CALL FOR PAPERS: International Conference UNCOVERING THE HUMANITARIAN DISCOURSE: Media, Migration, and International Organizations May 21st -22nd, 2014 Ege University, Izmir, Turkey Migration as a complex and multi-layered phenomenon is clearly linked with global issues as well as particular local and regional ones. Increasing in volume and diversifying in content of the flows since mid-20th century, it affects societies, whether sending, receiving or transit. In addition it presents challenges such as integration, discrimination, exploitation and human rights issues. It is through the media that we learn most of what we know or believe we know about world affairs and politics, not through personal experience or contact. Immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees are often represented as victims or as a threat to the security of longer-established populations: They are systematically portrayed as victims to be helped in their countries of origin or perpetrators of crimes when they cross EU borders. Very seldom do they appear as actors of positive social change and development. Humanitarian agencies, public movements, and community organizations are among the socio-cultural institutions that spearhead new political action and representation. Their visual and spatial iterations influence policies, practices and discourses of development and security. Media, imagery, and material culture underpin their systems of knowledge production and reception. Humanitarian discourse and action has become an integral part of the efforts to deal with suffering and further needs of immigrants. Reasons that motivate the intervention in a particular issue related to migration may range from philanthropic to political ones. Besides the motives, intervening actors consist of global networks in terms of both institutional organizations such as funding, collaboration etc. and policies and politics that are pursued. In the context of global networks of corporations, this conference will limit the topic to Mediterranean region. The aim is to bring together researchers and practitioners working on the intersection of migration and humanitarian issues. Focusing on the instrumentalization of humanitarian aid and imagery, the conference aims to uncover how media and inter(national) actors are communicating migration issues in the frame of humanitarian purposes. We invite submissions that innovatively and critically approach one or any combination of the following questions: How is the geography of politics of humanitarian aid being shaped? What are the aesthetic, ethical, and political challenges of humanitarian imagery? What kind of relationship is there between migration management rhetoric and political practices of humanitarian intervention in the field of Mediterranean migration? To this end, we call for papers, from any discipline, methodology, or a combination of them that address the conference themes listed below, including, but not limited to: - Humanitarian discourse / intervention - Migrants (in)visibility / voices - Representation - Diversity - Human rights discourse - Imagery and communication - Politics of helping the other - Mapping the political geography of humanitarian aid - Relationship between migration and development - International corporation - Global inequality CONFERENCE VENUE Ege University, Izmir/ Turkey ORGANIZERS Pierluigi Musaró, Department of Sociology and Business Law, University of Bologna, Italy Lülüfer Körükmez, Department of Sociology, Ege University, Turkey İlkay Südaş Department of Geography, Ege University, Turkey ABSTRACT SUBMISSON Please submit abstracts by email to uhdc2014@gmail. Abstracts should include a title, your contact details (name, affiliation, mailing address, email) and description of your conference paper (250-400 words) IMPORTANT DATES Deadline for abstract submission: March, 1st 2014 Notification of Acceptance: March, 15th 2014 Conference date: May 21st - 22nd, 2014 PUBLICATION PLANS Co-organizers are planning to develop a special issue of an academic journal or a book based on the themes of this conference. To this end, conference committee will participants to submit their unpublished full paper by June 30, 2014. Lulufer KORUKMEZ Ege Universitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Sosyoloji Bölümü İzmir/Turkey +90 232 311 16 85
Posted on: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 14:00:00 +0000
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