Call for Papers

Special Issue of Communication Theory
"Succeeding Failure: openings in communication and media studies"

Succeeding Failure: openings in communication and media studies is the
title of a special journal issue planned for Communication Theory. This
issue will be guest edited by Briankle G. Chang and Garnet C. Butchart of
the Department of Communication at the University of Massachusetts,
Amherst.

"Failure" typically implies a kind of breakdown, defeat, or impasse.
However, "failure" may also be read as a productive concept, one that
indicates an opening rather than a closure, a point of departure rather
than a terminus. For example, whenever one thing is said but another is
heard, it is the failure of, or discord within, such an exchange that
enables one to question the possibility of communication to begin with.
In this sense, failure succeeds. This special issue invites critical
essays that interrogate the ways in which failure may open onto and
succeed in generating innovative responses to pressing questions of
theory, politics, and ethics as they relate to communication and media
studies. Topics for critical reflection may include, but are not limited
to:

• Aesthetics and arts
• Globalization and media
• Social interaction
• Identity and ethnicity
• Consciousness and language
• Subjectivity
• Freedom, privacy, and citizenship
• Hermeneutics
• Being and presence
• Alienation, recognition, and community
• Event, symptom, and truth
• Representation and ideology

Regardless of topic, submitted essays must offer a critical interrogation
of the concept of failure as a productive entry point into the
contemporary study of communication and media. Manuscripts must conform
to the guidelines of Communication Theory and be received by May 15, 2006
to be considered for this issue.

The manuscript should include a title page with complete contact
information (address, telephone, FAX, and email), as well as a brief
biography (full name, highest earned academic degree, institution
granting that degree, current academic title) for each author.
Manuscripts must conform to the specifications of the Publication Manual
of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.), and authors should
verify that the reference list is complete and in appropriate form.

Authors may submit inquires and manuscripts electronically to:
Briankle G. Chang at bchang_at_comm.umass.edu
Garnet C. Butchart at garnet_at_comm.umass.edu
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Received on Mon Oct 17 2005 - 23:52:51 EDT