1.8 billion views across its social media platforms. As a ceremonial media event (Dayan & Katz, 1996), the ESC carries significant economic, political, and social implications.

On the eve of its 70th anniversary, the ESC is far from being an outdated or kitschy public spectacle. Instead, it crystallizes numerous complex issues. It serves as a platform where Europe and its neighbors express national identities and shared imaginaries, while also reflecting geopolitical rivalries—from East-West tensions during the Cold War to more recent conflicts such as Armenia/Azerbaijan, Ukraine/Russia, and Israel/Palestine. Positioned at the intersection of the cultural and media industries, the ESC raises questions about the construction of norms and the representation of certain populations. Finally, the ESC prompts critical inquiry into cultural legitimacy and its counterpoint—the eclecticism of taste—raising the question: what does it mean today to ‘love the Eurovision Song Contest’?

Studying the ESC thus entails exploring the intersections of identity, collective rituals, and social media participation, while also illuminating the complex political and social dynamics within the cultural and media industries. To what extent can the humanities and social sciences help us to illuminate, understand, and critically analyze the social, cultural, and political issues—both past and present—embodied in the ESC?

In recent years, a growing body of research has examined the ESC through a variety of disciplinary and methodological approaches. This body of work engages with multiple disciplinary perspectives, including explorations of national and cultural identities in Europe (Fricker & Gluhovic (eds.), 2013; Jordan, 2014; Neves, 2017; Panea, 2020; Venon, 2007), as well as approaches rooted in musicology and popular culture (Björnberg, 1987; Fornäs, 2017; Shuker, 2016; Raykoff, 2021; Tragaki (ed.), 2013), cultural sociology and fan studies (Le Guern, 2007; Vieira Lopes, 2023), cultural studies (Carniel, 2018; Coleman, 2008; Salgó, 2017), history (Vuletic, 2018), communication and media studies (Appiotti, Bolz, Boittiaux & Neuvillers, 2025; Pajala, 2011), education studies (Cremona, 2022), and gender studies (Baker, 2024; Imre, 2020; Lemish, 2004; Vänskä & Tuhkanen (eds.), 2007).

The conference “Eurovision Song Contest and the Humanities and Social Sciences” seeks to build upon the collective initiatives that have helped establish an interdisciplinary state of the art in ESC research (Raykoff & Tobin, (eds.), 2007; Fricker & Gluhovic, (eds.), 2013; Dubin, Vuletic & Obregón, (eds.), 2023). Adopting an interdisciplinary and critical perspective, the conference aims to explore and interrogate emerging approaches and studies related to the contest and its multiple dimensions.

The discussions at this conference will be structured around the following central research questions:

• How are the humanities and social sciences approaching the ESC? Conversely, how might the ESC stimulate and challenge the theoretical frameworks and methodologies of these disciplines?
  
• Is the ESC an original social object with its own distinct questions and methods, or does it resemble other research topics that pose similar analytical challenges?
  
• Does current research on the ESC reflect a profound renewal of academic approaches, or is it primarily shaped by long-term dynamics involving the revision and adaptation of existing themes, objects, and analytical frameworks?
  
• What do analyses of the ESC contribute to the humanities and social sciences, particularly in terms of methodological tools, and interpretive perspectives?
  
• How do disciplinary orientations and the ethnocentric perspectives of researchers shape their interpretations of the ESC and influence their research practices?
  

This conference also aims to underscore the importance of diverse perspectives, disciplines, and research traditions, recognizing that only an interdisciplinary and intercultural approach to the ESC can fully capture and update the current state of scholarship on the subject. As such, paper proposals are welcome from a wide range of disciplines and methodologies, including but not limited to: anthropology, communication studies, cultural studies, law, economics, gender studies, tourism studies, aesthetics, geography, history, fan studies, musicology, narratology, performance and theater studies, political science, linguistics, semiotics, and sociology. In particular, papers are expected to include:

• A critical and reflective presentation of the concepts, paradigms, and methodologies employed to address the questions raised by the conference. Special attention should be given to the identification of the disciplinary fields involved and the ways in which they are brought into dialogue. Contributions should demonstrate how these interdisciplinary engagements offer an original lens for understanding the ESC.
  
• An analysis grounded in verifiable and contestable empirical material, such as ethnographic fieldwork, textual or media corpora, databases, or other forms of structured data, allowing for critical debate and scholarly validation.
  

To this end, we propose several thematic areas for consideration. These are not exhaustive and are intended as a guiding framework to assist in the drafting of paper proposals.

1. As stated above, we are interested in the epistemologies and methodologies employed in conducting field research on the ESC:

• Between the “aca-fan” stance (Jenkins, 2006: 4) and the claim to axiological neutrality, how can researchers study the ESC while maintaining reflexivity, critical distance, and scientific rigor?
  
• What approaches are commonly favored to define the ESC as a research subject, and what are the underlying reasons for these preferences?
  
• In what ways do the social, political, and historical contexts of research shape the situated knowledge (Haraway, 1988) of scholars studying the ESC?
  
• From the Super Bowl halftime show to the Olympic Games (Gilbert & Lo, 2007; Baker, 2016; Baker, Atkinson, Grabher & Howcroft, 2025), television competitions (Leveneur-Martel, 2021) and music festivals (Delanty, Giorgi & Sassatelli (eds.), 2011; Djakouane & Négrier, 2021), what comparisons and dialogues can be drawn between the ESC and other cultural phenomena and concrete research topics?
  
• How can alternative research methods and protocols, including action research and research-creation, open new ways for investigating the ESC?
  
• Finally, how do methodological and scientific experiments, for example related to digital research methods in the humanities and social sciences and digital humanities, renew scientific questions and research protocols concerning the ESC?
  

2. The role of the ESC as a mirror reflecting socio-cultural and political issues, tensions, and debates—an aspect that has drawn increasing scholarly attention in recent years—also deserves to be critically examined.

• To what extent does the ESC function as a catalyst, a revealer, or a mirror of past and contemporary social, political, and cultural issues?
  
• How can we move beyond the conventional dichotomy of apoliticism vs. politicization often applied to analyze the ESC, and instead develop a more nuanced understanding of the actors, dynamics, and forms of politicization and depoliticization involved in the contest?
  
• Why—and through what mechanisms—is the ESC frequently connoted, or even disqualified, as an outdated, kitschy, or culturally illegitimate form? How can we (re)qualify the cultural hierarchies and tastes that shape perceptions of the ESC?
  
• Why does the ESC crystallize a wide array of debates, social discourses, values, and ideologies? In what ways are these performed and staged in the public sphere through interpretive conflicts, controversies, and scandals?

3. We also place great importance on the various social actors involved in the ESC. Our aim is to better understand the relational, interactional, and even ‘cooperative-competitive’ (Legavre, 2011) dynamics that structure the interactions among actors within the ‘Eurovision world’.

This line of research invites submissions that explore—whether through monographic case studies or comparative analyses—the understanding of one or more types of social actors gravitating around the ESC, such as:

• The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) ; 
  
• Public service media members of the EBU and broadcasters of the contest ; 
  
• Artists and their “cooperation chains” (Becker, 1988): record labels, managers, musicians, dancers, producers, technicians, etc. ; 
  
• Private or public media providing coverage of the competition (Wolther, 2006; Pajala, 2011): journalists, commentators, content creators, influencers, fan media, etc. ; 
  
• The audiences (Ballarini & Ségur (eds.), 2017), non-audiences, and fans of the ESC, in all their diversity of practices and imaginations related to the competition ; 
  
• Politicians, and how they have approached the ESC over the years ; 
  
• ESC sponsors and partner brands. 
  

4. The forms and formats of the ESC could also serve as a focal point for discussion at the conference, particularly in relation to the following aspects:

• A study of performances (songs, lyrics, staging, etc.);
  
• The (multi-)media dimension of the contest: the ESC is a concert stage, a television show, and an unprecedented catalyst for a variety of formats (videos, photos, memes, rankings, predictions, polls, etc.) on the web and on digital social networks;
  
• The ESC as an incubator for technical and technological innovations;
  
• The dramaturgy of the contest, with a continuous evolution of its rules and staging (voting rules, announcement of points, etc.);
  
• The spectacularization of the ESC’s staging: evident both in the increasing professionalization of its shows and artistic performances, as well as in the substantial annual budget allocated to the event’s organization, production, multiple rehearsals, promotion, and broadcasting.
  

5. We also believe that the links between the ESC and the territories provide a valuable gateway for dialogue on the following approaches and themes:

• The value of various scientific approaches, such as geopolitics (Yair, 1995; Yair & Maman, 1996) or socio-history, in understanding: the social and symbolic construction of territories, borders, and cultural identities through the lens of the ESC; the construction of territorial images and imaginaries through diverse discursive strategies (such as narratives of national and cultural identities, and the production and circulation of stereotypes) and semiotic strategies (such as video “postcards” presenting artists, host countries and candidates, costumes, flags, national symbols, etc.);
  
• The role of the ESC in territorial development strategies: particular attention may be given to the economic, territorial, and tourism ecosystem of the ESC in relation to the host country and city. This includes examining its most contested dimensions (Shepherd, 2021), such as public administrations (tourist offices, information centers) and local authorities (city, region, etc.) as well as tourists.
  
• The dialectical tensions between territorialization and deterritorialization (do Carmo Cruz, 2019), as well as between globalization and glocalization (Robertson, 1994) of the ESC.
  

In all cases, fieldwork, corpus-based studies, and reflexive approaches to the ESC’s epistemological and methodological frameworks will be central to our discussions.

Aligned with the founding of the Eurovision Research Network (“Europe and the ‘New’ Europe Research Network,” 2009 in Fricker, Gluhovic, 2013: 3; 6), this conference aims to serve as a catalyst for the formation of an international scholarly network exploring the ESC through interdisciplinary and cross-thematic perspectives.

In a second phase, a collection of double-blind peer-reviewed articles in English is planned for publication in a specialized academic volume.

Calendar 

• Publication of the call for papers: September 1, 2025
  
• Paper proposal submission deadline: October 15, 2025 
  
• Notification of paper acceptance: December 10, 2025 
  

Submission guidelines

Proposals should be sent by October 15, 2025 to the following email address : escconference.paris@gmail.com 

Please submit paper proposals in French or English as follows : 

• A file (in .pdf format) containing: the title of the paper, a short bio-bibliographical note (maximum 500 characters, including surname, first name, and institutional affiliation), an email address, and up to 5 keywords;
  
• An anonymous file (in .pdf format) containing: the title of the paper, the paper proposal of no more than 3,000 characters including spaces, excluding bibliographical references.
  

As a reminder, paper proposals are expected to include:

• A concise overview of the research context;
  
• A clear and well-structured presentation of the research question, along with the key concepts, paradigms, and methodologies used to engage with the themes of the conference;
  
• A presentation of fieldwork-based analysis (e.g., ethnographic studies, corpora, textual analysis, databases, etc.). If the research is still in progress, please provide initial hypotheses and a description of the research protocol.
  

All information related to this call for papers and the international conference is also available on https://encore-network.org.  

References 

Appiotti, S., Bolz, L., Boittiaux, J., & Neuvillers, M.-C. (8 avril 2025). Mutations de la couverture médiatique du concours Eurovision de la chanson en France (analyse exploratoire de la presse écrite et de la télévision 1998–2024). Presentation at the seminar “Penser l’Eurovision”.

Baker, C. (2016). The ‘gay Olympics’? The Eurovision Song Contest and the politics of LGBT/European belonging. European Journal of International Relations, 23(1), 97–121. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066116633278

Baker, C. (2024). Lion of Love: Representations of Russian Homosexuality and Homophobia in Netflix’s Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga. Historical Reflections, 50(2), 61–76.

Baker, C., Atkinson, D., Grabher, B., & Howcroft, M. (2025). Bridging the ‘sport/culture silo’: the Eurovision Song Contest and its lessons for sporting and cultural mega-events. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/10286632.2025.2521115 

Ballarini, L., & Ségur, C. (eds.). (2017). Devenir public. Modalités et enjeux (Série « Media critic »). Éditions Mare et Martin.

Björnberg, A. (1987). En liten sång som alla andra : Melodifestivalen 1959–1983 [A Little Song Like All the Others: Melodifestivalen 1959–1983] [Doctoral thesis, University of Göteborg].

Carniel, J. (2018). Understanding the Eurovision Song Contest in multicultural Australia. Palgrave Macmillan.

Coleman, S. (2008). Why is the Eurovision Song Contest Ridiculous? Exploring a Spectacle of Embarrassment, Irony and Identity. Popular Communication, 6(3), 127–140.

Cremona, G. (2022). The Eurovision University Study Unit and Its Pedagogic Value: A Critical Evaluation of Public and Media Reaction Towards Innovation in Higher Education. International Journal of Higher Education Pedagogies, 3(1), 13–23.

Dayan, D., & Katz, E. (1996). La télévision cérémonielle : anthropologie et histoire en direct. Presses universitaires de France.

Delanty, G., Giorgi, L., & Sassatelli, M. (eds.). (2011). Festivals and the cultural public sphere. Routledge.

Djakouane, A., & Négrier, E. (2021). Festivals, territoire et société. Ministère de la Culture – DEPS. https://doi.org/10.3917/deps.djako.2021.01

Do Carmo Cruz, V. (2019). Territoire et processus de territorialisation : usages et conceptions méthodologiques dans le domaine de la géographie. In Action publique, dynamiques sociales et pauvreté (1‑). Presses universitaires de la Méditerranée. https://doi.org/10.4000/books.pulm.21706

Dubin, A., Vuletic, D., & Obregón, A. (eds.). (2022). The Eurovision Song Contest as a cultural phenomenon: From concert halls to the halls of academia. Routledge. 

Fornäs, J. (2017). Euro-Visions: East European Narratives in Televised Popular Music. In J. Fornäs (Dir.), Europe Faces Europe: Narratives from Its Eastern Half (pp. 179–236). Intellect.

Fricker, K., & Gluhovic, M. (eds.). (2013). Performing the “New” Europe. Identities, Feelings and Politics in the Eurovision Song Contest. Palgrave Macmillan.

Gilbert, H., & Lo, J. (2007). Cosmopolitics: Cross-cultural Transactions in Australasia. Palgrave Macmillan.

Haraway, D. (1988). Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective. Feminist Studies, 14(3), 575–599. https://doi.org/10.2307/3178066

Imre, A. (2020). The Eurovision Song Contest: Queer Nationalism. In E. Thompson & J. Mittell (eds.), How to Watch Television (2nd ed., pp. 193–202). NYU Press.

Jenkins, H. (2006). Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture. New York University Press.

Jordan, P. (2014). The Modern Fairy Tale: Nation Branding, National Identity and the Eurovision Song Contest in Estonia. University of Tartu Press.

Le Guern, P. (2007). Aimer l’Eurovision, une faute de goût ? Une approche sociologique du fan club français de l’Eurovision. Réseaux, 25(145), 231–265.

Legavre, J.-B. (2011). Entre conflit et coopération. Les journalistes et les communicants comme « associés-rivaux ». Communication & langages, 169, 105–123. https://doi.org/10.4074/S0336150011003097

Lemish, D. (2004). « My Kind of Campfire »: The Eurovision Song Contest and Israeli Gay Men. Popular Communication, 2(1), 41–63.

Leveneur-Martel, L. (2021). Les cérémonies Miss France, de la télévision à Twitter : Une ritualisation des commentaires (2015–2019). Réseaux, 230(6), 171–214. https://doi.org/10.3917/res.230.0171

Neves, M. (2017). Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest: From an Anti-War Message to the Recognition of a Cultural Tradition. International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, 48(1), 133–147.

Pajala, M. (2011). Making Television Historical: Cultural memory of the Eurovision Song Contest in the Finnish media 1961–2005. Media History, 17(4), 405–418. https://doi.org/10.1080/13688804.2011.602859

Panea, J. L. (2020). Las escenografías del Festival de Eurovisión: Estética, tecnología e identidad cultural al albor de la reconstrucción europea (1956–1993). Ámbitos: Revista de Estudios de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, 49, 23–40.

Raykoff, I. (2021). Another Song for Europe. Music, Taste, and Values in the Eurovision Song Contest. Routledge

Raykoff, I., & Tobin, R. D. (eds.). (2007). A Song for Europe: Popular Music and Politics in the Eurovision Song Contest. Routledge.

Robertson, R. (1994). Globalisation or glocalisation? Journal of International Communication, 1(1), 33–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/13216597.1994.9751780

Salgó, E. (2017). ‘Rise like a Phoenix’: A New Anthem for (Federal) Europe. In Images from Paradise: The Visual Communication of the European Union’s Federalist Utopia (pp. 141–159). Berghahn Books.

Shepherd, J. (2021). ‘I’m not your toy’ : rejecting a tourism boycott. Tourism Recreation Research. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2021.1998874

Shuker, R. (2016). Understanding Popular Music Culture. Routledge.

Tragaki, D. (Ed.). (2013). Empire of Song: Europe and Nation in the Eurovision Song Contest. Scarecrow Press.

Vänskä, A., & Tuhkanen, M. (eds.). (2007). Special Issue: “Queer Eurovision”. SQS: Journal of Queer Studies in Finland, 2(2). https://journal.fi/sqs/issue/view/3606

Venon, F. (2007). L’Eurovision et les frontières culturelles de l’Europe. Cybergeo: European Journal of Geography. http://journals.openedition.org/cybergeo/5633

Vieira Lopes, S. (2023). Música, televisão, memória e representação: Um estudo do Festival RTP da Canção (1964–2020) [Doctoral thesis, Universidade Nova de Lisboa].

Vuletic, D. (2018). Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest. Bloomsbury.

Wolther, I. (2006). Der Eurovision Song Contest als Mittel national-kultureller Repräsentation. Königshausen & Neumann.

Yair, G. (1995). Unite, Unite, Europe: The Political and Cultural Structures of Europe as Reflected in the Eurovision Song Contest. Social Networks, 17(2), 147–161. https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-8733(95)00253-K

Yair, G., & Maman, D. (1996). The Persistent Structure of Hegemony in the Eurovision Song Contest. Acta Sociologica, 39(3), 309–325. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4194833

Organizing committee

Sébastien Appiotti, GRIPIC, CELSA – Sorbonne Université

Lisa Bolz, GRIPIC, CELSA – Sorbonne Université

Johan Boittiaux, LabSIC, Université Sorbonne Paris Nord

Philippe Le Guern, PTAC, Université Rennes 2

Marie-Caroline Neuvillers, Centre Norbert Elias, Avignon Université

Scientific committee

Sébastien Appiotti, GRIPIC, CELSA – Sorbonne Université

Catherine Baker, University of Hull

Alix Bénistant, LabSIC, Université Sorbonne Paris Nord

Johan Boittiaux, LabSIC, Université Sorbonne Paris Nord

Lisa Bolz, GRIPIC, CELSA – Sorbonne Université

Marcin Bogucki, Instytut Kultury Polskej, University of Warsaw

Isabel Campelo, NOVA University of Lisbon

Jessica Carniel, University of Southern Queensland

Juliette Charbonneaux, GRIPIC, CELSA – Sorbonne Université

Thierry Devars, GRIPIC, CELSA – Sorbonne Université

Karen Fricker, Brock University

Thibault Grison, GERiiCO, Université de Lille

Jonathan Hendrickx, University of Copenhagen

Zhao Alexandre Huang, Dicen-IDF, Université Gustave Eiffel

Virginie Julliard, GRIPIC, CELSA – Sorbonne Université

Valeriya Korablyova, University Charles Michel

Philippe Le Guern, PTAC, Université Rennes 2

Louisa Martin-Chevalier, IreMuS, Sorbonne Université

Marie-Caroline Neuvillers, Centre Norbert Elias, Avignon Université

Ivan Raykoff, New School, New York

Simon Renoir, Centre Norbert Elias, Avignon Université

Sofia Vieira Lopes, NOVA University of Lisbon

Hécate Vergopoulos, GRIPIC, CELSA – Sorbonne Université

November 11, 2025, 14:00 CET

Registration for ECREA members is now open: https://forms.gle/YzAQWM7LoVmGHY3v6

The recent years have been marked by wars and authoritarian repression that have greatly affected the academic community. There have been various responses from academic institutions aimed at supporting scholars at risk, supporting academic freedom, and discussing the role educational institutions should have in responding to conflict and pressure. Wars, persecution, and insecurities have pushed scholars into exile, forcing them to adapt to new academic environments.  

ECREA already started the discussion with a focus on Ukraine and Gaza, which opened many questions about the academic role in responding to mass atrocities and authoritarian threats to academic freedom. For this reason, the EDI subcommittee proposed ECREA to hold a series of webinars to discuss academic freedom, scholars at risk, and strategies for assisting scholars. 

The first webinar will address the issue of scholars in exile and strategies for supporting them. The discussion will focus on the experiences of scholars who were forced to leave their country and adapt to a new academic environment. The webinar will provide an opportunity to reflect on the structures or circumstances that forced scholars into exile, as well as the pressures, expectations, and roles scholars experience while in exile.

In what ways can ECREA protect and support its members, whose physical safety can be at risk if they are in zones of war or violence, or whose academic and civic freedoms might be under attack from repressive governments or institutions, including academic institutions? We hope the webinar series will help ECREA develop a response to these issues, such as recommendations or other practices designed to support academics.

Confirmed Speakers:

Dr. Bermal Aydın, formerly a lecturer at Mersin University in Turkey, was dismissed, banned from public employment, and had her passport cancelled for signing the Peace Petition, “We will not be a party to this crime.” Supported by CARA (Council for At-Risk Academics), she became a postdoctoral fellow and later a guest teacher at the London School of Economics (LSE), researching authoritarian neoliberalism and the politically motivated precarisation of academics and journalists in Turkey. She taught and supervised master’s dissertations at LSE, published in journals such as Globalizations and Turkish Studies, co-edited books, contributed chapters, and continues her work independently.

Dr. Zeina Al Azmeh is political sociologist at the University of Cambridge. Her work examines the cultural sociologies of knowledge production in exile and their impact on diasporic political subjectivities. Her book Syrian Intellectuals in Exile: The Dilemmas of Revolution and the Cost of Leaving will be published this December with Cambridge University Press. She has published in journals such as Theory and Society, Cultural Sociology, Qualitative Inquiry, and IJPCS and chairs the Syrian Academics and Researchers’ Network in the UK.

Dr. Olena Zinenko is a media scholar and senior lecturer at Institute of Sociology and Media Communication, Karazin Kharkiv National University in Ukraine, a feminist peace activist, and currently a PSI Visiting Fellow at the IFHV, Ruhr University, Bochum. Her research focuses on media discourse analysis, investigating the role of media in peace processes and public communication in Ukraine. 

The webinar will be accessible to ECREA members only. 

Journal of Advertising (Special issue)

Deadline: July 31, 2026

Advertising regulation is becoming increasingly important as governments, industry bodies and international organizations respond to mounting concerns over online harms, misinformation, sustainability, and consumer vulnerability. With the rapid growth of social media, AI-generated content and advanced forms of data tracking, advertising is now woven into the fabric of daily life, often in ways that are not visible or well understood. These technological and market developments have moved faster than the regulatory systems intended to manage them, creating significant gaps in the protection of the public, particularly for children and other vulnerable groups.

Globally, regulators are rethinking how advertising should be governed in the face of a shifting digital landscape and rising pressure for more responsible corporate behavior (Dickinson-Delaporte et al., 2020; Stewart, 2019). The rapid growth of digital advertising has significantly complicated regulatory oversight, as traditional rules struggle to keep pace with real-time, algorithm-driven targeting, cross-border content flows, and platform-mediated ad placements. This complexity is heightened by the opacity of digital advertising supply chains, where intermediaries and platform algorithms operate with limited transparency, highlighting the need for more responsive and accountable regulatory approaches.

Advertising regulatory approaches vary across the globe, and typically include government regulation, where laws and public agencies enforce advertising standards; industry self-regulation, where advertising bodies develop and apply their own codes of practice; media-led regulation, where platforms or publishers set and enforce their own standards of practice; and the laissez-faire approach, which relies on market forces and consumer response to address advertising issues without formal oversight. There is often a hybrid approach in practice, with many countries combining elements of these models to suit regulatory, cultural, and market contexts (see Appendix 1 for advertising regulation models in top 10 ad-spending countries).

Increasingly, there is recognition of the need for stronger mechanisms and greater international coordination (Greer & Thompson, 1985) across different regulatory forms, in order to address the dynamic issues of the contemporary world, such as online safety (Ahmad et al., 2024; Diaz Ruiz, 2025), advertising fraud (Liang et al., 2024), the use of AI (Hardcastle et al., 2025), influencer advertising (Asquith & Fraser, 2020), environmental claims and greenwashing (Parguel et al., 2015; Schmuck et al., 2018), advertising of harmful products (Abernethy & Teel, 1986; Adams et al., 2012), and gender stereotyping (Antoniou & Akrivos, 2020; Knoll et al., 2011) (see Appendix 2 for examples of recent changes in advertising regulation).

At the same time, efforts to enhance consumer protections are meeting resistance. In contexts such as the United Kingdom and the United States, anti-regulatory sentiment is gaining traction, driven by concerns that increased oversight might restrict innovation and economic progress. This push and pull between protecting the public and preserving commercial freedom is making the regulation of advertising a more urgent and contested issue. Public distrust of digital platforms and unease about how personal data is used for advertising only sharpen the need for a re-evaluation of current frameworks. In this context, we highlight the crucial role advertising research plays in informing and shaping such regulatory frameworks (Kees & Andrews, 2019).

With this Special Issue, we focus on the systems that govern advertising, rather than on advertising content or ethical intention alone. Our interest lies in the legal, institutional, and procedural arrangements that support, or fail to support, ethical and socially beneficial advertising. We aim to draw attention to the conditions under which regulation can enable greater transparency, accountability, and harm reduction. Beyond analyzing what regulation currently does, we also seek to develop theory on what advertising regulation could become: how regulatory development might advance social wellbeing, shape markets more ethically, and position advertising as a force for social good. The purpose is not to promote one model of regulation over another, but to build a deeper understanding of how governance - in all its forms - shapes advertising’s societal influence and its capacity to address pressing societal issues.

We encourage submissions that theorize how regulatory approaches effect social change, and conceptual papers that propose new directions for research on advertising governance. We welcome empirical contributions that adopt multidisciplinary perspectives (Rotfeld & Taylor, 2009) and employ diverse methodological approaches and theoretical frameworks, including—but not limited to—work grounded in Transformative Advertising Research (Gurrieri et al., 2022), institutional theory, market shaping, and ethics. We are especially interested in scholarship that explores where regulation is falling short, how new interventions affect both industry and society, and theorizing that can help reimagine advertising regulation in light of contemporary challenges.

Key Themes and topics

We invite submissions that address regulatory questions across the following areas:

• Advertising and Institutional Change: How advertising regulation influences social norms, consumer rights, and the broader role of advertising in shaping public life, which may include examination of the role of consumer advocacy.
  
• Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Accountability: The use of regulation to support sustainable advertising, reduce greenwashing and strengthen corporate responsibility, which may include for example, how different jurisdictions address misleading sustainability advertising.
  
• Risk, Innovation and Regulatory Resilience: The effects of regulation on managing business risk, and how to design adaptable frameworks that remain effective in fast-moving digital environments.
  
• Regulation of Cross-Border Challenges, Geo-socio-political Contexts and Global Disparities: Comparative studies of regulatory approaches to particular challenges, including successful reforms, international coordination, and lessons for different contexts. How governmental structures, socio-political context, or culture influence forms of regulation and prioritization of regulatory issues across different geographical contexts.
  
• Industry Practice, Responsibility and Culture: The impact of regulation on advertising professionals, industry cultures, and legal responsibility for harmful advertising processes or outcomes.
  
• Online Harms and Safety, Surveillance and Algorithmic Systems: Regulatory responses to harmful online advertising practices, particularly concerning vulnerable populations. The role of advertising platforms in spreading or combating harmful content, for example online hate speech and misinformation.
  
• Advertising Fraud: The rise of advertising fraud, including deceptive programmatic ads, click fraud, and misleading financial promotions.
  
• Gender Stereotypes and Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG): Evaluating the effectiveness of regulatory interventions in addressing gendered advertising harms.
  
• Social Media Influencers and Digital Advertising: Regulatory gaps in influencer marketing and sponsored content disclosures.
  
• Generative AI and Deepfake Advertising: Ethical and regulatory challenges posed by AI-generated advertising content.
  
• Harmful or Addictive Products: Regulatory approaches to advertising of HFSS foods, alcohol, gambling, and social media addiction.
  
• As advertising continues to shape consumer behavior and societal norms, regulation plays a crucial role in mitigating harm and fostering positive change. This Special Issue seeks to advance discussions on how regulatory frameworks can help to create an advertising ecosystem that prioritizes social good, consumer well-being, and ethical advertising practices.

(please contact Guest Editors for list of references)

Submission Instructions

Submissions should follow the manuscript format guidelines for JA found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?show=instructions&journalCode=ujoa20. The word count should be no longer than 12,000 words for Original Research Articles and Literature Reviews, and 6,000 words for Research Notes (including references, tables, figures, and appendices).

The submission deadline is July 31, 2026

All manuscripts should be submitted through the JA Submission Site. The link to the submission site can be found at this link (“Go to submission site”). Authors should select “Article Type” (e.g., research article, literature review) on the first page of the submission website. On the second page, authors will be asked if this is for a specific special issue or article collection. Select “Yes” and select “Social Change and the Role of Advertising Regulation” from the drop-down menu. Please also note in the cover letter that the submission is for the Special Issue on Social Change and the Role of Advertising Regulation: New Challenges and Opportunities.

All articles will undergo blind peer review by at least two reviewers.

The anticipated date for publication of the Special Issue is June 2027.

Any questions about the Special Issue can be sent to the guest editors: Drs. Karen Middleton, Kristina Auxtova, Lauren Gurrieri & Sean Sands at AdRegulationJA@gmail.com.

ECREA is still deeply concerned about the state's pressure on the academic community in Serbia.

See the updated Public Statement HERE.

Please consider signing a letter in support of Associate Professor Jelena Kleut (University of Novi Sad), ECREA Governing Body member, who was targeted in a campaign recently.

You can sign the letter HERE.

On 2 September 2025, Commissioner Ekatherina Zarahieva clarified that the European Commission (EC) proposal from 16 July 2025 aims at strengthening research on Society within Pillar 2. EASSH welcomes the move and invites legislators to confirm the commitment.

EASSH calls for the European Parliament and the EU member states to support the key issues described in the paper in the EC proposal for a new framework programme (FP10).

EASSH also invites member and related organisations to endorse this position paper. Please send your organisation's contact details and logo to executive.secretary@eassh.eu.

Download paper HERE.

October 16-18, 2025

São Miguel, Azores (Portugal)

Deadline: October 8, 2025

Dear colleagues,

We are delighted to announce the International Forum Citizenship through Aesthetics, to be held in São Miguel, Azores (Portugal), from 16 to 18 October 2025.

The Forum is conceived as a space of gathering, reflection, and action at the intersection of art, politics, imagination, and community. It will bring together artists, scholars, curators, cultural programmers, and civic agents to explore how aesthetic practices can shape processes of active and critical citizenship.

Open Call — Public Speech Acts

We invite proposals for short interventions (max. 15 minutes) designed as speech acts: critical and poetic gestures capable of provoking debate and opening shared space.

• Deadline for submissions: 8 October 2025
  
• Notification of results: 10 October 2025
  
• Public presentations: 16 October 2025 · 17:00–20:00 · Ponta Delgada, São Miguel (Azores)
  

Support offered:

Selected participants will receive travel, accommodation, and meals covered, plus a gift bag and a ticket for the closing performance of the POP Festival (May B, by Maguy Marin). All applicants will benefit from special accommodation and meal conditions during the Forum.

More information and the full programme:

www.aestheticivitas.org

internationalforum@aestheticivitas.org

Policy & Internet Journal

Deadline: November 2, 2025

Policy & Internet Journal has launched a special issue call for papers on the topic of “Shaping the Future of the Information Society: WSIS+20 and Beyond”, edited by Prof. Dr. Jonathon Hutchinson (University of Sydney) and Nadia Tjahja (United Nations University-CRIS and Free University of Brussels):

https://internet-policy-meco.sydney.edu.au/2025/09/specialissuewsis20/

We invite papers that explore:

Governance Modalities and Stakeholder Dynamics

We welcome papers that critically examine the evolving architecture of Internet governance, key questions include:

  *   Modes of Governance and Participation: Analyses of the WSIS+20 Review process, including its modalities, elements and drafts.

  *   Stakeholder Inclusion and Participation Models: Reviewing how the Global Digital Compact (GDC) and WSIS have approached multistakeholderism, inclusion and diversity in its processes.

  *   Meta-participation in Digital Governance: Exploring second-order stakeholder engagement – where stakeholders not only participate in processes, but actively shape the process itself

  *   Norm Development and Frameworks: Studies on the alignment and adoption of the SDGs, Sao Paulo Principles, the GDC Frameworks and ROAM-X as normative anchors.

  *   Multilateralism and Multistakeholderism: Reviewing the interplay between multilateralism and multistakeholderism

  *   Global and regional multistakeholderism: Evaluating tensions, synergies and practical implications in decision-making

Institutional Futures in Internet Governance

We invite contributions that address the evolution and future of key institutions shaping Internet governance:

  *   Preserving and Evolving the IGF: The future of multistakeholder governance through the IGF and its potentially renewed mandate

  *   Developing Institutional Architectures: Reevaluating the changing role of different offices such as the UN Tech Envoy’s office/ODET, and proposals for new bodies for future governance.

  *   Evolving institutions: Reflecting on ICANN’s role in the evolving governance ecosystems and its place in future frameworks.

  *   Governing Artificial Intelligence: Proposals for new spaces or mechanisms to coordinate global AI governance across stakeholders.

User-centric Perspectives in Internet Governance: Exploring Internet use and its socioeconomic consequences

We invite contributions that are user-centric and/or address topics related to the WSIS Action Lines:

  *   Digital Inclusion and Equity

  *   User rights

  *   Behavioural and psychological impacts

  *   Economic and labour transformations

  *   Education

  *   Cultural and language diversity

  *   Data sovereignty

  *   Topics related to the WSIS Action Lines

Submission Guidelines:

Please send through your title and 300-word abstract to Jonathon Hutchinson [jonathon.hutchinson@sydney.edu.au] and Nadia Tjahja [nadia.tjahja@vub.be] with the subject line: “Policy & Internet Special Issue” by 2 November 2025.

  *   Abstracts: up to 300 words

  *   Abstract deadline: 2 November

  *   Full papers: 6000-8000 words

  *   Full paper Deadline: 1 March 2026

Kind regards,

Jonathon (on behalf of Nadia Tjahja).