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February 5th, 2007
Call
for Submissions for a Proposed Edited Volume
Feminist
Grassroots Media in Europe: An anthology
Edited by Red
Chidgey (UK), Jenny Gunnarsson-Payne (Sweden) and Elke Zobl
(Austria)
Deadline for Abstracts: Monday 17th March 2008
Women have always played an important role in
movements for social justice. Using media to transport their
messages, to disrupt social orders and spin novel social processes,
feminists have long recognised the importance of self-managed media
to forge resistant identities and build coalitions. In fact, as
Annabelle Sreberny-Mohammadi has found, "almost by dint of their
existence alone, autonomous media controlled by women with
women-defined output offer a challenge to existing hierarchies of
power; when these media take up specific issues and campaigns, and
align themselves with larger social movements, their political
potential is significant" (1996:234).
Autonomous media
cultures are currently gaining in critical attention. Over recent
decades, scholars have developed conceptual frameworks such as
'radical media', 'alternative media', 'activist media', and
'citizens' media' to help explain the unique characteristics and
working models of grassroots media production – and to ask whether
self-managed media can foster critical consciousness, aid in
participatory democracy, and effect social change (Atton, 2002;
Bailey, Cammaerts, and Carpentier, 2007; Byerly and Ross, 2006;
Downing 1984, 2000; Rodriguez, 2001; Waltz, 2005).
Within this
burgeoning field, however, few in-depth studies of grassroots media
from a specifically cross-generational and European feminist
perspective have been published.
The Feminist Grassroots Media
in Europe anthology proposes to address this lack in research,
bringing together activists and academics to re-evaluate existing
theoretical frameworks and to portray activist projects in light of
feminist media production. As such, the book will be of interest to a
broad audience, such as activists and researchers within the fields
of gender and media studies, and will serve as an undergraduate
textbook for research on feminist 'radical media' praxis whilst
delivering a much-needed archive of DIY media projects, networks and
producers from the 1980s to the present day. The book proposal will be submitted
to Routledge.
The
Book Project
The term 'Media' is employed broadly here to
include traditional broadcasting channels (newspapers, magazines,
radio, TV, films, photography) and non-traditional genres (zines,
blogs, vlogs, websites, wikis, posters, burn stations, podcasts,
textiles). 'Grassroots' refers to self-managed media, produced
outside of a commercial agenda, by a collective and/or individuals
working from a community or social movement perspective.
The
editors seek a variety of submissions from throughout Europe. The
anthology aims to represent feminists from a diversity of age
cohorts, backgrounds, races, classes, genders, geo-social regions and
political priorities. The book seeks to ask what possibilities,
limitations and vulnerabilities – with attention to class, race,
ethnicity, age, disability, sexuality and gender dynamics –
feminist grassroots media projects currently engender, and to map the
histories, successes and challenges of women-led grassroots media in
the late twentieth century and beyond. The editors are also keen to
explore the links and discontinuities between 'second' and 'third
wave' feminist media production.
The call includes,
but is not limited to, work which addresses the following
topics:
European Feminist Grassroots Media
and:
- Aesthetics
- Activism
- Alternative Economies and Media
Logics
- Organisational Models, Structures and Processes
- Comparative
Analyses and Histories
- Volatile Relationships to the Mainstream
(culture, media, funding and the state)
- Community Building and
Mobilisation
- Dissemination Networks and Archives
- Alternative
Public/Private Spheres
- Empowered Feminist Subjects and
Citizens
- Consciousness-Raising Strategies and Social Movement
Media
Contributions can include:
- Academic
essays (5,000- 7,000 words)
- Reports/overviews from countries
(2,000 – 5,000 words)
- Comparisons of 'second wave' and 'third
wave' media projects
- Technology-based case-studies
- Interviews
with grassroots media producers or distributors
- Examples from
grassroots media (e.g. excerpts from grrrl zines)
- Visual
commentaries
- Images
From these submissions, a free
directory of grassroots media projects will be made accessible via
the website Grassroots Feminism: A resource site for the feminist
movement today
www.grassrootsfeminism.net
(currently in planning)
Submission of
Abstracts
Submissions (in English) are welcomed from
feminist activists, community media producers, and scholars from a
variety of disciplines. Potential contributors should submit:
A)
A 500 word abstract outlining the scope and themes of your proposed
contribution, as well as possible inclusion of images.
B) A brief author biography, indicating any particular institutional or
group affiliation, and recent publications or projects
C) Full contact details, including date of birth and
nationality.
Deadline for Abstracts:
Abstracts
should be submitted to
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by Monday 17th March
2008.
Biographical notes on
editors
Red Chidgey (*1979) is a
member of the Feminist Activist Forum in the UK, and publishes widely
on feminist zines, riot grrrl and Ladyfest cultures. She received her
MA in Critical Theory from the University of Sussex, where she
re-trained as a Life History historian. She is currently involved in
third wave media and feminist history projects.
Jenny
Gunnarsson-Payne (*1976) completed her doctorate in
Ethnology at the Department of Culture and Media, Umeå
University, Sweden, and currently teaches Sociology at the University
of Essex, UK. Her publications on 'alternative media' focus primarily
on representations of gender and sexuality, and collective
mobilisation, in Swedish feminist zines.
Elke Zobl
(*1975) created the online resource site Grrrl Zine Network
(www.grrrlzines.net) in 2001 and
has been part of the Grrrl Zines A-Go-Go collective conducting zine
workshops with girls and young women (www.gzagg.org).
After pursuing postdoctoral studies at the University of California
at San Diego, she is now continuing her research on "Young women
as creators of new cultural spaces" at the Academy of Fine Arts
Vienna, Austria.
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