Call for papers: Gendered Cultures in Platform Economies
On Monday, November 20 and Tuesday, November 21, 2023, the conference "Gendered Cultures in Platform Economies: entertainment, expertise and online selfhood" will be held at ISCTE - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa. IULM University is launching a call for papers on the topic, which will close on June 9. The conference is organized as part of the EUMEPLAT project - European Media Platforms: assessing positive and negative externalities for European platforms, funded by the European Union under the Horizon 2020 program, project. N. 101004488.
The conference will explore the gendered dimensions of platform economies, focusing in particular on how entertainment is intertwined with expertise in the construction of contemporary femininities and masculinities. Platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook allow for an apparent democratization of expertise, as anyone can become an expert in any conceivable subject within niche communities. In this context, popular feminism is intertwined with popular misogyny, as online media give visibility to emancipatory discourses while simultaneously limiting the effectiveness of collective action.
Work and aspirational consumption in media platforms have a strong gendered dimension. Erin Duffy (2017) argues that the aspirational (unpaid) work of creative entrepreneurs in media platforms is primarily done by women, while aspirational (curated) consumption creates particular fantasies of femininity, masculinity, queerness, and other gendered identities. The exposure of gendered and classed selves to expert entertainment content, from eating food from celebrity chefs to working out with fitness gurus, perpetuates a feeling of self-inferiority to gendered and classed success.
This lecture explores gender in the context of the "entertainification of expert knowledge" of platforms. A 250-word abstract in English is required by June 9, 2023 on the following topics:
- Optimization of gender and sexuality
- Optimization of womanhood and motherhood
- Life coaches, self-help and self-care gurus
- Manosphere, pickup artists and new masculinities
- Joke videos and sexism
- Queer identities between entrepreneurship and empowerment
- Guides and cultures of "how to succeed
- Growing plants and pets
- Gender representation in animal videos (beauty/strength)
- The culture of trust and psycho-industries
- Wellness economics, therapeutic cultures, and neospiritualism
- The gendered self as project and artwork
- Fitness, beauty and the body
- Discipline and self-control
- Amateur and professional work
- Individualized gendered practices vs. collective mobilization
The Advisory committee is composed by:
- Tonny Krijnen (Erasmus University)
- Joke Hermes (Inholland University)
- Sander De Ridder (University of Antwerp)
- Sofia Caldeira (Lusófona University)
- Cila Willem (Universitat Rovira i Virgil)
- Maria Helena Santos (CIS, ISCTE-Lisbon University Institute)
- Carla Cerqueira (Lusófona University)
The Organizing committee is composed by:
- Panos Kompatsiaris (IULM)
- Claudia Alvares (CIES, ISCTE-Lisbon University Institute)
- Andrea Miconi (IULM)
- Sofie Van Bauwel (Ghent University)
TIMELINE
- 9 June 2023: Abstract submission deadline;
- 14 July 2023: Acceptance/rejection notification;
- 8 September 2023: Conference registration;
- 20-21 November 2023: Conference in Lisbon
To submit your abstract please send an e-mail to: [email protected]
Click here for the full text of the call for papers.
