URBAN POP CULTURES

1st Global Conference

URBAN POP CULTURES

Tuesday 8th March - Thursday 10th March 2011
Prague, Czech Republic



This inter- and multi-disciplinary conference aims to examine, explore and critically engage with issues related to urban life. The project will promote the ongoing analysis of the varied creative trends and alternative cultural movements that comprise urban popultures and subcultures. In particular the conference will encourage equally theoretical and practical debates which surround the cultural and political contexts within which alternative urban subcultures are flourishing.

Papers, reports, work-in-progress, workshops and pre-formed panels are invited on issues related to any of the following themes:

1. Urban Space and the Landscape of the City
Urban Aesthetics and Architecture, Creative Re-imagining and Revitalization of the City. The Metropolis and Inner City Life: Urban Boredom vs. Creativity.


2. Urban Music Cultures
Histories, Representations, Discourses and Independent Scenes. Popular Music Theory. The Visual Turn. Urban Intertextualities and Intermedialities. Postmodernity and Beyond.

3. The City as Creative Subject/Object
Urban Life and Themes Considered in Music, Literature, Art and Film, Urban Fashion, Style, and Branding.

4. Urban Codes
Urban Popular Culture and Ideology, Politics of Popcultures, D.I.Y, Alternative Ethics of the City. Urban Religion and Religious Expressions. The Avantgarde and Urban Codes.

5. The City and Cyberculture
Virtual Urbanity - Online Communities and the Impact of Social Networking. Urban Identity and Membership. Globalization/Localization of Urban Experience. Recent trends in Copyright/Copyleft. The Role of Internet in the Transformation of Music Industry. The Impact of User-generated Content.

6. The Urban Underground
The Rise and Fall of the Experimental Subcultures, Scenes and Styles. Alternative and Underground Dance, Hip Hop, and Punk Scenes. Queer Theory and Urban Cultures. Gendered Music and Fashion. Free Urban Exploration and Libertine Lifestyles.

7. Urban Activities in Massmedia
The Visual Aspects of Urban Entertainment. The Evolution of Music and Thematic Television. Media Structure of Music Video. Explicit TV and Censorship. Urban Styles and Extreme Sports.

300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 1st October 2010. All submissions are minimally double blind peer reviewed where appropriate. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 4th February 2011. Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Organising Chairs
Jordan Copeland
La Salle University,
Philadelphia, USA

Daniel Riha
Hub Leader (Cyber), Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Charles University,
Prague, Czech Republic

Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Network Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net,
Freeland, Oxfordshire, UK

The conference is part of the 'Critical Issues' programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.

All papers accepted for and presented at this conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers maybe invited for development for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s) or for inclusion in a new Cyber journal (launching 2011).

Style Sheets
In preparing your papers, please pay strict attention to the following style sheets

a.. Download Oxford Style Sheet - v7 (pdf)
b.. Download Oxford Reference Style Sheet 2 (pdf)
c.. Download Template document (Word)