International Communication Association 2026 ICA Media Sociology Postconference“Media Sociology: Inequalities in Emergent Global Contexts”
- ISARC07
- Jun 8
- 2 min read
Tuesday, June 9th, 2026: 20:00 SAST Cape Town = 20:00 CEST Madrid/Paris/Rome = 14:00 EDT = 12:00 noon Mexico City (Time Zone Reference Guide)
PLENARY
Communicating Change: Civic Innovation and Social Movements
Chair: Jeremy SCHULZ (University of California, Berkeley)
Markus S. SCHULZ (Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies)Communicating Change: Civic Innovation and Social Movements
Ligia TAVERA FENOLLOSA (Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, FLACSO, Mexico City) Crisis Response, Civic Innovation, and Digital Media: Learning from an Earthquake in Mexico City
Paola REBUGHINI (University of Milan) and Lidia LO SCHIAVO (University of Messina) Critical Agency and Creative Imagination: Snapshots of the Future in Youth Movements
Sponsored by Emerald Studies in Media and Communications
FREE: Register Here Registration is free thanks to our sponsors ICA GCSC Global Communication and Social Change, West Chester University, Santa Clara University, and Emerald Studies in Media & Communications. Full Program
The 2026 ESMC Plenary highlights Volume 27 of Emerald Studies in Media and Communications: Communicating Change: Civic Innovation and Social Movements, edited by Markus S. Schulz.
Digital technologies from the Internet and social media to artificial intelligence and robotics are reshaping the world. They offer joy, participation, and higher productivity, but they have also brought disruption, alienation, control, oppression, and exacerbated inequalities. This volume explores this ongoing transformation and its social implications between domination and participation. Outcomes at any given time are not taken as predetermined but as results of the decisions by a range of diverse social actors who compete, cooperate, or conflict with one another and can draw on differential access to resources within shifting political-legal frameworks and structural contexts. Scholars of communication, media studies, sociology, political ecology, employment and labor relations, science and technology come together to examine the social shaping of digital futures across different world regions and domains.
Contributing to these fields, the volume highlights the merits of interdisciplinary research and transnational perspectives to illuminate the intricate complexity in which digital technologies are shaped by and are shaping social relations of power between domination and participation. The authors present critical case studies that make timely progress toward a deeper understanding of these new dynamics and toward broadening the horizon for imagining preferable democratic future alternatives.
This volume is sponsored by the International Sociological Association Research Committees on Futures Research (ISARC07), ProFutur, Denkwerk Antizipative Demokratie, and Initiative for Transnational Futures (ITF).
and: https://www.emerald.com/books/edited-volume/chapter-pdf/11296367/s2050-206020250000027010en.pdf
Event Sponsors: Registration was free thanks to our sponsors ICA GCSC Global Communication and Social Change, West Chester University, Santa Clara University, and Emerald Studies in Media & Communications.
Event Leadership: The event is possible thanks to the service of Co-Organizers: Laura Robinson, Jeremy Schulz, and Julie Wiest; members of the Global Advisory Board Grant Blank, Wenhong Chen, Kenneth Kambara, Muyang Li, Zhifan Luo, Noah McClain, Massimo Ragnedda, Maria Laura Ruiu, and Juliana Trammel; and Student Mentor Team Leader Katia Moles to support team members Cristina Dai and Poiema Dai (in alphabetical order).
Questions or need help? Email mediasociologysymposium@gmail.com.
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