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Norbert Elias is an author traditionally absent in communication studies. His relevance for this field has begun to be defended recently, an argumentative line with which this paper is also identified. The article has two interrelated aims. First, present the main dimensions of Norbert Elias' analysis on human communication. Second, critically examine several current studiesthat, in communication studies, take this author as a theoretical reference for their research. To achieve the first aim, it is analysed Theory of the Symbol, a book originally published in 1989, where Elias collects his reflections about the communicational and symbolic dimensions of human being. To achieve the second goal, the paper is focused on the concept of Communicative Figuration, recently developed according to an eliasian perspective, and currently applied in several studies devoted to the topic of mediatization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines some critical formulations developed in the higher education space of the European Union (EU) and the United States of America (USA) about the implementation process of the interdisciplinary research perspective. The sense and significance of the concept of integration in the interdisciplinary implementation process, as well as its perspectives, challenges, and intellectual provocations, well describe the power struggles that both the institutions and the academic-scientific communities studied have historically experienced. In the analysis of the relations of knowledge and power exhibited by the actors and academic groups themselves, this theoretical essay seeks to answer what are, and what do they consist, the regional political initiatives that aspire to generate and promote a "new" institutional functioning of the implementation process of interdisciplinary research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces some of the main elements that configure a paradigm shift in Communication, with the aim of providing a reflection on the ever-changing nature of both the World and our discipline. This is the time for publics and audiences; they embody the message's sense and its raison d'être. The present paper collects the results of two different research studies conducted at different times and with diverse actors and audiences, applying the eclectic method. Some of these findings are as follows: communication has changed due to the appearance of new screens (media) and new actors, who have now become "citizen celebrities". The Twenty First Century has arrived, bringing with it changes to our old paradigms. The new subjects act and live together in cyberspace; they select their own media and develop their own content. Reality is not really virtual, but it is enriched by these new screens (new media). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the role of open data in the development of civic technologies in Spain. We have analysed organisations that are using technology as a tool to improve transparency, democracy and citizen participation in public matters. During this research we run through the evolution of the use of technologies by civil society in Spain, we define the concept of civic technologies and propose a set of typologies, paying special attention to the source of data, with the final aim of knowing how often public open data has been used. We conclude by highlighting the need to increase the communication between public and private institutions and the organisations that use data in favour of providing useful information and making easier the development of civic technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article intends to continue previous studies on the state of the communication research in Spain. An in-depth study of the Spanish Communication researchers in Scopus international database is developed to monitor their productivity and visibility. Results show a limited presence and a low scientific production. In addition it is fragmented in multiple lines of research, it is little collaborative, more national than international, in Spanish and little visible. There is a polarization between two situations: visible full professors and untenured professors, emerging producers but invisible. Attending to gender differences, male researchers produce more papers and they are more visible than women. The creation of interuniversity networks that improve international publication is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the feasibility of joint Corporate Communication of biotech companies around a basic exercise: nourish its Corporate Social Responsibility activities in Science Communication. Such interventions would help not only to improve the scientific understanding of society and that their views on the areas of application of biotechnology are founded but also to discuss these and other issues with the public, especially the closest. But such implementation would require, first, that the company perceives its neighbors as public interest. Hence, this research starts from the analysis of the external communication of these businesses. Our sample are the 32 biotech SMEs settled in four technology parks in Andalusia. The results of this work show that disclosure has almost no presence on their websites and hardly aware of them of any action of CSR;also appeared in local newspapers is scarce and is linked to strictly business aspects. However, a survey of the managers of these firms reveals that the vast majority are ready to expand ties with their environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As those of other Western countries, Italian media often employ the term "clash of civilisation" [conflitto di civiltà] to refer to the relationship between "Islam" and the "West". The Muslim world is simplistically described, and perceived, as a monolithic reality. Its representation by media ranging from that of an irrational to that of an intolerant religion. The expression "clash of civilization" was especially used in September 2006, after that Pope's lectio magistralis at Regensburg University caused vigorous protests to take place in the Muslim world. Benedict XVI seemed to present the Christian God as the only rational divinity, and Islam as an irrational religion. After international Muslim communities asked for an official apology, the Pope held a meeting with the ambassadors from Islamic States to the Holy Site, and the representatives of the Italian Muslim communities, to explain his words. This paper analyzes the way in which this event was presented by the Italian media - including rightwing, mainstream and catholic media - with the aim of understanding the official reaction of the Vatican (as reported by the Osservatore Romano), the Italian Catholic Church (as reported by Avvenire), and the Italian public opinion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the relational dynamics involving art practice and activism in urban space in the context of art groups in Brazil. It discusses how what seems to be the renewal of forms of engagement and of political action and of the role of art in the context of the blur the boundaries between art and life today. It particularly focuses on the actions of Contra File, one of the so-called "collective of artists", groups which operate in public spaces producing performative interventions that mix art and activism in a quite different fashion comparing to those of the 1960's and the 1970's. Based on the connectionist logics of the networks (Granjon, 2001; Antoun 2004), these actions can be considered a social practice with interesting communicative aspects since they connect in a unusual ways urban spaces, media technology, social actors and artistic forms. These actions are often categorized as "urban interventions" or "site specific art" (Pallamin, 1998). However they use to escape all definitions as they problematize the very concepts of art and activism in order to discuss participation, social rules and control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Usually, the second digital gap is being developed from a theoretical perspective of limited extent that would be able to enrich with reflections on the technological innovation within the framework of gender studies. This work announces such reflections, emphasizing his application to the field of the social communication through a gaze on the conflict science-technology-woman where they carry out a key role difference notions, identity, equality, representation and culture. Our specific objective is to explore possibilities of joint social and theory of the communication, the gender and the limits of the technological appropriation, of the technological dissemination and the e-inclusion in the Information Society, as well as the paper of the sexual discrimination as a trait not only inevitable, but constitutive of the implementation process of new technologies of the communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]