Call for proposals 2026
The Participatory Communication Research (PCR) Section invites the submission of abstracts for its 2026 conference, to be held from 28 June to 2 July 2026 in Galway, Ireland, hosted by the University of Galway.
The deadline for submission is 3 February 2026 at 23:59 UTC.
Download this call for papers as a PDF file
Central theme
IAMCR conferences cover a wide range of topics defined by our thematic Sections and Working Groups (S/WG). Each year, a central theme invites participants to engage in shared reflection across these diverse areas, fostering dialogue and collaboration.
The 2026 central theme, Peripheries and Connections: Media, Communication, and Transformation, addresses the complexities of contemporary media systems in a polarised and interconnected world. By interrogating the tensions between centrality and marginality—whether geographical, cultural, political, or conceptual—this theme aligns with IAMCR’s commitment to fostering critical and inclusive dialogues across diverse perspectives.
Consult a detailed description of the main theme
PCR Section focus and themes
The Participatory Communication Research (PCR) Section explores theoretical, methodological and practice-based approaches to communication and participation in diverse contexts. The section welcomes contributions that critically engage with how participatory processes – whether in community, development, activist, political or other contexts of change – enable or constrain agency, power, and transformation. The section encourages interdisciplinary methods marked by critique, creativity and innovation.
For IAMCR 2026, the PCR Section particularly encourages papers that interrogate participation and transformation from the standpoint of peripheries and connections. We invite reflections on how participatory communication navigates boundaries between the local and global, the analogue and digital, the human and non-human, and the central and marginal (in terms of international, national or community relations). Papers could explore how participatory research and praxis and methodologies can foster epistemic justice, cognitive respect, and communicative equity in increasingly fragmented political and digital environments.
Contributors are also encouraged to reflect on critical questions such as how participatory practices challenge or reproduce hierarchies of knowledge and representation, and in what ways emerging technologies such as generative AI, platform governance, and algorithmic mediation reshape participatory publics and communities.
Submissions may address (but are not limited to) the following indicative areas:
- Participation, power, and peripheries: examining the geographies and socialities of inclusion, exclusion, and voice
- Digital participation and AI: generative AI, chatbot interactions, and hybrid modes of civic engagement
- Disinformation, populism, and mediated democracy: participatory politics in an era of mistrust
- Participatory media and environmental transformation: rethinking planetary participation and sustainability
- Youth, activism, and alternative media and communication: creative and collective practices across digital and physical spaces
- Participatory methodologies: innovative, arts-based, and collaborative methods for researching participation and/or connecting peripheries for social change
- Decolonial, feminist, and indigenous epistemologies of participation and transformation
- Boundaries and connections: participatory processes that traverse local, transnational, and diasporic spaces
- Participation beyond the human: exploring more-than-human communication and ecological agency
- Ethics of participation: navigating co-optation, digital divides, and institutional constraints
- Marginalised spaces and resilience: participatory processes to challenge dominant narratives and chart alternative frameworks
Joint sessions
This year, PCR will host joint sessions with the Community Communication and Alternative Media Section (CAM), the Emerging Scholars Network (ESN), the Health Communication Working Group (HEC) and the Multimodal Communication Research (MCR) Working Group. These joint sessions recognise the value of interdisciplinarity and mentorship-oriented spaces. If you would like your proposed paper to be included in a joint session, please do the following:
- For the joint session with the Community Communication and Alternative Media Section (CAM), please submit your abstract to CAM and choose the topic PCR/CAM joint session on the submission platform.
- For the joint session with the Emerging Scholars Network (ESN), please submit to ESN using the topic PCR/ESN joint session on the submission platform.
- For the joint session with the Health Communication Working Group (HEC), please submit your abstract to PCR and choose the topic HEC/PCR joint session on the submission platform.
- For the joint session with the Multimodal Communication Research (MCR) Working Group, please submit to PCR using the topic MCR/PCR joint session on the submission platform. Selected authors will exhibit their multimodal works (video, audio, other creative/art-based works relevant to PCR) and present their paper on a MCR/PCR joint panel.
New Books and Special Issues session
One session in the programme will be dedicated to new books and Special Issues of journals published in the past year. To have your book or Special Issue included, submit your abstract and select the topic: PCR New Book on the submission platform
Guidelines for abstracts
Abstracts for papers to be presented in person at one of the Participatory Communication Research (PCR) Section’s conference sessions should be between 500 and 800 words. They must be submitted exclusively through IAMCR’s submission system from 28 November 2025 through 3 February 2026 at 23:59 UTC. Abstracts submitted by email will not be considered.
It is expected that each person will submit only one abstract. However, no author’s name should appear on more than two abstracts, either individually or as part of any group of authors and authors should not submit more than one abstract to any single section or working group. The same abstract, or a version with minor variations in title or content, must not be submitted to more than one Section or Working Group. Such submissions will be deemed to be in breach of the conference guidelines and will be rejected. Authors submitting the same work to multiple Sections or Working Groups may be removed entirely from the conference programme.
Proposals are accepted for both single papers and for panels with several papers (in which several colleagues propose multiple papers that address a single theme).
Note: PCR is a postgraduate-plus section. Student submissions are accepted only from postgraduate students (Masters's level and above).
Evaluation criteria
Submitted abstracts will generally be evaluated on the basis of:
- Technical merit
- Readability
- Originality and/or significance
- Use of or contribution to theory
- Depth of knowledge of the research, theory and/or literature related to the proposed topic as evidenced in the submission
- Relevance to the section and current trends or controversies in its field
Acceptance of proposals may also be conditioned by programme diversity and balance criteria. The Section may assign different weights to the criteria listed above.
Languages
Abstracts and presentations can be submitted and delivered in English and Spanish.
Statement on use of AI tools
IAMCR does not encourage or condone the use of generative AI tools to prepare abstracts submitted for consideration for our conferences. IAMCR values originality, integrity, and transparency in academic work, and believes that human-authored contributions best support rigorous and innovative scholarship in media and communication research. Should an author choose to use a generative AI tool in the preparation of an abstract, we require that they include a clear statement within their submission disclosing the tool's use. This statement must specify: (1) the name of any AI tool used; (2) how the tool was used in preparing the abstract, and; (3) the reason for using the tool. Failure to disclose the use of generative AI in accordance with these guidelines may impact the evaluation and acceptance of the submission.
Intention to attend
Each abstract submitted to IAMCR represents a real cost to the Association and contributes to the workload of volunteer reviewers and organisers. As the number of submissions each year far exceeds the available presentation slots, we ask authors to submit only if they genuinely intend to attend and present their work at the conference if accepted.
Deadlines and key dates
The deadline to submit proposals is 3 February 2026, at 23:59 UTC. Other key dates. Dates are subject to change.
About the Participatory Communication Research Section
Learn more about the work and scope of the Participatory Communication Research Section
Contact the Section
For further information about the Participatory Communication Research Section, or queries regarding themes, submissions, or panels, please contact: iamcr.pcr@gmail.com
