Interface Journal call for contributions: Voices of dissent: activists’ engagements in the creation of alternative, autonomous, radical and independent media.

Hi everybody!

I would like to share with you the happiness on seeing initiatives based on transform the way knowledge is produced and access. Interface “A Journal For and About Social Movements” is one of the ones I love the most. The Journal is open access and peer-reviewed, plus combine action and research oriented perspectives. After three great issues of Interface: 1. Movement knowledge; 2.Civil society vs social movements; and, 3. Crisis, social movements and revolutionary transformations; a new issue is in preparation.

My friend Alice Mattoni, together with other colleges, is under the next issue of Interface which is dedicated to “Voices of dissent: activists’ engagements in the creation of alternative, autonomous, radical and independent media”. The call for contributions is open. Send a paper, a reflection, a book review, report on a particular experience. The deadline for submissions is May 1. The issue address important questions for movement strategy which will benefit for major discussion. Addressing questions such as:

· What are the places and sites in the media environment where alternative media develop today?
· Does it still make sense to speak about ‘media activists’ in a technology-saturated environment? Who are today’s media activists and, more broadly speaking, who are the alternative media practitioners and how are they connected to different social movements?
· How are traditional media (radio, magazines, television, print) used as alternative means of communication nowadays? Are there instances of media convergence in this respect? What effects does this have on the communication practices of existing social movements?
· What are the challenges, problems and issues that alternative media have raised and still raise within the social movement milieu?
· Do alternative media present a gender-neutral context? Or are alternative media practices embedded in the same patriarchal discourse that envelops mainstream media?
· Do technical criteria and the logics of media production necessarily win out in the long run over questions of alternative production processes and attempts to treat media as the voice of people in struggle?

Finally, to me the commitment to transform the research on social movement of Alice Mattoni by supporting an issue of Interface Journal is an example to follow. After finishing a Phd on Media practices in precarious movement, Alice Mattoni finds the time and the sense to priories the taking care of this issue. Unfortunately it is not very common (and an unrecognized effort by the University systems) to priories contributing to create debate among activist and to facilitate spaces to spread the results of social movements research. So, an applause to Alice Mattoni!

More info on the call for contributions to the issue at: http://www.interfacejournal.net/2010/02/call-for-papers-issue-4-voices-of.html

Interface is a prove that research can be done in another way and that spaces of dialogue of action and research are very fruitful.

Viva Interface!!! Mayo