*CFP* “FROM WEST TO EAST: METAMORPHOSES OF DISCOURSES IN EUROPE”, UNIVERSITY OF BUCHAREST AND THE INSTITUTE OF SOCIOLOGY OF THE ROMANIAN ACADEMY

"From West to East: Metamorphoses of Discourses in Europe" International Conference

Bucharest, Romania

24-25 October 2019

The Conference is organised by the University of Bucharest and the Institute of Sociology of the Romanian Academy, under the aegis of the Observatory on Discourses and Counter-Discourses related to the European Construction (France) and is supported by The Regional Francophone Centre of Advances Research in Social Sciences (CEREFREA) in Bucharest.

In a European context marked by the development of antagonistic positions, actors, strategies and discourses, where our interactions have shifted more and more into a virtual environment, our conference aims at questioning the current meanings of the discourses on West-East relationship in the European Union, as well as its transformation, given the local, regional and European contexts and challenges. The scientific interest of our conference aims to revisit the central theme of the European idea which has both brought together and divided for a number of centuries, the different regions of Europe, making possible the European construction of present days. 

The latter seems to have assumed a sensitive mission of perpetual discursive transformation, again challenged by the new media –an exogenous factor that causes true metamorphoses of European discourses circulating from the West to the East, from the North to the South and vice versa. An emerging discourse, taking various forms, often translated into counter-speech, seems to dominate and challenge the European public sphere under construction. Its scientific examination remains difficult to determine, if studied from the point of view of a single discipline. This is why the interdisciplinary opening within the large field of social sciences and humanities is to be considered the scientific challenge of our conference.

We propose three axes in order to deepen all these problems:

• Axis 1: Current metamorphoses of discourses in Europe: transformation of European discourses; European communication policy and its current issues; discursive strategies of European actors; new forms of confrontational discourse in relation to the contemporary phenomena (migration and free movement, the refugees question, populism, etc.) or to the European themes of tradition (future of Europe, European elections, European public sphere, European public opinion, European values, European democracy, human rights in Europe, single currency, common policies of the European Union etc.) 
• Axis 2: The East-West relationship in Europe:  historical, social, societal, anthropological, political and communicational definitions of the East-West relationship in the European Union; the “East -West Divide” in the era of new media; a Europe or more than one?; two-speed European citizenship and identity?; relationship between European discourse and geography of Europe. 
• Axis 3: Europe online: from symbolic domination to hyper-reality and vice versa; Europe and the European online debate; special themes of the European debate on social networks; European public opinion online-position sand discourses; traditional media vs. digital media questioning Europe and its discourses.

Practical information for participation

The expected contributions must fall within one of the proposed axis, and consist of empirical approaches, case studies or comparative studies between different discourses, media, platforms, dispositifs, ideologies, strategies, behaviours, regions, etc. across geographical and/or virtual Europe. Interdisciplinary approaches in social sciences and humanities will be   highly appreciated. The proposal of maximum 500 words will indicate the title of the paper, the chosen axis, the name of the author, his academic affiliation and his email address, the abstract including the relevance of the subject proposed in the thematic context of the conference, the methodological approach and the indication of the used corpora/field study, as well as 3-4 references. 

The languages of the conference are French and English. 

The proposals will be subject to a double-blind peer review carried out by the members of the scientific committee. The deadline for submission of proposals by email colloquebucarest2019@gmail.com is the 30th of April 2019. Acceptance notifications will be sent on the 31st of May 2019. Following the conference, two possibilities of publication are proposed by the organizers, both subject to a new double-blind peer review by members of the scientific committee: a special issue of the Romanian Journal of Sociological Studies (indexed ERIH PLUS, EBSCO and CEEOL), published by the Institute of Sociology of the Romanian Academy, and the   Conference Proceedings (in  French), published by Ars Docendi-University of Bucharest Publishing. 

The deadline for submitting the final contributions is the 1st of December 2019.

Guest speakers:

Prof. Diana MISHKOVA (Centre for Advanced Study Sofia)

Prof. Emeritus Jean-François TÉTU (IEP Lyon)

Prof. Ioan PÂNZARU (CEREFREA, University of Bucharest)