CFP: Images of (Cultural) Values (Istanbul, 2-3 September 2015)

Call for Papers — Conference: Images of (Cultural) Values (Istanbul, 2-3 September, 2015)
Submission Deadline: Apr 30, 2015
Project director: Prof. Dr. Veronika Bernard (University of Innsbruck)
IMAGES V – Images of (Cultural) Values
After the conferences IMAGES (I) – Films as Spaces of Cultural
Encounters (2011), IMAGES (II) – Images of the Poor (2012), IMAGES
(III) – Images of the City (2013) and IMAGES (IV) – Images of the
Other: Istanbul-Vienna-Venice (2014), the IMAGES project is planning to
focus on images of (cultural) values in its 2015 conference.
Contrastive culture studies for example by Geert Hofstede, Helen
Spencer-Oatey, Edward Hall, Fons Trompenaars, and Shalom H. Schwartz
have set the theoretical grounds to a structural understanding of
(intercultural) communication processes by defining cultural
categories. It is these cultural categories which determine individual
actions and reactions to the actions and reactions of others. In turn,
this can both pave the ground for disastrous circles of
misunderstanding and violence (when values clash), or enable
constructive and fruitful cultural encounters and (inter)cultural
learning (when values are in harmony or awareness of the others’ values
leads to a mutual intercultural respect).
The potential list of identified cultural categories is extensive and
includes for example, power distance, uncertainty avoidance,
individualism vs. collectivism, masculinity vs. femininity, time (e.g.
monochronic vs. polychromic cultures), context-orientation (the
relevance of context in communication of high context vs. low context
cultures), information transfer speed,  space ( i.e. personal space vs.
territory/ proximity vs. distance),  universalism vs. particularism,
individualism vs. collectivism, neutrality vs. affectivity, precision/
specification vs. vagueness, performance vs. status, attitude towards
time, attitude towards the environment, conservativism, intellectual
and affective autonomy, hierarchy, mastery, egalitarism, and harmony,
These categories link to sets of relevant cultural values; sets of
values which shape these categories and are at the same time shaped by
them.
Studies on acculturation (for example John Berry’s work on migrant
attitudes towards native and receiving culture, old and new identities)
have also broadened our understanding beyond simple categorization to a
more diverse understanding of the processes involved.
Though many of the studies mentioned above seem largely informed by the
concept of nation cultures and/ or cultural regions, the categories
defined may, nevertheless, apply to non-nation and/ or non-regional
cultures as well, i. e. to all cultures in a cultural studies
understanding of the term, thus including cultures defined by age/
generation, professional, social and religious affiliations and else,
in short, by all communities who define themselves by their individual
sets of (cultural) values.
Our focus within the IMAGES project is on the ways in which the
cultural values involved in the cultural categorizations of our world
have been visualized, i. e. turned into images and/ or symbols present
in the several fields of our everyday lives. Hence, the IMAGES
project’s 2015 conference IMAGES (V) – Images of (Cultural) Values will
discuss the (historically) changing representation and perception of
images of (cultural) values; the representations of (cultural) values
being seen as documentations of cultural concepts and also of cultural
approaches. This creates an unlimited number of potential cases of both
cultural encounters and conflicts, elaborated by an academic discourse
within socially relevant research fields such as politics,
communication, culture and migration.
In order to discuss issues like the above mentioned IMAGES (V) – Images
of (Cultural) Values invites scholars, but also architects,
photographers, writers, artists and filmmakers to propose papers in the
following fields of research and interest:
• The relativity of cultural values and their communicational relevance
(theoretical approaches and/ or case studies)
• The relevance of cultural values symbols in constructing images of
the (cultural) self and the (cultural) other  (theoretical approaches
and/ or case studies)
• The psychology of a felt affiliation to images/ symbols of (cultural)
values (theoretical approaches and/ or case studies)
• Images of (cultural) values in public space as a statement
• The impact of the media (news, internet, daily soaps) on the images
of (cultural) values
• Images of cultural values in feature films (present and past)
• Images of cultural values in the Arts (present and past)
• Images of cultural values as seen by photographers (present and past)
• Images of cultural values in literature (present and past)
The conference IMAGES (V) – Images of (Cultural) Values is planned as a
2 days interdisciplinary international conference with a minimum of 25
and a maximum of 35 speakers.
The conference will be open to the public.
The conference will bring together senior scholars with PhD students,
postdoctoral academics, and members of the artistic community without
following the classical keynote speaker pattern but rather inviting all
speakers to present their research findings in 20 minute (paper)
presentations plus 10 minutes for discussion.
There will be no parallel sessions. All sessions will be plenary
sessions.
The conference language is English.
Selected articles of each session/ field of research will be published
as a volume of conference proceedings. Münster, Berlin, Vienna and New
York based LIT Verlag has already declared strong interest in
publishing the conference proceedings. The publication will provide
space for black-and-white illustrations.
Please note: that due to the increasingly restrictive national funding
policies we are not able to cover any travel and/ or accommodation
expense of conference speakers. For the first time in the now 5-years
history of the IMAGES conference series we will also need to charge a
registration fee in order to cover expenses for the conference venue.
As this has to be booked (and paid for) well in advance of the
conference, the registration is non-refundable in case the registered
speaker/ participant cancels her/ his participation in the conference.

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