ICA preconference announcement: Conditions of Mediation

It’s been in the works for a while, but I’m now happy to announce that, in collaboration with my Birkbeck colleague Tim Markham, we will be holding Conditions of Mediation: Phenomenological Approaches to Media, Technology and Communication on 17 June 2012 at Birkbeck, University of London. The event is a preconference sponsored by the Philosophy, … Continue Reading

Conference on communication and the city

In the pleasant myopia for relaxation which characterized of my recent holidays, and which led to the accumulation of many emails from many listservs, I almost missed news of what sounds like a fantastic conference. At least if you’re like me and are really, really interested in the intersections of cities and media. Communication and … Continue Reading

Forthcoming at the Tate Modern: Peter Sloterdijk in conversation with Nigel Thrift

On Saturday 16 June 2012, 14.00–16.30, the Tate Modern will host a conversation between German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk and British geographer Nigel Thrift. For a while I’ve harboured a curiosity – still largely uninformed – about Sloterdijk’s ‘sphereology’ which is encapsulated by his three-volume magnum opus Spheres (taking in bubbles, globes and foam). I think, … Continue Reading

Two positions on the UGRG

The RGS-IBG‘s Urban Geography Research Group (UGRG) is now in the process of filling two positions on its committee: the Secretary; and the Treasurer. It seems like a long time ago now, but I served five years on the UGRG (2003-08) – technically one year beyond the normal four year term – first as a … Continue Reading

Event next week: The Art Market and the Art Museum

Matthew Morgan, a PhD student who I co-supervise with Ben Cranfield, is organizing an interesting seminar next week on The Art Market and the Art Museum, to be hosted by Birkbeck’s Centre for Media, Culture and Creative Practice. The event, and Matthew’s research, touches in part on the relations museums have with cities as well … Continue Reading

Media and cities in the Global South: questioning the questions

I recently participated in an Urban@LSE sponsored event titled Visible Cities: International Media Portrayals of Cities in the Global South. This event – a full video recording of which is available above – brought together urban geographers, media theorists and practical journalists to discuss how media tend to portray cities in the Global South. I … Continue Reading

Academia in a digital/networked world: a Guardian HE Network ‘live chat’

Along with my colleagues Sophie Hope and Lorraine Lim – with whom I am co-organising a postgraduate workshop series – I have been invited to partake in a ‘Live Chat’ hosted by the Guardian Higher Education Network. That chat, which takes place on 3 June 2011, addresses the topic ‘Breaching the digital divide: How could … Continue Reading

New video on the death of the university, English-style

One of the more valuable interventions vis-à-vis the Browne Review (alongside Stefan Collini’s excellent article in the London Review of Books) has been Nick Couldry and Angela McRobbie’s ‘The Death of the University, English Style’. I liked their paper because it is succinct and also has a helpful focus on the implications for media and … Continue Reading

Does ‘neoliberalism’ help us understand media?

Is ‘neoliberalism’ a concept that works for understanding media? As I left a workshop last Friday at University College London, on the subject of ‘postneoliberalism’, I asked myself this question. My initial, rather impulsive, answer at the beginning of the workshop was no. But I need to put that answer into context. The workshop was … Continue Reading