“body, lived space, and mobile media” june - department of .pdfVIP

Call for papers The 2nd International conference on Communication and the Public: “Body, Lived Space, and Mobile Media” June 18-19, 2016 Penn Wharton China Center World Financial Center West Building, 16F No. 1 East Third Ring Middle Road Chaoyang District Beijing, 100020, China Themes Today, mobile technologies of all varieties, from smart phones to geo-spatial media and vehicles equipped with sophisticated navigation and surveillance gadgets, increasingly dot the urban space around the world. In many rural areas, more and more village residents use mobile phones to access the Internet and maintain their connections with families and friends in other regions or countries. Ordinary citizens resort to mobile media to communicate with one another about culture, society, economy, politics, entertainment, and other information. Parallel with the development of mobile media technologies are profound transformations of the physical environment of the human habitat. Rural villages become urbanized while age-old urban streets and enclaves disappear or are transformed. In the middle of these transformations, however, life’s colorful varieties persevere. People continue to seek and discover meaning from their lived spaces as some embrace while others resist these changes. What cultural and social processes characterize the intersections and interfaces of body, lived space, and mobile media? What new social collectivities, identities, and relationships emerge in these processes? How do they inform the practices of everyday life? How do these techno-social transformations challenge our understandings of pu