[Commlist] CfP - Special Issue - Armand and Michèle Mattelart's thoughts on communication

*CfP - Special Issue - Armand and Michèle Mattelart's thoughts on 
communication*

We are glad to announce a special edition of /MATRIZes 
/(September-December 2020) dedicated to Armand and Michèle Mattelart’s 
thoughts on communication, edited by the researchers A. Efendy Maldonado 
(Unisinos University) and Roseli Figaro (University of São Paulo).

For this issue, submissions are open and will run until *June 30, 2020*.

Submissions can be made on the following address, from which the Author 
Guidelines are also available: 
http://www.revistas.usp.br/matrizes/about/submissions

*THEME RATIONALE AND SCOPE*

The communicational line of thought and *critical 
investigation* articulated by Armand and Michèle Mattelart is one of the 
main criteria for strategical production of knowledge in the field – in 
Latin America and worldwide. This line of thought has been distinguished 
by its /transdisciplinary /strength to formulate theoretical resource 
/issues/subject/ and by its consistency and methodological openness to 
combine research strategies and procedures, which conjoin to elucidate a 
set of significant problems to the area of communication science.

In an *epistemological dimension*, Mattelart line has been a referential 
framework to considerations and systematic and deep critiques on the 
methodological and theoretical models, hegemonic in the area 
(/positivism/, /functionalism/, /formalism/, /instrumentalism/, 
/technicism/). In this sense, their argumentation on behalf of Latin 
American critical thought, which they recognize due to its 
philosophical, political, ethical and aesthetical fortune, has 
contributed to strategically questioning the Euro-American logocentrism. 
In this perspective, their epistemological work has been vital to 
problematize /left-wing /logics, assumptions, scholastic cultures, and 
political – communicational behaviors. With this in mind, their analysis 
of Allende and Mitterrand’s govern administrations, and of the 
“politics” of /left-wing/ governments in Latin Ame rica and worldwide, 
are paradigmatic. Their criticism on politically correct /culturalism/, 
which has substantially restricted thoughts on 
/culture/communication/ since the 1980s, is also enlightening.

The Mattelarts have been working in the *theoretical dimension* with 
such singular dedication, and this is how their research offers valuable 
systematizations to interpret, understand, know and problematize the 
various trends, schools, models, proposals and arguments of relevance in 
the work of theoretical training of universities and academic 
communities from Europe, USA and Latin America.

In the *methodological aspect*, the Mattelart line of thought, during 
their six decades of work in the area, explored, formed, sampled, and 
produced fruitful and consistent critical investigational combinations. 
Their research on transnational systems of hegemonic power; liberal 
press coverage in Allende’s Chile; Latin America’s mainstream genres 
(comic books, photo comics and telenovelas); the economical-political 
logics of media systems; the main paradigms in the field of 
communicational sciences; their investigations on the key aspects of the 
international communicational environment (telematics, advertising, 
telecommunications, digitalization, surveillance, control); and the 
historical research regarding /communication-world /structure in 
modernity should be noticed. In this intricated set, a /disrupted /and 
/continued historical epistemology/, articulated in a strategical way 
developed from Marx&rsq uo;s critical thinking is prioritized and 
combined with contributions from dialectical, existential, heuristics 
and hermeneutical philosophies updated in the twentieth and early 
twenty-first centuries.

Given the relevance and critical power of the Mattelart line of thought, 
it is essential for Brazil and Latin America to update and present it to 
new generations problematizing elements crucial to the research in this 
field, which can be strengthened in dialogue and confrontation with the 
Mattelarts. A special issue in /MATRIZes/ on this subject will 
contribute to the excellent work the journal has been accomplishing.

Indicatively but not restrictively, we suggest the following aspects to 
be explored:

  * Contributions of the methodological theoretical approach of
    Mattelart’s thought.
  * Critical Latin American communicational thinking and the Mattelart
    line contribution.
  * World-communication as an aspect of the historical epistemology of
    the Mattelart line rupture and continuity.
  * Critical research and strategic communicational thinking in
    communication, according to the Mattelart line.
  * Mattelart line and the critical analysis of leftist governments in
    Latin America.
  * Transactional systems of communication, power and democracy in Latin
    America from the perspective of Mattelart line.
  * Critical investigation of Mattelart line in communication and
    popular genres (comics, telenovelas, photo comics, TV series) in
    Latin America.


Please send any inquiries to Roseli Figaro - (figaro /at/ uol.com.br)
---------------
The COMMLIST
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier. Please use it responsibly and wisely.
--
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit http://commlist.org/
--
Before sending a posting request, please always read the guidelines at http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
URL: http://nicocarpentier.net
---------------