"Science Fiction Reloaded: Power, Critique and
Resistance in the Science Fiction Genre and the Information Society of
the 21st Century"

5th International Conference

Crossroads in
Cultural Studies

June 25-28, 2004, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, Illinois, USA

In the last twenty years the increasing role of global communication
flows has led to fundamental changes in society which are summarized
under the concepts of "reflexive modernity" (Beck/Giddens), "network
society" (Castells) or "information society" (Poster, Lash). Not only
contemporary social theory, but also popular culture helps us to
understand the new times which are characterized by a loss of
traditional relationships and ontological security in everyday life,
individualization, new techniques of exercising power and new forms of
cultural and social inequality. The session's focus is on the discourse
of social change and the visions of a future society in the very popular
representations of the science fiction genre (films, novels, TV-series,
computer games). In this way, contemporary science fiction movies (e.g.
TERMINATOR, STRANGE DAYS, MATRIX), and especially cyberpunk novels
(William Gibson, Bruce Sterling), can be interpreted as metaphors for
the emerging principles of an information society.

As a reaction to this
fundamental change, cultural studies ought to be a transnational and
transdisciplinary project in order to explore global communication flows
and their consequences. What will be the characteristics of this
information society? How does power work in an age of such flows? Will
the social be replaced by mediated and technologised social relations or
technological forms of life? How will conceptions of social justice,
truth and social recognition change? Which forms of dissent subcultures,
"flight lines" and resistance will evolve? Can the recent science
fiction texts contribute to a "cognitive mapping" (Jameson) of the
contemporary era?Starting from an in-depth analysis of science fiction texts, the
(possible) features of the information society will be analysed and
critically discussed in the session. Besides that, the relationship
between film and literary representations and contemporary social theory
will be explored. Critical cultural studies also have to ask how the
role and possibility of critique is changing. Is social critique only
part of the information flows, as Scott Lash argues, or can critical
reflection continue to be directed from an outside standpoint? Can a
cosmopolitical project of cultural studies serve as a basis for a
critique of the global information culture and for social change?

Please submit an abstract of 250 words for your paper, presenter's name,
address, e-mail address, and what, if any, A/V needs you would like to
request. Presentations should be 15-20 minutes in length. Deadline for
submissions: As soon as possible, but no later than January 25, 2004.

Session organizers

Lothar Mikos, professor of television studies at the Academy of Film and
Television "Konrad Wolf", Potsdam, Germany (l.mikos@hff-potsdam.de)

Rainer Winter, professor of media and cultural theory at the University
of Klagenfurt, Austria (rainer.winter@uni-klu.ac.at).