The Evolution of Popular Communication in Latin America

This book brings together twelve contributions that trace the empirical-conceptual evolution of Popular Communication, associating it mainly with the context of inequalities in Latin America and with the creative and collective appropriation of communication and knowledge technologies as a strategy of resistance and hope for marginalized social groups. In this way, even while emphasizing the Latin American and even ancestral identity of this current of thought, this book positions it as an epistemology of the South capable of inspiring relevant reflections in an increasingly unequal and mediatized world. The volume’s contributors include both early-career and more established professionals and natives of seven countries in Latin America. Their contributions reflect on the epistemological roots of Popular Communication, and how those roots give rise to a research method, a pedagogy, and a practice, from decolonial perspectives.

• popular communication
• Latin America
• communication for social change
• global south
• media studies
• participatory communication

“From the Latin American and Caribbean Catholic Association of Communication (SIGNIS ALC), we thank the author Ana Cristina Suzina for including two chapters of our publications -A praise of dignity in educational practice (Daniel Prieto Castillo- Argentina) and Communication and Vivir Bien / Buen Vivir: In the Care of Our Common Home (Adalid Contreras Baspinero- Bolivia) - both originally included in the book Comunicación, Ciudadanía y Democracia, compilation of the 5th Latin American and Caribbean Communication Congress (COMLAC). We are sure that both approaches contribute to broadening the horizons of Latin American popular communication within the fields of pedagogical mediation of communication and the paradigm of Good Living, in tune with the objective of our organization to promote a transformative, participatory communication, humanizing and generating an active citizenship.” (Sonia Navas, Executive Secretary Signis ALC)

“The Evolution of Popular Communication inLatin America presents the richness and breadth of Latin American communication research to the English speaking public. The book covers a great variety of empirical and theoretical aspects of popular communication in an accessible and pedagogical manner, which makes it an excellent entry point for international scholars and students willing to get acquainted with Latin American communication practice and research perspectives.” (Paola Sartoretto, Assistant Professor, Jönköping University, Sweden)

“The Evolution of Popular Communication in Latin America is a timely and relevant book that makes a valuable contribution to the field of Communication and Media Studies. It offers an array of experiences anchored in historical, cultural, and social contexts that provide a sound discussion about Popular Communication. The chapters demonstrate how Popular Communication is both a theoretical and empirical approach to analyze inequalities, struggles and resistances from the perspective of those who are at the margins of society. They also explain the relation between Popular Communication, social struggles, communication for social change, communication rights and the mainstream media. The book fosters an academic dialogue with the Global South by focusing on a key concept and the analysis of it by Latin American scholars normally invisible to the mainstream academia which broadens the sources of knowledges from which we all should learn.” (Claudia Magallanes-Blanco, Professor, Universidad Iberoamericana Puebla, Mexico)

“Popular communication is about communication processes in which cultures that are marginalised are allowed to express themselves and breathe. The concept, which has been key for work in media and development studies in Latin America, has been under explored in publications aimed at English speaking audiences. Therefore, this book is a breath of fresh air from the Global South at a time when people from many corners of the world are fighting colonial oppression. It   addresses the histories and epistemologies of popular communication in Latin America, offering an important contribution to our field. It gathers authors from several Latin American countries and diasporas, embracing diversity in terms of both writing styles and lived experiences. If you are keen on engaging in a truly global dialogue, this book is a great place to start.” (Andrea Medrado, Tenured Assistant Professor, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Vice-President of IAMCR)

“In Latin America, an autonomous and critical scientific thought has been based on popular communication practices that have reoriented communication as culture and as a political ground for the production of power, struggle, and resistance. The texts gathered in this work revisit the Latin American communicational thought and invite to a South-North dialogue that re-signifies a popular communication as a decolonial epistemology and in the scope of therearrangements produced by globalization and the processes of life digitalization.” (Denise Cogo, Professor at ESPM and researcher at CNPq, Brazil)

“This volume makes a decisive contribution to theoretical and practical efforts to refound democratic communication at the service of those - working classes, women, minorities - who are on the wrong side of social relations of domination. If social sciences usually feed a certain pessimism of reason, the contributions gathered in this volume deliberately choose, in the struggle against the global violence of neoliberal capitalism, the optimism of the will.” (Benjamin Ferron, East-Paris University, France)

• Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK

  Ana Cristina Suzina

Ana Cristina Suzina is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the Institute for Media and Creative Industries at Loughborough University London.

Adalid Contreras Baspinero: Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, La Paz, Bolivia, and Quito, Ecuador

Aníbal Orué Pozzo: Graduate Program on Interdisciplinary Latin-American Studies (IELA), Federal University of Latin-American Integration (UNILA), Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil; Graduate School, East National University (UNE), Ciudad del Este, Paraguay

Cicilia M. Krohling Peruzzo: University of State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Federal University of Espírito Santo, Rio de Janeiro and Vitória, Brazil

Daniel Prieto Castillo: National University of Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina

Dorismilda Flores-Márquez: Universidad De La Salle Bajío, León, México

Jair Vega Casanova: Department of Social Communication, Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Colombia

Leonardo Custódio: Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland

María Cristina Mata: National University of Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina

Nívea Canalli Bona: Núcleo de Estudos de Comunicação Comunitária e Local (COMUNI), São Paulo, Brazil

Santiago Gómez Obando: Dimensión Educativa, Bogotá, Colombia

Washington Uranga: Universidad Nacional de La Plata and Universidad de Buenos Aires, La Plata and Buenos Aires, Argentina

Policies and ethics