Resilience, Expertise, Hope
29th-31st March, 2021
Queens University Belfast, Northern Ireland
The Covid-19 pandemic will have a lasting impact on all aspects of our lives and the societies in which we live, providing new challenges, but also opportunities, in terms of how we think about and study socio-economic organisation, democratic institutions and international governance, as well as the fundamental questions of justice and equality that provide the normative underpinnings to social scientific research. The 2021 PSA Conference seeks contributions that address these multifarious challenges and opportunities in the context of three overarching themes: Resilience, Expertise and Hope.
Resilience, Expertise and Hope will be crucial ingredients in our ability to adapt and respond in the wake of fundamental disruption. They will also prove invaluable in informing and shaping diverse and evolving research agendas in political science to make sense of and understand the global economy, global ecosystems and the climate, public health, international security, and many other interrelated issue areas that combine to generate the most pressing challenges of our age.
Resilience is a key factor in determining the ability of any organisation, institution and society to manage and cope with severe stress, whether in the form of impending threat by disease, conflict, economic and environmental crisis, socio-political dissatisfaction and the pressures it generates, and so on. Without resilience we cannot cope and as history informs us, current crisis can quickly turn into future catastrophe. Expertise is a prime commodity, especially in times of upheaval and uncertainty. In an era of emergent populism and disinformation where expertise is increasingly suspect and experts often denigrated, we need to better understand the role of experts and what political conditions enhance or impede their voice and ability to contribute solutions to imminent challenges. Hope is essential in any moment where what may be construed as an existential crisis can trigger fatalism or a naïve sense of optimism. Without hope in our fundamental societal and political institutions and arrangements we proceed towards that critical phase in which, as in the words of Yeats, “the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity”. Hope can pull us back from the brink, and political science research at its very best can contribute in this regard too.
We trust that Belfast, the dynamic and vibrant capital city of Northern Ireland – rich in political history and current exciting cross-cultural developments at the crossroads of British and Irish, European and global cultures – will provide an inspiring environment in which to welcome you to the PSA Conference in 2021.
While the main theme of this conference is Resilience. Expertise. Hope., the Media & Politics Group operates an open and inclusive policy, and empirical, theoretical, and practice-based research dealing with any aspect of media and politics is welcomed. This may include areas of political communication and journalism, but also includes a broader view of the political within such areas as online media, television, cinema and media arts, both factual and fictional.
Possible areas include:
- How have our understandings of media and politics been changed by recent political and economic crises?
- How useful are seminal theories for understanding contemporary political communication?
- The methodological challenges of researching media and politics in a changing environment
- The role of affect, emotion, and authenticity within political communication
- Disinformation, misinformation and threats to democratic health
- The opportunities and challenges of digital campaigning
- The media’s changing role in political communication practices and/or public diplomacy
- Datafication and challenges to democracy
- The rise of alternative political media and changing public attitudes towards mainstream media
- The media’s role in reporting terrorism
- Identifying discourses of authoritarianism/populism/racism
- Regulation possibilities for social media platforms
- Climate change and the media
- Activism, social movements and the media
- The power of political satire, cartoons and memes
- The politics of representation across media genres
- The role of political communication scholars in a changing world
- Media, communication and inequality
- Political fandom
Further information on registration fees and conference location can be found here.
Further information on the PSA Media and Politics Group and details on how to join can be found here.
Papers may be related to the conference theme, Resilience. Expertise. Hope., but other topics from across the disciplinary and methodological traditions are also welcomed.
Please submit abstracts (max. 300 words) and panel proposals by email to the convenors at psampg@gmail.com by Friday 2 October (please note that this is an earlier deadline than the direct individual submission to the PSA). We also welcome emails earlier than this date to ask for our advice on potential panel proposals.
Please note that the 2021 PSA Annual International Conference is planned as a hybrid conference which blends the digital world and physical world together to produce the opportunities and interactions of a physical conference, with the added accessibility of an online conference.
On all submissions, please include an email address for the corresponding and the institutional affiliation. Please also indicate if you are a postgraduate student.
If you wish to propose a panel, please note for following stipulations from the organising committee:
- Panel proposals should include a panel overview (max. 300 words), outlining the title, synopsis, and chair details.
- Panels usually consist of three to four papers and a chair. A discussant is optional.
- Panels should aim to reflect the diversity of the profession, and all-male panels will not be considered.
Please note, confirmed participants from last year's cancelled PSA conference will be given priority on our panels for PSA21.
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