Editors: Rita Ribeiro, Manuel Pinto (Communication and Society Research Centre, University of Minho, Portugal) & Maria Erica de Oliveira Lima (UFC, Rede Folkcom, GP Folkcomunicação Intercom, Brazil)
Traditional popular festivities, cyclically organized by communities, are times-spaces of celebration and social effervescence that have acquired new significations in contemporary societies. Far from remaining a continuous repetition of the past, festivities are constantly renewed in connection with the contexts of local communities and produce new meanings for participants. First and foremost, as in any other community practices, traditional ways of life are vanishing and for their active participants, spectators and visitors they are now read and interpreted from the perspective of the diffuse notion of “intangible cultural heritage”. Processes of heritage classification, mediated by specialists and local organizations, have made it possible to valorize such cultural manifestations, and in certain cases safeguard them, via anthropological, sociological and historical studies, which have the evident effect of strengthening their central role in defining the identity of the respective local communities, while encouraging the involvement and participation of younger generations. It is nonetheless necessary to underline the tensions placed on the communities, who often feel that they are losing control over their traditional cultural practices and are torn between the advantages and risks associated to media promotion and tourism exploitation of cultural heritage.
In this edition of the Lusophone Journal of Cultural Studies (RLEC) contributions are accepted that analyse and question the dynamics associated to traditional festivities in terms of the relationship with local communities and changes to contemporary societies. It is interesting to discover and understand how the festivities were originally created and celebrated, the contribution of the festivities to shaping their communities, the relationship between the festive celebration and community identities, contemporary reconfigurations and uncertainties involved in such cultural manifestations, and how scientific knowledge and reflexive communication strategies can contribute to ensuring the sustainability of local communities and their festivities.
Possible topics of analysis include, but are not limited to, the following:
– Popular festivities as intangible cultural heritage
– Festivities and community identity
– Key agents and contexts of the festivities
– Symbolic elements in the festivities (costumes, masks, dance, music, etc.)
– Festivity, conflict and mediation
– Festivities at a crossroads between tradition and modernity
– Media coverage and tourism promotion of festivities
– Festivities and communication
– Festivities and social temporalities
– Sacred and profane elements of festivities
KEY DATES
Submission deadline: 14 May 2019
Notification of acceptance decisions: 9 July 2019
Journal publication date: December 2019
The Lusophone Journal of Cultural Studies is a peer-reviewed journal that uses a double blind review process. After submission, each paper will be distributed to two reviewers, previously invited to evaluate it, in terms of its academic quality, originality and relevance to the objectives and scope of the theme chosen for the journal’s current issue (www.rlec.pt).
Articles can be submitted in English or Portuguese. After the peer review process, the authors of the selected articles should ensure translation of the respective article, and the editors shall have the final decision on publication of the article.
Originals must be submitted via the journal’s website (www.rlec.pt). If you are accessing the Lusophone Journal of Cultural Studies for the first time, you must register in order to submit your article (indications to register here). The guidelines for authors can be consulted here.
For further information, please contact: rlec@ics.uminho.pt
©Universidade do Minho. Todos os direitos reservados. Com apoio do FCT.
