IV ISA Forum of Sociology (February 23-28, 2021)

686

Mediated Cities

Abstract Submissions Closed

RC57 Visual Sociology (host committee)

Language: English

Session Type: Oral

Direct urban experiences and ‘mediated’ ones have become intricately connected and together ‘produce’ the city and life within the city in radical but as yet hardly documented new ways. The city is replete with screens and media of all sorts: city dwellers and visitors are using personal media while navigating the city, and the city is virtually and visually marketed and reframed by numerous official and private actors with distinct or overlapping political, cultural or social agendas. These media and their practices are both cultural specific and potential tools to create cross-cultural spheres of negotiation.

We invite papers that critically explore aspects within these three strands:

1. Studies of directly observable mediated and non-mediated enactments of urban culture in public space (behavior and material culture). This includes visually recording of visual behavior and material culture in urban public and semi-public spaces (streets, squares, buildings, parks, parking lots, shopping malls, train stations…)
2. Studies of the complex intersections of digital media technologies and urban life (both in private and public urban environments). This includes the study of social media and on-line worlds in private and public space (tourism websites, institutional web sites, activist websites, personal websites, Web 2.0 websites, geomedia, smartphones).
3. Studies of people’s perceptions and experiences of screens and visual media in the city, including film and video in public (outdoor screens) or semi -public space (cinemas, lobbies, retail spaces, shopping malls), billboards and electronic displays in public and private contexts of reception.