May 23-25, 2024

Lab. CIMEOS (University of Burgundy) 

Deadline: November 15, 2024

International Communication Association 

French Society for Information and Communication Science  

Lab. CIMEOS (University of Burgundy) 

The Regional ICA Conference to be held in May 2024 in Dijon welcomes scholars from all over the worldworking on food-related issues from a Communication Sciences perspective. Today, food is the subject of numerous studies in history, sociology and anthropology.Many reference works have been written in the disciplines of Human and Social Sciences yet reading the food fact by the prism of the Communication Sciences is an original approach which allows to underline aspects until now little treated.   

Eating and food choices are the result of numerous factors: biological, psychological, cultural and social. The latter are made up of a whole range of dimensions, such as the media context, memory traces linked to childhood, our upbringing or the experiences and memories that stem from it. 

From this perspective, food choices require us to adopt a reflexive stance on the social, symbolic and memorial values we incorporate when we eat. As part of the research carried out by the CIMEOS laboratory and its food and gastronomy axis, it's the meaning of our food that we're concerned with. Its gourmet meaning, its environmental and ethical meaning, its nutritional meaning but also its political meaning. 

Communication Sciences have taken on the food issue around several polarities (De Iulio et al., 2015). The first considers food as a system in the sense understood by Greimas, who emphasizes that "food constitutes a form of non-verbal communication through which meaning is shared" (2015: 8). The second polarity addresses our acts, practices and food choices from media perspective, as an object of discourse and images.

It is then a matter of working on food and gastronomy by studying the discourses, their circularity, their impacts on the representations of consumers but also, by extension, on their practices. Various and diversified epistemological approaches are developed questioning a multiplicity of concepts from sensorial and sensitive communication to knowledge constitution and mediation, or digital impacts, challenges and stakes.

The ICA "Food Communication” regional conference offers opportunities for engagement with scholars, students and public intellectuals from around the continent to debate these important and topical issues. The following types of proposal are encouraged: communications, thematic panels, posters (especially by the young scholars).  

Papers, panels (free formats but no longer than one hour and a half) or posters could address the following themes: 

1. Social practices concerning the act of « eating ». 

2. Food communication and digital technologies.

3. Health, food and communication. 

4. Communication strategies of the food science industry: food security, labels, etc. 

5. Food as a medium for constructing a territory’s reputation and notoriety. 

The conference will be held in person and is open to everyone, but scholars who wish to present their works need to submit an extended abstract (400-600 words) that will be double-peer reviewed. 

In the future, an Interest Group Food and Communication could be created participating to the development of research in that area for ICA. 

CALL FOR EXTENDED ABSTRACTS DETAILS:

Following the ICA tradition, multiple methodologies are valued and works conducted from a wide range of paradigmatic perspectives are encouraged. The goal for extended abstracts is to present and discuss current research about food communication and should adhere to the following guidelines:

- Extended abstract should be between 400-600 words (excluding references, tables & figures), and should clearly state the contribution of the work to food communication.

- Research data should already be collected. Abstracts need to present some preliminary analyses to provide a first review of results.

- Theoretical or methodological extended abstracts are also acceptable; authors should lay out the main arguments to be developed.

- Work should be unpublished and not presented at other conferences. 

Please upload a single de-identified PDF file of your paper (including tables, figures, and references) by the deadline (November 15th, 2023) to: https://icafood2024.sciencesconf.org/. To submit an abstract each author must create an account on the website. 

Deadlines: 

Deadline for submission: November 15th, 2023 

Applicants will hear by mid-January 2024 

Provisional Schedule: 

23rd of may

8h45 – 9h30: Reception  

9h30 – 12h30: Plenary session  

9h30 – 9h45: Opening (organizing committee, laboratory direction) 

9h45 – 11h30: Keynote speaker #1 + Keynote speaker #2  

11h30 – 12h30: Round table #1 (4 keynote speakers) 

12h30 – 14h00: Lunch break  

14h00 – 15h30: Parallel workshops / panel 

15h30 – 16h00: Coffee break, posters and networking 

16h00 – 17h30: Round table #2  

24th of May:

8h45 – 9h00: Reception 

 9h00 – 10h45: Plenary session (2 keynote speakers) 

10h45 – 11h00: Coffee break, posters and networking 

11h00 – 12h30: Parallel panels  

12h30 – 14h00: Lunch break  

14h00 – 15h00: Young scholars session 

15h00 – 15h30: Coffee break, posters and networking 

15h30 – 17h00: Round table #3  

  17h00 – 17h30: Conclusion

25th of May: Cultural visit – details TBA 

Questions? Please contact:  

Estera-Tabita Badau estera-tabita.badau@u-bourgogne.fr 

Aude Chauviat aude.chauviat@u-bourgogne.fr  

Organizing Committee:  

• Estera Badau 
  
• Aude Chauviat
  
• Clémentine Hugol-Gential
  
• Daniel Raichvarg