*CFP* "VISUAL POLITICS IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH", EDITED VOLUME

This edited volume examines the novel ways in which political actors and citizens are producing, disseminating and consuming visual products in an increasingly diverse media landscape. Research on the role of the visual in politics is gaining momentum in scholarly work concerned with the current social media landscape. While governments, NGOs and politicians increasingly use visual forms of communication to promote themselves in social media platforms, the significance of the visual in political communication is also evidenced in citizens’ sharing of images and memes to make political statements, and in activists’ creative use of images and stylised objects to communicate and connect with wider audiences. While there is a growing body of scholarship in the field of visual political communication, most of this research has a strong empirical focus on the USA and Europe and neglects forms of visual politics that can be found in different sites across the Global South (Veneti et al., 2019; Holtz-Bacha et al., 2017; Grabe and Bucy, 2009).

Little is known about the ways in which scholarship in the Global South might challenge and resist western approaches to the study of the visual. Against this backdrop, the proposed volume seeks, on the one hand, to respond to pressing calls for a de-Westernisation of critical media studies (Milan and Treré, 2019) and, on the other, to present a range of original case studies that are specifically concerned with visual politics and communication in the Global South.

The Editors invite abstract proposals for chapters concerned with the role of the visual in formal politics (e.g., political campaigns, the relation between state and citizens) or public politics (e.g., social movements, activism, grassroots politics, civil society initiatives) in the Global South. We particularly welcome abstract submissions from scholars working in universities and organizations located in the Global South that include, but are not limited to the following topics:

• political campaigns 
• governmental campaigns 
• political leaders 
• selfies and memes 
• photojournalism 
• social media and protest 
• the role of art in contentious politics 
• protest images and objects 
• video-activism and documentary genres

 

Edited volume Editors / Correspondence: Anastasia Veneti (Bournemouth University) aveneti@bournemouth.ac.uk and Maria Rovisco (University of Leeds) M.Rovisco@leeds.ac.uk

Please send enquiries, expressions of interest and abstracts (300-500 words) to Anastasia Veneti (aveneti@bournemouth.ac.uk) by the 16 November 2020.

 

Important dates:

Abstract submission (300-500 words): 16 November 2020

Notification of decision on abstracts: 30 November 2020

Draft chapters submission: 30 September 2021.

Completed chapters (c. 6000 words): 31 January 2022