Call for Papers

25. – 28.03.2024
University of Vienna

Following our first international online conference in 2021, we are aiming for an on site meeting of colleagues interested in media practices and lifeworlds of young people, especially through an interdisciplinary lens. The increasingly complex postdigital worlds that young people inhabit and transform have been the focus of the research platform #YouthMediaLife at the University of Vienna for some years now, and we are hoping to strengthen our interdisciplinary engagement even more for our second international conference. We are therefore inviting international experts from various fields who are committed to take an inter- or multidisciplinary view of young people’s narratives that are told by, for, to and about them.

Keynote speakers:

Plenary co-presenters:

This three-day conference at the University of Vienna has at its heart questions about young people's media practices and the manifold questions they raise: What mediatization processes are part of young people’s lifeworlds and how do they impact on the dynamics between individuation and group formation processes? How are identities co-constructed in and through digital media and what role do strategies play which young people employ deliberately to distinguish between analogue and digital practices? What role does school play as a place for the learning of media competences but also as a crucial space for socialization processes? How has technological change shaped narrative practices and what is young people’s role in participating in these transformational processes? What patterns of in- and exclusion can be identified in social media which en- or disable democratic participation and political agency and what are inclusive and democratic means of expression? What medial expressions do young people choose for major concerns, such as the environmental crisis or war in Europe? And how can we as academics keep up with a swiftly changing global media landscape that is contingent on economic upheavals, fashions, trends and shifting demographics?

We are inviting abstracts in English or German for the following thematic strands:

• Saving the world? Young people’s ecological engagement (Wie retten wir die Welt? Das ökologische Engagement der Jugendlichen)
• Just playing: Games and their role in young people’s lives (Die spielen doch nur: Die Rolle von Spielen im Leben von Kindern und Jugendlichen)
• Paper to screen: post-digital reading practices (Papier und Bildschirm: postdigitale Lesepraktiken)
• On the rollercoaster: Emotions and the media (Auf der Hochschaubahn: Medien und Gefühle)
• No place like home: places, spaces and media lifeworlds (Dahoam is dahoam: Orte, Räume und mediatisierte Lebenswelten)
• Media repertoires and media biographies: Connections, convergences and discrepancies in young people’s lifeworlds (Medienrepertoires und Medienbiografien: Vernetzungen, Konvergenzen und Diskrepanzen digitaler und nichtdigitaler Medien in der Lebenswelt Jugendlicher)
• We design: Young media actors as media designers and developers (Wir gestalten: Jugendliche Medienakteur*innen als Mediengestalter*innen und Medienentwickler*innen)
• "That’s how they do it nowadays": Media ideologies of and about young media actors ("Das machen die heutzutage so": Medienideologien über und von jugendlichen Medienakteur*innen)
• Participatory, Creative, Digital: Computational Empowerment in formal education (Partizipativ, Kreativ, Digital: Computational Empowerment in der formalen Bildung)
• In or outside. Conscious or unconscious exclusion from digital media (Mittendrin oder abseits. Bewusste oder unbewusste Ausgrenzungen aus digitalen Medien)
• Conquering new worlds with a click. Accessibility through multimedia approaches (Mit einem Klick neue Welten erobern. Neue Zugänge schaffen durch multimediale Zugänge zur Mediennutzung)
• Transparency and self protection: The issue of privacy in social media (Transparenz und Selbstschutz. Die Privatsphäre in sozialen Medien)
• From pen pal to follower: The history of young people’s media use (Vom Leserbrief zum Follower. Zum Bedeutungswandel der Mediennutzung)
• Are we being outsmarted? On the dangers and potentials of chat-gpt and others (Klüger als wir? Die Gefahren und Potenziale von chat-gpt und anderen)
• English spoken: The role of English in the lives of young people (English spoken: Die Rolle von Englisch im Leben Jugendlicher)
• Human rights, young people and media (Menschenrechte, Jugendliche und Medien)

 
Contributions can be in English or German. The following formats will be available:

• thematic symposia for one or two 90-minute slots (abstracts of 1000 words max; incl. abstract of the symposium and individual abstracts for individual contributions; no more than 4 speakers per 90 minute slot)
• interactive workshops for one or two 90-minute slots (abstracts of 500 words max.)
• individual papers (20-minute speaking time + 10 minutes for discussion; abstracts of 350 words max.)
• posters to be presented in dedicated poster sessions (abstracts of 200 words max.)

Deadline expired