22.3971, Calls: Sociolinguistics/Denmark

Tue Oct 11 17:09:18 UTC 2011

LINGUIST List: Vol-22-3971. Tue Oct 11 2011. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 22.3971, Calls: Sociolinguistics/Denmark

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1)
Date: 11-Oct-2011
From: Peter Kastberg [pk at asb.dk]
Subject: Encompassing Knowlegde Mediation

-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2011 13:08:10
From: Peter Kastberg [pk at asb.dk]
Subject: Encompassing Knowlegde Mediation

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Full Title: Encompassing Knowlegde Mediation 

Date: 10-May-2012 - 12-May-2012
Location: Aarhus, Denmark 
Contact Person: Peter Kastberg
Meeting Email: 360 at asb.dk
Web Site: http://www.asb.dk/omos/institutter/institutforerhvervskommunikation/forskning/encompassing-knowledge-mediation/ 

Linguistic Field(s): Sociolinguistics 

Call Deadline: 15-Jan-2012 

Meeting Description:

The theme of the 4th international conference in the 360o series is Encompassing Knowledge Mediation. In choosing this particular theme we have - like in the previous three conferences - deliberatively chosen a rather broad topic. We have done so in the explicit hope that this will encourage researchers from a wide variety of different research fields and communities to participate and join us in the 360o exploration of phenomenon in question.  

Choosing Knowledge Mediation as this year's theme was indeed quite easy. For, as a mere cursory look at the world around us indicates, the amount of accessible information is staggering and the speed with which new knowledge is being produced is breathtaking.  Among other things this entails that the number of experts and the number of areas within which an individual can become an expert are subject to an equally soaring growth rate. A knowledge growth at the rate and of the dimensions needed to assure the existence of a knowledge society implies that knowledge asymmetries tend to emerge at a rate corresponding to the growth rate of knowledge. Such knowledge asymmetries are no longer limited to the prototypical ones between social classes, between institutionalized social roles such as 'expert' and 'layman' or political institutions of power such as 'authority' and 'subject'. They also emerge within institutions themselves, between 'experts' from different fields, and increasingly between 'experts' with different agendas or of different persuasion, political or otherwise. 

We understand Knowledge Mediation as a special kind of communication, a kind of communication, that is, where the aim of the communication is mediation of understanding across knowledge asymmetries. Mediators in this sense would be, say, a translator, a lecturer, a science journalist, a knowledge broker, etc. What they have in common as mediators is the fact that they all take up a position in between other positions, and that they mediate across the knowledge asymmetries in question. In the case of the translator, the mediation is interlingual and intercultural, for the lecturer the mediation takes place between the codified domain knowledge and the learner of that body of knowledge, for the science journalist it is between the science community and the general public, and for the knowledge broker it is between domain expert and decision maker. As may be inferred, the instruments with which to mediate vary tremendously, e.g. from spoken or written texts of various genres, to animations, gesture and demonstrations, etc. 

Call for Papers:

The catalogue of research questions that forms the point of departure for the conference is:

Why do we mediate? 
Do we mediate for the greater good of society?
Do we mediate for the sake of an 'other'?
Do we mediate for our own sake?

What do we mediate?
Do we mediate all kinds of knowledge? 
Can we mediate all kinds of knowledge? 
Should we mediate all kinds of knowledge?  

How do we mediate? 
Are there special mediational signals?
Is there a special mediational mode?
Are there special mediational media?

Where do we mediate? 
Do we mediate everywhere and all the time?
Or are there certain settings which seem to indicate mediation?
Are certain interactional requirements needed in order to mediate?

We encourage participants to contribute with papers under one of the below three strands:  

1) Communication:

How may knowledge be mediated to an 'other' - e.g. in which settings, by means of which media, in what practices? 
Are there certain interactional parameters that we need to take into consideration in order to be able to mediate in the first place?
And - conversely - what would constitute a hindrance to knowledge mediation?

2) Representation:

How is knowledge represented for the purpose of mediation? 
Materially speaking, are there certain instantiations which seem to encourage mediation - e.g. certain textual or generic features, certain modes of visualizations, certain technologies, etc.?
Immaterially speaking, are there certain cultural, conventional, habitual, or ritualistic modes which seem to encourage mediation?

3) Construction:

Can all kinds of knowledge be mediated? 
Do mediational efforts ensure the construction of knowledge in an 'other'? 
Where may we locate the motivational triggers for knowledge construction - are they individual, social, discursive, or purely cognitive? 

For participation with a paper, please complete the abstract template which can be found on our website.

The abstract must be emailed to 360 at asb.dk.

Submission of abstracts: January 15, 2012
Notification of acceptance: February 1, 2012

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