International Conference
FUTURE COMMUNICATIONS: RETHINKING SOCIETIES, CULTURES AND GOVERNANCE
16-18 April 2024
organised by
Department of Electronic Media and Mass Communication
School of Media and Communication
Pondicherry University
in collaboration with conference partners
UFR Ingémédia of the University of Toulon (France)
Oslo Metropolitan University (Norway)
Multimedia University (Malaysia)
International Center for Strategy & Communication (Auroville)
Integral World (Auroville)
Educational Multimedia Research Centre, Puducherry
The Department of Electronic Media and Mass Communication, Pondicherry University (India) in collaboration with conference partners, invites researchers and students to participate in the International Conference – “Future Communications: Rethinking Societies, Cultures and Governance” to be held from 17-18 April 2024 at Pondicherry University (remote participation possible). There will be pre-conference events at the Auroville International Township in collaboration with our conference partners on 16 April 2024. An International Students’ Symposium – “Media Matters” at the Auroville International Township and Pondicherry University follows the conference on 19-20 April 2024.
Concept Note
In an era marked by individual-centric paradigms and existential fragility, the Department of Electronic Media and Mass Communication at Pondicherry University, India, is collaborating with esteemed partners from across the globe. The International Conference, “Future Communications: Rethinking Societies, Cultures, and Governance,” scheduled for April 16-18, 2024, stands as a testament to our collective commitment to address the pressing issues that permeate our contemporary world.
Collaborative Endeavours
This collaborative initiative brings together diverse institutions, including the UFR Ingémédia of the University of Toulon (France), Multimedia University (Malaysia), Oslo Metropolitan University (Norway), International Center for Strategy & Communication (Auroville), Integral World (Auroville), AWARE (Auroville), and the Educational Multimedia Research Centre, Puducherry. The collaboration emphasises the shared responsibility of institutions to engage in meaningful discourse and find innovative solutions to the multifaceted challenges we face today.
Auroville – A Hub for Inspiration
Our collaboration with Auroville, an International Township founded on principles of Human Unity, adds a unique dimension to the conference. Auroville serves as a living laboratory for conscious evolution, alternate societies, cultures, and governance models. Participants will have the opportunity to delve into the practices of Auroville, interact with thought leaders, and explore sustainable perspectives that can reshape our future communications. Field visits and curated plenary sessions will provide insights into ongoing research and initiatives related to sustainable development, peace, integral education, conscious community communication, and governance.
International Dialogue and Networking
The conference provides a platform for international dialogue and networking, fostering collaboration among scholars, researchers, and practitioners. It catalyses the exchange of ideas, perspectives, and best practices, creating opportunities for long-lasting partnerships that transcend geographical boundaries.
Conference Themes
The conference will explore a wide array of themes related to the future of communications, ranging from art and culture, education, environment/ecology, health, media, information, and communication to political and social struggles, and sports. These themes are designed to encourage interdisciplinary approaches and foster discussions on the intersections of media and communication with various aspects of contemporary society.
Call for Papers
We invite empirical, conceptual and critical research from various perspectives on communication and media studies in contemporary society. Inter/multidisciplinary approaches to theoretical, methodological and philosophical inquiries with new and alternative imaginaries of sustainability, peace, hope and resilience are welcome. The call for papers encourages explorations into the socio-cultural transformations evolving alongside media and communication practices and concepts.
We live in an increasingly individual-centred era marked by an existential fragility that affects all aspects of our lives and invites us to strongly rethink our agency, representations, affiliations, capacities, and horizons. In addition to the military conflicts that are proliferating and the concerns about the economic, cultural and community fragmentation of hyper-modern societies and emerging continents, the rampant presence of micro-compromises due to the absence of meaningful and ethical communication is an area that this conference strives to highlight through creative and innovative as well as path-breaking work of scholars.
Our societies are to a large extent organised as production machines, whereas human beings are (spiritual) and creative beings, thereby creating a mismatch. This conference, therefore, also wants to explore how we can organise communities in ways that make people thrive by rethinking our direction towards sustainability, our connection to nature, our new orientations imbued with the old, and changing global politics, communities and societies, governance and economies. At the heart of these transitions, the practices, methods, theories and philosophies of media and communication play a crucial role in the discourse of sustainability, and in how individuals, societies, cultures, media and the state intersect.
Further, the prevalence of intrapersonal and interpersonal communication and its expression through mass media has not received much attention in the media and communication academic community. A thorough investigation and discourse on this means the possibility of rethinking our lifestyles, our new orientations imbued with the old, and changing global politics, communities and societies, governance and economies.
We are interested in the links between imaginaries and paradoxes about media and communication in the past, present and future, as well as the particularities of contemporary communication and its future imaginaries. What new visions of the future can we promote? Participants are invited to submit papers on communication practices related to the above questions and debates.
The fields of inquiry include but are not limited to
Art and culture
- Body, affect and embodiment
- Technology transforming artistic practices
- Aesthetic hybrids
- Cultural industries/creative industries
- Transmedia
- Digital art
Education
- Communication in education
- Globalization of education
- Interculturality
- Inclusivity
- E-learning
- MOOCs and online education
Environment/ecology
- Rethinking nature, culture and the environment
- Environmental policies
- Ecology and globalization
Health
- Integrating technology into public health communication
- Patient engagement and empowerment through digital communication tools
- Health and globalization
Media, information and communication
- Intrapersonal and interpersonal communication
- Cultural politics of information
- Political economy of media and communication
- Media economies: cultural and creative industries
- Digital cultures and transitions
- “Post-truth” and its impact on public trust
- Fake news
- Storytelling and word building
- Artificial intelligence and cyber security
Political and social struggles
- (Un)mediating social change
- Citizens, participation and representation
- New forms of activism
- Feminism and communication
- Queer, queerness and alternative sexualities
- Race, ethnicity, colonialism and coloniality
- Governance and sustainable societies
- Sport and the media
- Sport and globalization
- Sport and technology
Submission and Important Dates
- Last date for submission of abstract: 23 February 2024
- Notification of acceptance of abstract: 4 March 2024
- Last date for submitting the registration fee: 15 March 2024
- Last date for submission of presentation slides: 2 April 2024
- Last date for submission of full-text paper: 2 September 2024
Guidelines for Paper Submission
Abstract
- The abstract should be in the following order: Title, Author (s) name and Affiliation, Abstract, and Keywords.
- Abstract (not more than 600 words) must contain a brief introduction, objective of the research, methodology, results, and conclusion.
- All abstracts are to be submitted online – uploaded with a Google form:
- For more details, please visit the conference website:
Presentation Slides
After receiving a notification of acceptance of the abstract, you are required to submit your paper presentation in the form of a slide deck of a maximum of TEN slides to support your oral presentation of a maximum of SEVEN minutes.
Name the slide deck as follows:
Your full name-Title of paper
The subject of your email should be as follows:
Slide deck-Your full name
Attach your slide deck to an email and this should be sent to the conference organisers by 2 April 2024 to: office.demmc@pondiuni.ac.in
Instruction to presenters
Your paper presentation/slide decks should be for maximum seven minutes. Three minutes are given for questions from participants. Maximum ten minutes for each presenter.
Full Research Article
- The research paper should be structured in the following sequence: Title – Author(s) Name and Affiliation – Abstract -Keywords – Main Text (Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Analysis and Findings, Conclusion, Limitations, and References)- Acknowledgements (if applicable).
- The full paper should be around 7000-8000 words including tables and references. The final length of the paper, if it is eligible to be published in one of the journals the conference collaborates with, will depend on the journal’s guidelines.
- The article should be in Times New Roman 12 font, single-spaced; left/right-justified;
- Bold topic headings with no space between heading and paragraph including title, abstract, and author’s name/s; two spaces between the author’s name/s and abstract. italicised subheadings (no numbers).
- Keywords should be italicized with the three (or more) key phrases.
- Follow APA 7th edition format or a style appropriate to your discipline; references/bibliographies, which should be single-spaced.
- Submit the research article in Microsoft Word and PDF.
- For co-authored articles, at least one author must be registered for this conference to have their paper considered for presentation or publication.
- The corresponding author should give a copyright declaration stating that the work is original and does not violate the rule of copyright.
- All full papers submitted will be subject to a blind review process. Comments of the reviewers will be sent to the author(s).
- The accepted papers will also be considered for publication in the special issues of the selected journals.
Publication Opportunities
Accepted papers will be subject to a blind review process and considered for publication in reputable journals such as Communication and Culture Review; Journal of Communication, Language and Culture; and Journal of Extreme Anthropology. This ensures that the scholarly contributions presented at the conference have the potential to make a lasting impact on the academic community.
The organisers will publish papers from the conference after they are peer-reviewed and implement revisions, if any, to conform to a high standard for publication. The selected journals include but are not limited to
- Communication and Culture Review (ISSN: 2582-2829) – a peer-reviewed, bi-annual international journal that engages with realities, issues and ideas within the broad rubric of communication and culture studies. Breaking away from the strait-jacketed disciplinary canons, the journal aims to interweave communication with strands of cultural, sociological, anthropological, performative, computational, political, philosophical, linguistic, political economy and other interdisciplinary approaches in examining a wide range of mediatised and mediated phenomena. Communication and Culture Review is published by the Department of Electronic Media and Mass Communication, Pondicherry University, Puducherry, India.
- Journal of Communication, Language and Culture (eISSN: 2805-444X) – an open-access academic journal that adheres to the highest standards of peer review and engages both emerging and established scholars from around the world. JCLC is a multidisciplinary journal that is centred on communication, language and culture and is open and welcoming to contributions from the many disciplines and approaches in these disciplines. Journal of Communication, Language and Culture is published by the Faculty of Applied Communication, Multimedia University, Malaysia.
- Journal of Extreme Anthropology – an international, peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary, open-access and indexed journal (DOAJ) that publishes articles written in the fields of anthropology, social sciences, humanities, philosophy and critical theory focusing in particular on extreme subjects, practices and theory. Journal of Extreme Anthropology is published by OsloMet, Norway.
Registration Fee Details
To facilitate widespread participation, we have structured the registration fees accommodating different categories, including academicians, research scholars, students, and industry/research institutions. We aim to create an inclusive environment where diverse voices contribute to the collective understanding of future communications.
Category | Registration Fee with accommodation from the afternoon of 15 April to
11 am of 19 April |
Registration Fee without accommodation | |
Academicians | Indian | Rs. 8000/- (double sharing) | Rs. 3000/- |
Foreign | $ 400 | $ 250 | |
Research Scholars and Students | Indian | Rs. 6500/- (group sharing) | Rs. 2000/- |
Foreign | $ 250/- | $ 100/- | |
Industry/Research Organisations | Indian | Rs. 16,000/- (single room) | Rs. 11,000/- |
Foreign | $ 450/- | $ 300 | |
Accompanying Person (Conference kit not included) | Indian | Rs. 4000/- (double sharing) | Rs. 1000/- |
Foreign | $ 200/- | $ 50/- | |
Virtual Participation
(Soft copy of the book of abstracts and certificate is provided) |
Indian | Rs. 2000/- | |
Foreign Delegates | $ 50/- | ||
Foreign Students | $ 20/- | ||
Spot Registration | Rs. 4000/- | ||
Pick up from Chennai on 15 April and drop back on 19 April – group pick up by car/van (subject to confirmation) | Rs. 1200/- |
Last date for submitting the registration fee is 15 March 2024
This collaborative effort underscores the need for institutions to come together, share knowledge, and address the challenges that confront our world today. By rethinking societies, cultures, and governance, we aspire to pave the way for a more sustainable, equitable, and interconnected future. Your participation is not just an academic endeavour but a shared commitment to shaping a better world through thoughtful and informed communication practices.
We look forward to your active involvement in this transformative journey
Join us at Pondicherry University, April 8-10, 2024, to be part of this global conversation on Future Communications.
General Information
- Registration
- Name badge
- Local sightseeing
- Access
- Conference venue
- Accommodation
- Food
- Health matters emergencies
Day wise plan
Conference – 16, 17, 18
Day 1: PU / Auroville
Morning
All participants are to leave at 9 am from their respective guest houses in the hired buses/cars provided and reach Unity Pavilion, Auroville International Township
10 am -10.30 am:
Conference Inauguration at Unity Pavilion, Auroville
To check with VC if we can start the conference at Auroville as a tribute to the efforts to manifest the future – the first and only international UNESCO endorsed ongoing experiment in human unity and transformation of consciousness.
10.30 am -12.30 pm:
Opening Round Table Discussion (Need pictures to insert in the brochure of the hall and the peace table)
“Conscious Communication and Communities”
In the context of FUTURE COMMUNICATIONS: RETHINKING SOCIETIES, CULTURES AND GOVERNANCE
12.30 pm: Lunch at Solar Kitchen
Afternoon
1.30 – 2.45 pm: Visit to Visitors Centre and MatriMandir Viewing Point
3 – 4.15 pm: A field trip to explore the sound garden at SVARAM – Centre for the Craft, Art & Science of Sound. (Need pictures to insert in the brochure)
Svaram brings together the rich tradition of Indian music and craft, international academic musicology, sound studies and research, contemporary design and innovation with the unique spiritual, futuristic aspiration of Auroville and its experiment of Human Unity in Diversity. Initiated in 2003 as a grassroots community and rural development project in Tamil Nadu, SVARAM has been recognised by the UN Initiative “Music as a Global Resource” as one of its first 50 projects worldwide. The open association and team of over 80 local/global sound enthusiasts, artisans, craftsmen, designers, artists, healers, researchers, professionals, trainees and international volunteers has always retained its emphasis on the human element, its heritage and the prospect of evolutionary change and positive progress.
4.30 pm: Intro to Auroville @India Space, Bharat Nivas
Exhibition: ‘The City the Earth needs’
5.30 pm: Visit to Integral World – Exhibition of Auroville & SDGs
Refreshments, by IW
Evening
Back to PU Convention Centre Auditorium by 7 pm for Cultural Performances by students to welcome all followed by dinner at the Convention Centre at Pondicherry University
Day 2: PU
Tentative Schedule – 17 April
10 am: Keynote Speaker 1
11 am: Plenary session 1
12 pm: Plenary session 2
1-2 pm: Lunch
2-3 pm: Plenary session 3
3-4.30 pm: Research Paper Presentations – thematic parallel sessions if number is large
4.30-5 pm: Refreshments
5-6.30 pm: Research Paper Presentations – thematic parallel sessions if number is large
Day 3: PU
Full Day – Plenary Sessions and Research Paper Presentations ending with Valedictory Session at 5.30 pm
Tentative Schedule – 18 April
10 am: Plenary session 4
11 am: Plenary session 5
12 pm: Plenary session 6
1-2 pm: Lunch
2.00-3.30 pm: Research Paper Presentations – thematic parallel sessions if number is large
3.30-5.00 pm: Research Paper Presentations – thematic parallel sessions if number is large
5.00-5.30 pm: Refreshments
5.30 pm: Valedictory Session with feedback of participants. Certificates to be given at the venue preferably or sent later.