*CFP* "COMMUNITIES AND NETWORKS", STUDIUM CONFERENCE

Communities and Networks – Studium conference

4-5 December 2020

Virtual conference

 

Since the mid-nineties researchers have developed a monumental theory of information and communication technologies, within the conceptual framework of the network society – an ideal type transcending economic, cultural and political changes that took place in the 20th Century. Communication networks enabled by the internet are rapidly expanding along various codes and values.

In the global context of networked society the problematic of community and locality are again on the researchers’ agenda, due both to the loosened traditional ties, and to the emergence of new communities, furthermore, the question rises, whether the issue of locality is worth discussing in the context of global networks. Our relationships regain their value in a networked world, either as real or virtual togetherness. Issues worth exploring are the impact of global knowledge on local practices, mediated by online networks, just as the formation of specific local social processes influenced by the globalization and the phenomenon of online networks.

We started the discussion of these questions in our 2019 conference. This year, restricted into the online space in the context of pandemic, we would like to dedicate our conference to the further discussion of the above issues.

This year’s conference is aimed at exploring the changes of our communities and localities in the era of the networked world: innovative practices, new lifestyles, local social responses to global challenges.

How does the internet affect the real and virtual community formation, and which are the factors contributing to the emergence of new types of groups of consumers and users?

Topics proposed for discussion:

• Local consumer and producer practices: glocalized worlds 
• New consumer cultures and subcultures 
• Local discourses in the online space 
• Inequalities in the age of global networks: localities lagging behind vs. catching up localities 
• Our digital worlds: social challenges for technology 
• The effects of pandemic on local societies

 

We expect papers from the fields of social sciences and cultural studies, in Hungarian or English language.

Papers may be presented in one of the following ways:

• 15 minutes online oral presentation in Hungarian or English language, or 
• An English language poster uploaded to the Conference website.

 

The conference organizers will offer prizes for the most original three posters uploaded to the English language poster section (coherence and creativity of the dissemination, visual representation of data). Prizes will be Amazon Kindle books of speciality literature

The conference is open for MA and PhD students as well.

No registration fee.

Short abstracts in Hungarian or English including the type of the prospected presentation (paper or poster) should be sent to Laura Nistor at nistorlaura@uni.sapientia.ro by 25 November 2020.

Organizer: Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Faculty of Economics, SocioHuman Sciences and Engineering – Department of Social Sciences / Applied Social Sciences Research Centre.