M/C Journal: ‘Cities’ CFP

Over the past 20 years, interest in the ways in which cities might be re-imagined and place-branded through specific creative and cultural identities and activities has increased exponentially (Landry; Andersson; Evans; Grodach), with urban policy-makers in particular seeking to find ways to leverage these identities to drive a range of urban development, economic, heritage, and tourism initiatives (Richards; Baker; Martinez; Ballico and Watson). In turn, significant attention has been given to the vital contribution creative workers make to the creative, cultural, and economic fabric of cities, with policies aimed at attracting these workers becoming a central tenet of many creative city strategies (Florida). To this end, urban development strategies prefaced on the enactment of a range of ‘creative’ and ‘cultural’ frameworks are commonplace in cities across the world. Examples of this include the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, which encompasses creative sectors as diverse as Crafts and Folk Art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Media Arts, and Music (Ballico and Carter), as well as other sector-specific frameworks such as the global music cities movement (Baker; Ballico and Watson). Considering the emergence, circulation, and adoption of these policy frameworks, as well as more broadly the ways in which creative and cultural identities can be leveraged through place activation strategies, we invite contributions that provide, although are not limited to:

Abstracts due by November 20 for Festival Activism! 

For decades festivals have provided important sites of inquiry for folklorists and ethnomusicologists alike. While theoretically and methodologically diverse, this literature has traditionally focused on the communitas of festival experience and the flow of everyday social life beyond the festival’s liminal boundaries. Attending to the activist turn in ethnographic research, we wish to explore the idea of festivals as strategic forms of social action. Specifically, how can a critical ethnographic study of festivals reveal the ways in which performers, participants, and organizers encounter and challenge the myriad forms of violence that frame the contemporary world? How do festivals constitute sites of activism and forms of social and political intervention?    

Co-Editors David A. McDonald and Jeremy Reed of Indiana University and Andrew Snyder of Universidade Nova de Lisboa are seeking chapter proposals that explore existing and emerging debates on the dynamics of festivals and activism. This volume understands festivals as an interspace between disciplines such as folklore, ethnomusicology, performance studies, cultural studies, media studies, and others. At the same time, an attentive and critically ethnographic approach to festival can offer utility to professional fields beyond the social sciences, such as arts administration and public affairs. We welcome original research that explores the significance of festivals as tools of social and political intervention. And further, we encourage chapter proposals that integrate festival research into contemporary conversations on applied, activist, and public facing work in the humanities.     
    
We envision this volume published as part of IU Press’ “Activist Encounters in Folklore and Ethnomusicology” book series. If interested in participating, please send a 250 word abstract to David McDonald davmcdon@indiana.edu, Jeremy Reed reedjer@indiana.edu, or Andrew Snyder asnyder@fcsh.unl.pt by November 20, 2021. Finished chapter drafts will be expected by May 1, 2022 with final revisions expected in Fall 2022.