BODY SOUL SOCIETY

Body, Soul and Society:
Rethinking Media and Communication Ontologies 
 

It is a common discernment that modern Western societies entail a problematic division between the conceptual realms of “body” and “soul”, and that the ideal of rational thinking and progress (the mind) has come to dominate both. It is also a commonplace argument that Western modernity in its disciplination, individualization and commodification of body (and soul) differs sharply from both traditional societies and Eastern philosophies. A brief look at the last few centuries of Western thinking, however, reveals obvious tension-fields within the various veins of Western social theory and their conceptions of modernity. Efforts toward understanding modernity were always accompanied by inquisitions into the forces of rationality and discipline on the one hand, and enchantment and hedonism on the other. Earlier social theorists conceived differently of the individual and society, and the social versus spiritual realms against the backdrop of modernity, producing competing visions. Where Marx saw a capitalist society and grounds for revolution, Durkheim (following Comte) saw an industrial society and need for evolution, and Weber a paradox of rationalism that deeply marked modernity which ultimately produced a disenchanted culture. Questions of body and soul, in all their articulations, have been crucial to both social scientific and humanistic analysis, and continue to be integral to numerous current debates—not least in media and communication studies—and to normative visions of what constitutes “good life” and “good society”.

Ontological understandings of Body, Soul, Society and related concepts are also linked, and increasingly more directly, to the status of media and communication in society. Parallel to this, as media and communication studies evolve in their increasing interdisciplinarity, a holistic approach to identify and expand upon the enduring and emerging patterns of such conceptual, theoretical formations becomes necessary. Various landmarks in the social scientific and humanistic roots of the field provide entry points for such deliberation: from functionalist sociology to the collapsing of arts and aesthetics into critical theory, to the more autonomous accounts of the “cultural” and the “aesthetic” in post-structuralist analysis; from the Romantics’ sublime and the banal to “new media” aesthetics of remediated visuality; and, from the mind-centered conceptions of the triad of human agency-social life-modernity in Freudian and Lacanian theory to the body-oriented psychology of Reich, to postmodern, gender- and queer theoretical accounts of the self and society in a state of ambivalence and dislocation.

The development and appropriation of media technologies, ideologies, and cultural forms, (re)produce and respond to these fundamental notions – as “conceptions of reality”. In particular, political and moral debates regarding the “fears” and “wonders” of new media vis-à-vis lifestyle habits tend to highlight society’s basic (competing) assumptions of the material and mental/spiritual nature of human ontology. Added to these are the growing centrality of risk communication and environmental sustainability issues in media and communication studies, and the emphasis placed on effective communication methods for social change.

The objective of the conference theme is to scrutinize the triadic interplay between Body, Soul and Society in terms of how they have been, and are as of now, understood, implied and implemented in media and communication studies and to what ends. The approach is twofold, dealing on the one hand with how Body, Soul and Society have been applied as concepts of “reality”, and on the other hand with how they have (re)produced certain formations of knowledge. How do these concepts, in their broadest sense, produce certain ways of thinking in media and communication studies? How are the thinking around these categories bound up with (inter)disciplinary power-fields in terms of scholarly traditions and paradigms? A reflexive analysis of the different conceptions of these and a wide range of related notions throughout the history of media and communication studies would also offer an important key to an understanding of the development of certain fields and paradigms.

While each concept attains a certain autonomous status, and may therefore be associated with different kinds of scholarly work, the goal of the theme is above all to consider Body, Soul and Society as an ontological ensemble. Through the conceptual locus of Body, Soul and Society the conference is geared towards ontological debates of broader concern than what might be achieved through “intra-disciplinary” concepts such as media, communication, audience, convergence, etc. This means that the theme will also assess where and how media and communication studies are linked to surrounding fields and disciplines, as well as how contemporary transformations of media and communication research are related to historical debates and concepts. In order to bring about this double dialogue, the theme will be operationalized through a re-assessment of classical scholarly debates, which in various ways have problematized the Body-Soul-Society-interplay.

The conference theme will be explored through four plenary sessions, a particular theme division, and an artistic multi-media evening event.