Commons Journal, Vol. 8. No. 2 (December 2019)

Deadline: July 1, 2019

Throughout the world it is possible to find undergraduate and postgraduate study programmes that include modules pertaining to the so-called ‘Communication for Social Change’ (CSC) phenomenon. The sociocultural contexts, academic cultures, institutionalisation processes, etc., through which CSC has been incorporated into university curricula are extremely varied. But we now have more than enough experience to take stock of the ground covered to date.

By incorporating CSC in university curricula, students and PhD students completing traineeships can approach research focusing on the efforts of social movements, NGOs and citizen networks to implement social and communication actions aimed at achieving social justice.

Under the rather broad label of CSC, this call for papers focuses on broaching the following curricular issues:

• The relationship between communication, the critique of capitalism and social mobilisation.
• The study of the processes of social mobilisation and transformation from a communication perspective.
• The analysis of the role of community media and other communication mediations led by the citizenry and social movements.
• The introduction of a series of ‘Epistemologies of the South’ (Sousa Santos and Meneses, 2014) that break with the hegemonic models of knowledge construction.
• Proposals for more inclusive social representations that go beyond the stereotypes generated by the dominant cultural industries (the ‘Disney World’ as a paradigmatic example).

Looking back on the progress made, we could beg the following question: is the incorporation of these topics into university curricula leading to critical theoretical research and to transforming practices or, on the contrary, are we witnessing a strict disciplining of a number of issues that, constrained by bureaucratic rationales, lose their critical and transforming capacity? Are authors like Paulo Freire being studied to pass the exam or rather to learn how to transform reality?

This dilemma reflected in the title (disciplining the field /or/ indisciplining universities) allows for other combinations (i.e. disciplining the field /and/, at the same time, indisciplining universities) which we would like contributions to this monograph to examine.

The aim of this number of /Commons /is to map ongoing processes in the largest number of social, geographical and institutional contexts possible.

Papers, which should be submitted before 1 July 2019, should deal with some or other of the aforementioned aspects.

Bibliography

Sousa Santos, Boaventura and Meneses, M.ª Paula (eds.) (2014). Epistemologías del Sur: perspectivas [Epistemologies of the South: perspectives]. Madrid. Akal.

Freire, Paulo (1970). Pedagogía del oprimido [Pedagogy of the oppressed]. Montevideo, Uruguay. Nueva Tierra.

Gumucio-Dagron, Alfonso and Tufte, Thomas (Eds.). (2006). /Communication for social change anthology: Historical and contemporary readings/. New Jersey, EE.UU.CFSC Consortium.

Kaplún, Gabriel. (2005). Indisciplinar la universidad [Indisciplining universities], in /Walsh, Catherine.(comp), Pensamiento crítico y matriz (de) colonial: reflexiones latinoamericana/ [Critical thinking and the (de)colonial matrix: Latin American reflections]/. /Quito, Ecuador. Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar/Abya-Yala.

Marí, V. M. (2018). Análisis de los movimientos-red contemporáneos desde una perspectiva comunicacional y freiriana. Desbordamientos, transformaciones y sujetos colectivos. [Analysis of Contemporary Networked Movements from a Communicational and Freirean Perspective. Overflows, Transformations and Collective Subjects], /Utopía y Praxis Latinoamericana/, /23/, 140-147. Disponible en: (PDF) Análisis de los movimientos-red contemporáneos desde una perspectiva comunicacional y freiriana. Desbordamientos, transformaciones y sujetos colectivos.

Walsh, Catherine, Shiwy, Freya and Castro-Gómez, Santiago (eds.) (2002). Indisciplinar las ciencias sociales. Geopolíticas del conocimiento y colonialidad del poder. Perspectivas desde lo andino [Indisciplining social sciences. Geopolitics of knowledge and coloniality of power. Andean perspectives]. Quito, Ecuador. 2002.