*EXTENDED CALL FOR CHAPTER SUBMISSIONS*

Call for Papers (proposals)

CONTRIBUTION TO EDITED VOLUME (Please read the full CfP before sending a proposal)

Mediated Masculinities in European networks: Discourse and performativity in the Information Age 

NEW Deadline for abstract submissions: April 10, 2026

Notifications of acceptance: March 10, 2026 

Deadline for first draft after notification of acceptance: April 30, 2026

Contact email: masculinitieseurope@gmail.com  

Aims and scope of the Publication 

The interdisciplinary book aims to present an array of reflections on the diversity of masculinity in mediated spaces in European contexts as they are widely understood. We are interested in chapter contributions that interpret masculinity in its hybrid sense (Bridges & Pascoe 2014) or investigate hegemonic variations and performances of masculinities (Connell & Messerschmidt 2005), however, the books aims to reflect various perspectives on the subject, touching on topics that go beyond hegemonic and hybrid masculinities.  

As the American context has been discussed and described in much detail (McGlashan, Koller, Heritage 2023), the focus of the book will be on (and limited to) European digital contexts. Contributions that cover masculinity performance and how masculinity is understood in varied European contexts are welcome. We also invite texts that present a comparative approach to masculinity in language and culture, investigating the similarities and differences between varying manifestations of Western masculinities (or European) masculinities. 

European masculinities 

The role of media organizations and their impact on the configurations of masculinity, whether they be hegemonic (Connell, 1987; Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005), hybrid (Bridges & Pascoe, 2004) or other, has been widely critically examined; however, the fundamental shifts in communication technologies at the dawn of the 20th century and on traditional media formats has had a profound impact on relationships between social actors, understood as something that acts or upon which activity is granted within a network of distinct nodes (Latour, 1987; 1996; 2006). The move from real- to virtual spaces where social identities are performed and negotiated has reduced the impact of traditional media organizations in determining these configurations. In what Manuel Castells (1996) dubs the “Information Age”, there is now a continuing tension between the social network, which has replaced previously extant modes of hierarchical social organization, and the self, where individual personal practices reaffirm social identities, including gender. The arena for negotiating social meaning has shifted from physical to virtual spaces, with these spaces becoming the primary sites for reaffirmation of social identities and, by extension, the primary site of discursive manifestations of gendered identity markers (Van Dijk, 1998). It is therefore on these virtual platforms, through the consumption of multimodal native digital media, that contemporary masculinities are structured, ordered, and reinforced.  

The separation between the virtual and the real world has grown increasingly thin, and the possible off-line consequences of online discourse for European countries have become apparent in recent years; one need only examine the French government’s Haute Commision sur l’égalite’s 2023 report on the alarming persistence of sexist stereotypes due to online platforms, or a leaked 2025 report from the British government linking periods of civil unrest to the radicalization potential of antifeminist online spaces. The latter, markedly, specifically named the online “manosphere” as being a hub for hostile discourse.  

The book therefore seeks to discuss the following questions: how is masculinity, whether hegemonic, hybrid, hyper, or other, negotiated in European online spaces or in virtual media forms? What are the possible consequences of the technological affordances of online platforms on the discursive construction of masculinity? How does the multimodality of these platforms structure the discourse on gender-based expectations of masculinity? How are virtual and real worlds interlinked? Is the label “manosphere” still applicable to contemporary studies/approaches to masculinity in mediated spaces? This is not a seminar wholly dedicated to the anglophone manosphere, therefore we also welcome contributions discussing local manifestations of the discourse space, especially non-anglophone ones. 

We invite contributions on, but not limited to the following:  

• Masculinity discourses  

• Masculine performativity online  

• Identity and masculinity 

• Hybrid masculinity  

• Hegemonic masculinity  

• The label of the manosphere  

• Masculinity and computer-mediated communication  

• Masculinity in gaming sites  

• Non cis- or hetero-normative masculinities in media spaces  

• Multimodal aspects of mediated masculinity  

The proposed papers may be informed by one discipline in linguistics, cultural studies, media studies, or the social sciences; however, we encourage participants to take an interdisciplinary perspective. We will not be accepting proposals in literary theory or literary studies.  

We are planning to submit our book proposal to Brill. 

Please send your abstracts 300-400 words in editable format (word), along with 5-10 keywords, as well as a biographical note (100 words) via email to Sid Campé and Olga O’Toole (masculinitieseurope@gmail.com).  

Sid Campé, M.A.  (PhD Candidate) (sid.campe@uha.fr) 

University of Upper Alsace in Mulhouse, France and Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic 

Dr Olga O’Toole (olga.otoole@uj.edu.pl) 
Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland