Thinking the recolonial in Communication Studies: reflections from Latin America

Abstract

Despite its pioneering spirit, the Latin American tradition of critical thinking has practically disappeared from the international research scene of reference, since the establishment of an English-speaking circuit in the 1990s, centred in the United States. This issue discusses this phenomenon in the context of a broader process of recolonization, conducted within the scope of neoliberal globalization and academic capitalism, with a focus on Latin American research in the studies of Communication and in circuits of Science Communication. In this unfavorable context, Latin America was able to preserve a vigorous academic exchange circuit, based on open access to intellectual production. We sustain this circuit can serve as a basis for the construction of a more diversified global space of academic circulation, an alternative to the current one.