[cma-l] Feminist Grassroots Media in Europe: An anthology

[Salvatore Scifo]

Call for Submissions for a Proposed Edited Volume

Feminist Grassroots Media in Europe: An anthology
Edited by Red Chidgey (UK), Jenny
Gunnarsson-Payne (Sweden) and Elke Zobl (Austria)

Women have always played an important role in
movements for social justice. Using media to
transport their messages, to disrupt social
orders and spin novel social processes, feminists
have long recognised the importance of
self-managed media to forge resistant identities
and build coalitions. In fact, as Annabelle
Sreberny-Mohammadi has found, "almost by dint of
their existence alone, autonomous media
controlled by women with women-defined output
offer a challenge to existing hierarchies of
power; when these media take up specific issues
and campaigns, and align themselves with larger
social movements, their political potential is significant" (1996:234).

Autonomous media cultures are currently gaining
in critical attention. Over recent decades,
scholars have developed conceptual frameworks
such as 'radical media', 'alternative media',
'activist media', and 'citizens' media' to help
explain the unique characteristics and working
models of grassroots media production - and to
ask whether self-managed media can foster
critical consciousness, aid in participatory
democracy, and effect social change (Atton, 2002;
Bailey, Cammaerts, and Carpentier, 2007; Byerly
and Ross, 2006; Downing 1984, 2000; Rodriguez, 2001; Waltz, 2005).

Within this burgeoning field, however, few
in-depth studies of grassroots media from a
specifically cross-generational and European
feminist perspective have been published.

The Feminist Grassroots Media in Europe anthology
proposes to address this lack in research,
bringing together activists and academics to
re-evaluate existing theoretical frameworks and
to portray activist projects in light of feminist
media production. As such, the book will be of
interest to a broad audience, such as activists
and researchers within the fields of gender and
media studies, and will serve as an undergraduate
textbook for research on feminist 'radical media'
praxis whilst delivering a much-needed archive of
DIY media projects, networks and producers from the 1980s to the present day.

The Book Project
The term 'Media' is employed broadly here to
include traditional broadcasting channels
(newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, films,
photography) and non-traditional genres (zines,
blogs, vlogs, websites, wikis, posters, burn
stations, podcasts, textiles). 'Grassroots'
refers to self-managed media, produced outside of
a commercial agenda, by a collective and/or
individuals working from a community or social movement perspective.

The editors seek a variety of submissions from
throughout Europe. The anthology aims to
represent feminists from a diversity of age
cohorts, backgrounds, races, classes, genders,
geo-social regions and political priorities. The
book seeks to ask what possibilities, limitations
and vulnerabilities - with attention to class,
race, ethnicity, age, disability, sexuality and
gender dynamics - feminist grassroots media
projects currently engender, and to map the
histories, successes and challenges of women-led
grassroots media in the late twentieth century
and beyond. The editors are also keen to explore
the links and discontinuities between 'second'
and 'third wave' feminist media production.

The call includes, but is not limited to, work
which addresses the following topics:

European Feminist Grassroots Media and:
"       Aesthetics
"       Activism
"       Alternative Economies and Media Logics
"       Organisational Models, Structures and Processes
"       Comparative Analyses and Histories
"       Volatile Relationships to the Mainstream
(culture, media, funding and the state)
"       Community Building and Mobilisation
"       Dissemination Networks and Archives
"       Alternative Public/Private Spheres
"       Empowered Feminist Subjects and Citizens
"       Consciousness-Raising Strategies and Social Movement Media

Contributions can include:
"       Academic essays (5,000- 7,000 words)
"       Reports/overviews from countries (2,000 - 5,000 words)
"       Comparisons of 'second wave' and 'third wave' media projects
"       Technology-based case-studies
"       Interviews with grassroots media producers or distributors
"       Examples from grassroots media (e.g. excerpts from grrrl zines)
"       Visual commentaries
"       Images

 From these submissions, a free directory of
grassroots media projects will be made accessible
via the website Grassroots Feminism: A resource
site for the feminist movement today
www.grassrootsfeminism.net (currently in planning)

Submission of Abstracts
Submissions (in English) are welcomed from
feminist activists, community media producers,
and scholars from a variety of disciplines.
Potential contributors should submit:

A)      A 500 word abstract outlining the scope
and themes of your proposed contribution, as well
as possible inclusion of images.
B)      A brief author biography, indicating any
particular institutional or group affiliation,
and recent publications or projects
C)      Full contact details, including date of birth and nationality.

Deadline for Abstracts:
Abstracts should be submitted to
book at grassrootsfeminism.net by Monday 17th March 2008.

Biographical notes on editors

Red Chidgey (*1979) is a member of the Feminist
Activist Forum in the UK, and publishes widely on
feminist zines, riot grrrl and Ladyfest cultures.
She received her MA in Critical Theory from the
University of Sussex, where she re-trained as a
Life History historian. She is currently involved
in third wave media and feminist history projects.

Jenny Gunnarsson-Payne (*1976) completed her
doctorate in Ethnology at the Department of
Culture and Media, Umeå University, Sweden, and
currently teaches Sociology at the University of
Essex, UK. Her publications on 'alternative
media' focus primarily on representations of
gender and sexuality, and collective mobilisation, in Swedish feminist zines.

Elke Zobl (*1975) created the online resource
site Grrrl Zine Network (www.grrrlzines.net) in
2001 and has been part of the Grrrl Zines A-Go-Go
collective conducting zine workshops with girls
and young women (www.gzagg.org). After pursuing
postdoctoral studies at the University of
California at San Diego, she is now continuing
her research on "Young women as creators of new
cultural spaces" at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Austria.
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-- 
Salvatore Scifo,
Lecturer in Community Media
Media Information & Communication
Department of Applied Social Sciences
London Metropolitan University
Ladbroke House, Room LH 326
62-66 Highbury Grove
London N5 2AD

W: www.communitymedia.eu




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