Nico Carpentier

Charles University in Prague | CUNI

The chapter on democracy starts by analysing democracy's core components, arguing that democracy is articulated by the presence of both representation and participation, and by the presence of a political community. In addition, the chapter argues that in contemporary European societies, the statist and liberal-democratic interpretations of democra...

Democracy and Media in Europe: A Discursive-Material Approach is a theoretical reflection on the intersection of democracy and media through a constructionist lens. This focus allows us to understand current political struggles over democracy, and over media’s democratic roles, with the latter ranging from the traditional support for an informed c...

The brief concluding chapter returns to the strength and importance of the media/democracy nexus, but also to its contingency. The book argues that contemporary Western democracies are inconceivable without media assemblages, but also points to the multiplicity and diversity of these media assemblages. Their omnipresence and significance—arguably—a...

The introduction of Democracy and Media in Europe outlines the book's intellectual framework and its relevance. The introduction first argues that the need for permanent attention to the interplay between democracy and media is legitimated by their always contingent articulations and changing contexts. Moreover, the introduction explains that the b...

The chapter on media and democracy first defines the media assemblage as a technological-institutional assemblage that produces signifying practices, articulated with audiences. In order to better contextualize the media/democracy nexus, the chapter then provides a brief outline of public sphere theory (combined with related concepts, e.g., civic c...

The introduction of the special issue on the construction of the future of platforms provides the paradigmatic, conceptual and methodological framework for this special issue. Starting from a brief outline of the characteristics of the field of futures studies, the article supports the call to better embed in social and political theory, and frames...

This is an edited transcript of the audio recording of the roundtable on Future, Democracy, and Platforms, which was organized at the EUMEPLAT project meeting at Charles University in Prague on 15 January 2024, in collaboration with the MeDeMAP (Mapping Media for Future Democracies) project. The current digital public spaces have been transformed b...

The article presents an analysis of the construction of future scenarios in relation to conflict and communication technologies (CTs), on the basic of Delphi+ workshops and essay-writing sessions. Grounded in a theoretical reflection on the various forms of conflict—distinguishing between armed, grey zone and democratic conflict—in combination with...

This research analyses the construction of childhood in three children’s books related to the Cyprus Problem through the lens of Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The discourse on childhood, deployed in books whose narratives are related to an armed conflict, is seen to have four nodal points: innocence, citizenship, savagery, and otherness. Ou...

This research examines the social construction of political leadership by social media followers of two Croatian politicians, president Zoran Milanović, and the mayor of Sinj, Miro Bulj, within the context of celebrity politics and populism. Through the interaction between theory and analysis, we integrate elements that construct leadership into wh...

Through a combination of historical research and a series of research visits, this visual essay reflects on how Estonian memorials, related to the Second World War; are discursive-material assemblages, that function as floating signifiers. Grounded in a post-structuralist theorization of contingency, overdetermination and discursive struggle – part...

Employing mapping research, this study mapped the populations of environment-focused social media, audiovisual media and art, in Sweden, over a one-year period. The study explored what is being communicated about the environment in Sweden in these fields, by whom, and how it circulates in diverse communicative spaces. The research identified 502 un...

Aiming to contribute to the sparse literature on social mapping methodologies, this article elaborates on the principles, procedures and research design of a social mapping project. It first demonstrates the design and implementation of a mapping project of active Facebook groups in Sweden that focus on the environment, by elaborating on the projec...

In this article, we study two Facebook groups in Sweden that address environmental issues, which adopt opposingly radical positions as it regards sustainability: one Facebook group supports climate change denialism, aligning with anthropocentrism, and one promotes the rights of nature movement and its ideas, embedded in ecocentrism. Employing disco...

The article aims to capture the significatory diversity of the concepts of Europeanity and Europeanisation, through the development of a semantic map in order to visualize the different concepts that define Europeanity and Europeanisation, and their interconnections. Embedded in the field of Communication and Media Studies, this semantic map combin...

The article evaluates an academic intervention which consisted out of two photography exhibitions in Cyprus, focussing on the memorialization of the Cyprus Problem. These exhibitions communicated academic research into antagonistic nationalism and aimed to trigger societal debate, empowering the more agonism-oriented parts of society, and offering...

Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory has played a significant role in thinking through the political role of knowledge and ideology, without ignoring the significance of the material, also in relation to its post-Marxist agenda and the de-essentialisation of class relations. At the same time, there is a need to enrich discourse theory, by finding a...

The article brings Laclau and Mouffe's discourse theory into the empirical context of contemporary Russia to analyse the complex relationships between the state and alternative media. In contrast to the mainstream narrative that paints the picture of a strong authoritarian state with a grip over democratic liberties and civil society, we suggest a...

Review of: In Between Communication Theories through One Hundred Questions , Tomas Kačerauskas and Algis Mickūnas (2020) Cham: Springer, 278 pp., ISBN 978-3-03041-105-3, h/bk, EUR 98.09 ISBN 978-3-03041-108-4, p/bk, EUR 98.09 ISBN 978-3-03041-106-0, e-book, EUR 74.89

This article analyses the Swedish TV series Hållbart näringsliv ( HN ) to study hegemonic discursive formations over the meaning of the climate crisis. Combining new materialist approaches in discourse studies with a political ecology understanding of the socio-ecological entanglement, we propose the concept of technocratic solutionism to understan...

This article is theoretically grounded in a reflection on the discursive-material knot, which uses a macro-(con)textual approach to discourse, but also allocates a non-hierarchical position to the material, recognizing its agency. The article uses the ontological model to further theorize the discursive-material struggles of, and over, nature, and...

This article examines how Facebook groups in Sweden, that focus on the environment, address issues of sustainability. The research, conducted over a one-year period (May 2019–April 2020) combines mapping analysis, which identified a population of 152 environment-focused Facebook groups, and quantitative content analysis, which gives the overview of...

This article examines the discursive construction of nature as represented by the Swedish TV documentary Tvångsförflyttningar – Bággojohtin , which narrates the history of forced displacements of the indigenous people of Sami in northern Sweden in the early 20th century. Our discursive-material analysis highlights the role of nature in these displa...

This article analyses, through a case study approach, the environmental documentary film Gállok , which narrates the struggles over the proposal to operate an iron ore mine in Gállok (Sámi) or Kallak (Swedish), in Northern Sweden. The analysis is transdisciplinary, anchored in the environmental studies work on anthropocentrism and ecocentrism, comb...

In this article, we analyse mediated representations of elite and non-elite voices about climate change, by juxtaposing two Swedish non-fiction television series: one narrates the work of environmental scientists, the other discusses climate change with diverse citizens in a vox pop format. We argue that the discursive practices of these programmes...

This video essay studies the role of the material in four Prague-based so-called zines (Atton, 2010; Duncombe, 2008; Hroch, 2017; Liming, 2010; Piepmeier, 2008, 2009). The study of subcultures (and zines) has been traditionally focused on their meanings, using more culturalist perspectives. This video essay argues for paying more attention to the m...

Different academic disciplines have deployed a diversity of approaches to European identity, Europeanism and Europeanisation, with often a strong emphasis on their material-structural components. This article uses a discursive-material analysis, that acknowledges the importance of the material, but places it in a non-hierarchical relation with the...

Kiruna ‐ A Brand New World (2019) is a documentary film directed by Greta Stocklassa, and produced by the Czech company Analog Vision. It analyses the move of (part of) Kiruna, a north‐Swedish mining city, which is threatened by destruction because of the operations of the state‐owned ore mining company, Luossavaara‐Kiirunavaara (LKAB). The film fo...

This article introduces the special issue on “Arts-Based Research in Communication and Media Studies”, starting from a discussion on the different strategies and models that have been used to move away from the dominance of the written text in academia. In a second part, the basic characteristics of arts-based research are introduced and discussed,...

The essay is grounded in a reflection on the discursive-material knot, which uses a macro-(con) textual approach to discourse, but also allocates a non-hierarchical position to the material, recognizing its agency. This ontological model is then used to analyse the discursive-material struggles of/over nature, and nonhuman living beings. In particu...

OPEN ACCESS - PLEASE DOWNLOAD IT AT: https://doi.org/10.1080/13183222.2021.1889833 Freedom is approached in this article as an empty signifier and as an object of discursive struggle, from a discourse-theoretical perspective. The hegemonic centrality of freedom in Western discourse and identity construction is acknowledged, but at the same time th...

This article studies the role of the material in four Prague-based zines. The analysis is theoretically embedded in the model of the discursive-material knot, which is a non-hierarchical articulation of the discursive and the material, and it is contextualized by a reflection on post-digital culture, which allows revalidating the role of the materi...

Academic research involving societal partners often approaches the latter as less knowledgeable, not possessing the skills and authority that the academic field has in producing legitimate knowledge. Still, several (academic) traditions have engaged in practices that destabilise the notion of the academia as the exclusive field of knowledge product...

O artigo discute inicialmente cinco abordagens que visam transcender, complementar ou desestabilizar a hegemonia do texto acadêmico escrito. Na segunda parte, o experimento da instalação Mirror Palace of Democracy, que tinha o objetivo explícito de ir além do texto acadêmico escrito, permanecendo no domínio da comunicação do conhecimento acadêmico,...

El libro presenta las tradiciones funcionalista, crítica, de los Estudios Culturales, alternativista, poscolonialista y feminista en las teorías de la Comunicación, vistas por autores de Latinoamérica y Europa, así como un diálogo inter-continental al respecto de cada una de ellas.

The book presents the functionalist, critical, Cultural Studies, alternativist, postcolonialist and feminist traditions in Communication theories, seen by Latin American and European authors, as well as an inter-continental dialogue regarding each one of them.

This article assesses the current state of play of the poststructuralist and post-Marxist discourse theory associated with Laclau and Mouffe and the ‘Essex school’, and identifies ways forward at the level of theory development, research practice and critique. The article starts by disentangling the different meanings of the notion of ‘discourse’ i...

This article introduces the special issue of the Journal of Language and Politics on ‘Discourse Theory: Ways forward for theory development and research practice.’ In this introduction we discuss the aims and structure of this special issue focused on the development of the poststructuralist and post-Marxist discourse theory originally developed by...

Discourse theory has always paid explicit attention to the material dimension of social reality, with, for instance, the dislocation concept attributing an active role to the material. Still, it lacks attention for the specificity of the material-as-material, and tends to attribute a privileged position to the discursive as provider of meaning to t...

Yiannis Mylonas interviewed Nico Carpentier in June 2019, at the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow, during his visit to HSE-NRU.

A response to Peter Dahlgren’s review of The discursive-material knot: Cyprus in conflict and community media participation.

The article analyses the construction of war and peace in three books, so-called ego-documents, written by soldiers who themselves fought in the Cypriot 1974 war. In order to better understand these constructions, we first develop a theoretical model on war and peace discourses, supported by Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory, which has been cros...

The article first discusses five approaches that aim to transcend, complement, or overturn the hegemony of the written academic text. These five approaches are (1) the cluster of science communication, science popularization, and knowledge dissemination; (2) the cluster of knowledge exchange, and participatory, transformative, and interventionist (...

Este artigo regressa a uma teorização aprofundada sobre o conceito de participação, com o objetivo de refletir sobre a natureza da participação e demonstrar alguns dos problemas inerentes às publicações que distinguem entre formas de participação claras e escuras. O ponto de partida do artigo é uma discussão sobre três limites inscritos no conceito...

Resgatar a participação > special issue of Comunicação e Sociedade, 36 See https://revistacomsoc.pt/issue/view/103/

Why is participation relevant? What is meant when the concept is used? How can we ensure that participation is used/organized in a responsible way? How can it be rendered meaningful in the different spaces of society? These may be the most important questions that motivated this discussion on the contemporary relevance of participation. The result...

In this interview, held during the IAMCR 2019 Conference in Madrid, Nico Carpentier discusses his multidisciplinary, phenomena-centric approach to communication and media studies, and explains his theorization of participation that tries to restrict the meanings of participation, with references to his 4-level, 12-step analytical model for analysin...

This book, the fourteenth in the Researching and Teaching Communication Book Series launched in 2006, stems from the communal intellectual work of the lecturers, the students and the alumni of the 2018 edition of the European Media and Communication Doctoral Summer School (SuSo). The book gives an account of the plurality of research interests and...

The chapter engages in a discussion about the knotted relations between the discursive and the material, starting from the discourse-theoretical position developed by Laclau and Mouffe, which emphasizes the importance of the discursive as producing necessary but contingent frameworks of intelligentibility. Even if Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theo...

The article deploys discourse theory to study the construction of the homeless subject position in the Greek street paper shedia. After a brief outline of the relevant parts of Laclau and Mouffe's (1985) discourse theory, the article first reports on the theoretical work that outlines the elements that construct the homeless subject position, keepi...

Community media organisations are famously difficult to define, as this media field is highly elusive and diverse, even if there is a certain degree of consensus about a series of basic characteristics. One key defining component is the objective to serve its community by allowing its members to participate in self-representational processes. Yet t...

Open access introduction of Communication and Discourse Theory book: See here for download: http://oapen.org/search?identifier=1004823

Within the literature on homelessness, the attention for what is often called ‘homeless identity’ is slowly increasing, and within this body of knowledge, the complex, contingent and contested nature of this identity also becomes more visible. This article aims to contribute to this discussion, by deploying Laclau and Mouffe’s (1985) discourse theo...

Laclau and Mouffe's discourse theory has played a significant role in thinking through the political role of knowledge and ideology, without ignoring the significance of the material, also in relation to its post-Marxist agenda and the de-essentialisation of class relations. At the same time, there is a need to enrich discourse theory, by finding a...

This volume gathers the work of the Brussels Discourse Theory Group, a group of critical media and communication scholars that deploy discourse theory as a theoretical backbone and an analytical research perspective. The book seeks to show the value and applicability of discourse-theoretical analysis (DTA) within the field of media and communicatio...

The introduction to the edited volume Communication and Discourse Theory aims to reflect on the interaction between discourse theory and the study of media and communication, as well as the Brussels Discourse Theory Group’s contribution to it. The chapter starts with a summary of the main tenets of Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory, and touches...

A book about the Respublika! project, which was initiated and curated by Nico Carpentier and co-organised with NeMe and CCMC. The catalogue highlights the 18 Respublika! art projects, through project narratives, artist interviews and more than 200 photographs. It also contains 12 reflexive articles, written by Bart Cammaerts, Nico Carpentier, Vuk Ć...

A pesquisa participativa enfrenta hoje três desafios: como abordar a teorização e a conceituação da participação; como fundamentar a pesquisa com modelos analíticos; e como avaliar os resultados de pesquisa. Este artigo visa discutir esses três problemas por meio da distinção entre as duas abordagens fundamentais (uma sociológica e uma política) da...

Chercheur prolifique dans le champ des études en communication et des études médiatiques, Nico Carpentier a écrit de nombreux travaux portant sur la participation, les médias, les technologies médiatiques, la société civile, l’analyse de discours, le pouvoir et les droits de la communication, en prenant toujours bien soin d’ancrer théoriquement ses...

Nico Carpentier is a renowned researcher in the field of communication and media studies. He published a large number of studies dealing with participation, media, media technologies, civil society, discourse analysis, power and communication rights. His scientific writing, always attesting its concerns of well anchoring its research theoretically....

This book consists of the intellectual work of the 2017 European Media and Communication Doctoral Summer School organized in cooperation with the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, Italy. The chapters cover relevant research topics, structured into three sections: “Int...

Antagonism and agonism have become popular concepts, including in the field of Media and Communication Studies, because they capture the logics of conflict, the construction of self and other, and the relationship between conflict and democracy. This chapter aims to deepen the theoretical reflections on these two concepts by combining a discourse-t...

This book consists of the intellectual work of the 2017 European Media and Communication Doctoral Summer School organized in cooperation with the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, Italy. The chapters cover relevant research topics, structured into three sections: “Int...

This introductory chapter gives an introduction to the contributions that are part of the edited volume and to its overall theme. It highlights the current trends in European communication and media research and presents insights on the European Media and Communication Doctoral Summer School that took place from 24 July to 5 August 2017, at the Uni...

Despite the celebratory approach towards community participation in peace-building, less attention has been placed on the participatory process itself, leaving ambiguous how, and to what degree, power is actually redistributed in these processes. This article aims to address this gap by further developing Torre’s concept of the participatory contac...

Identifying grassroots or 'below-the-radar' organisations, such as community media organisations, is a challenging task that is not always supported sufficiently by methodological literature. The objective of this article is to address this challenge by proposing a structured approach to mapping analysis: (1) driven by an (operational) definition o...

The article evaluates an academic intervention which consisted out of two photography exhibitions in Cyprus, focussing on the memorialization of the Cyprus Problem. These exhibitions communicated academic research into antagonistic nationalism and aimed to trigger societal debate, empowering the more agonism-oriented parts of society, and offering...

The Mediterranean island of Cyprus is the site of enduring political, military, and economic conflict. This interdisciplinary collection takes Cyprus as a geographical, cultural and political point of reference for understanding how conflict is mediated, represented, reconstructed, experienced, and transformed. Through methodologically diverse case...

The article evaluates an academic intervention which consisted out of two photography exhibitions in Cyprus, focussing on the memorialization of the Cyprus Problem. These exhibitions communicated academic research into antagonistic nationalism and aimed to trigger societal debate, empowering the more agonism-oriented parts of society, and offering...

Deconstructing nationalist assemblages is a visual essay which analyses the memorialization of two conflicts in Cyprus ? he independence war of 1955-1959 and the Turkish invasion of 1974, focusing on the memorials in the part of Cyprus controlled by the Republic of Cyprus. Embedded in a discursive-material knot perspective, the essay defines the me...

This special issue, focusing on different case studies and drawing from different examples, addresses issues of political struggle, contextualized by multidirectionality and contingency. Using different starting and entry points (based, inter alia, on journalism studies, organizational communication, game studies, discourse theory, visual communica...