IAMCR president, Professor Robin Mansell, recently circulated a paper by Keyan Tomaselli and Ruth Teer Tomaselli about internationalising communication studies and a letter proposing that IAMCR take up a discussion of issues arising from the paper. Mansell's letter and the paper that inspired it are published here.
Dear all,
In mid-Sept 06, Daya Thussu (a member of IAMCR's International Council) organised a conference at Westminster University called 'Internationalising Media Studies: Imperatives and Impediments'. At this time, Sonia Livingstone and I organised a panel with the aim of furthering ongoing discussion about how various academic organisations can benefit mutually from discussion and other activities. Keyan Tomaselli and Ruth Teer Tomaselli prepared a paper for that panel (Internationalising Media Studies: The South/ern African Communication Association). I now have their permission to circulate it widely (and also the International Communication Gazette's permission as it is forthcoming there).
When I had read the paper I felt that it could provide a starting point for a valuable discussion and for collecting together (published or unpublished) papers by others that bear on the same or similar topics.
Kenyan and Ruth depict the administrative/critical research traditions that have been and still are in tension in the specific context of South Africa. I think their paper offers a good provocation to us all to discuss explicitly and seriously how and why such tensions arise within our 'field'. I do not suggest that we need constantly to be exposing the contradictions in our respective academic domains, but I do think all members of IAMCR can benefit from an open discussion.
So, I have circulated this paper to our IAMCR announcement list, to the International Council members and Working Group Chairs, and posted it on our website. I am asking - should you wish to do so - that you:
- Send me extended comments or reflections on the attached paper by email from your own perspective as a member of national/regional academic associations - or as an individual researcher - in our field. The paper might prompt you to think of parallel or similar issues that you have confronted or continue to grapple with. I would like to know what you think.
- If you have authored or know of papers by your colleagues from your own country/region that take up the issue of the changing tensions between administrative and critical research traditions in our 'field', please send me an electronic copy or the full citation.
Send to iamcr(at)@ lse(dot)ac(dot)uk
I am limited to reading English and French. But we have increasing numbers of Portuguese and Spanish speaking colleagues who I am sure might be interested to read in those languages and perhaps to comment. If you have papers in another language, this may prompt you to exchange them and debate locally as well as with IAMCR.
We are coming closer to the 50th Anniversary celebration of IAMCR. If in the next few months, this initiative sparks a debate as I hope it will, it may stimulate further discussion and debate when many of us will meet in Paris for IAMCR 2007. When we discuss collaborations between our various academic associations, we often move from the 'ideal' to the 'practical' and back again, without always stopping to think about fundamental premises, differences and commonalities within and between research traditions and perspectives. I think IAMCR can and should make time to do so. Thanks to Kenyan and Ruth for giving me something to start off with. If there is enough interest, I may do a synthesis of what has been said for July along the lines of 'Respecting Difference in Media and Communication Studies - Towards a Critical Synthesis'.
This is my attempt to encourage us to exchange views. There is no rush. I know that for many it is holiday time, and if nobody responds initially, I'll attempt this again in the new year. In the meantime, I wish everyone for whom it is Christmas and the New Year a happy time. And for those for whom it is not, an equally happy time in the weeks ahead.
Best wishes, Robin
Download Internationalising Media Studies: The South/ern African Communication Association