COMMUNICATION, CAPITALISM AND CRITIQUE: Critical Media Sociology in the 21st Century
The European Sociological Association (ESA) / Research Network 18 –
Sociology of Communications and Media Research
Mid-Term Conference 2022
We live in times of deepening economic, political, social, pandemic, ideological and ecological crises that are apparent in widespread precarious labour, the commodification of (almost) everything, the rise of new nationalism, populism and authoritarian forms of capitalism, and ecological destruction. The display of power and counter-power, domination and spaces of power struggles, and the commons and the commodification of the commons characterise modern society. Contradictions and antagonisms between the haves and the have-nots shape contemporary Europe and beyond. Media and communication are fields of conflict in this power struggle: they are power structures and sites of power struggles, able to support both the expansion and the commodification of the commons. RN 18 invites contributions to sociological understanding of these processes at its conference in 2022.
