Capitalism, Culture and the Media

About the Conference

For many decades, capitalism was a concept largely ignored in the social sciences and humanities. Things have changed since the continuing global financial crisis began. Capitalism is now taken seriously not only by Marxists, but also by non-Marxian feminists, social democrats and conservatives. Yet research on how we might understand relations between capitalism, media and culture has remained relatively limited. The rise of approaches to capitalism that emphasise the need to understand it in broad terms, including but not confined to the economic, potentially provide an inspiring basis to reinvigorate analysis of capitalism/media/culture relations. So too does the interest of cultural studies and other researchers in the nature of relations between culture and economy.

This conference brings together international scholars and activists from a range of disciplines and perspectives, to share research and ideas about the relations between capitalism, media and culture. It aims to combine contemporary and historical perspectives, and to bring theoretical, empirical and action research into dialogue. It will provide a forum for the conceptual and empirical analysis of relations between capitalism, media and culture, regardless of the tradition and perspective in which analysis is grounded (Marxian or otherwise) and regardless of the disciplinary background of the analyst.

Local organising committee:

David Hesmondhalgh (Chair/Convenor), Giles Moss, Anna Zoellner, Jason Cabanes, Leslie Meier, Lee Edwards, Kate Oakley, David Lee, Andreas Rauh Ortega, Carly O’Neill, Luca Antoniazzi, Jennifer Carlberg, Ellis Jones, Jeremy Vachet, Dimitri Kechagias, Sarah Weston

Advisory committee:

Janet Wasko (University of Oregon, IAMCR), Rodrigo Gomez Garcia (Metropolitan Autonomous University, Mexico City, IAMCR), Kevin Sanson (Carsey-Wolf Center, University of California Santa Barbara), Michael Curtin (Carsey-Wolf Center, University of California Santa Barbara), Paul McDonald (University of Nottingham/SCMS Scholarly Interest Group), Alisa Perren (University of Texas/SCMS Scholarly Interest Group), Hanne Bruun (University of Aarhus/ECREA Working Group), David Fernandez Quijada (European Broadcasting Union/ECREA Working Group).

Conference Location

Leeds is the third biggest city in England, the main city of Yorkshire, and a major cultural and business hub. Immediately to its north are hundreds of miles of beautiful countryside, including the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District. It is extremely well served by transport links. It has an international airport with five daily flights from Amsterdam. It is 200 miles/320 kilometres north of London, just over two hours by train. Manchester Airport, the major airport of the north of England, is an hour away by train. The University of Leeds campus is superbly located in the centre of this historical city, a short walk away from numerous hotels.