Communication, and material and discursive power dynamics

Any communication practice is realised in specific environments and contexts, being produced through particular material and discursive performativities, producing specific material and discursive outcomes. Communication praxes are also effected through the participatory practices of the involved actors, and the power dynamics that are being developed, in specific historical, political, cultural and social settings. This colloquium aims at examining the interconnections between communication practices, their environments, actors, audiences and products, and the power dynamics at work, both at the discursive and material level. Loci of study could be, print, broadcast and digital media, social media, civil society organisations, museums, art and public spaces, where practices of self-expression, participation, empowerment, civic engagement, are studied. At the same time, the colloquium is interested in looking, using multidisciplinary perspectives, into the ways in which these practices are mediated, represented, supported, facilitated, contested, transformed or destroyed, through the involved actors’ and networks’ interplays of power.