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Thursday, November 10
1 6 : 3 0 – 1 8 : 0 0
SPC05
ICA Roundtable: The Principle of Academic Subsidiarity in Communication Scholarship
F. Heinderyckx
1
1
Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
The academic culture of international circulation of ideas, methods and scholars started long before what became known as globalisation. Members
of the academic community, in each field or discipline, rely on a shared body of theory, knowledge, methods, and epistemology. Recent developments in
student and staff mobility, joint degrees, international research programs and conferences, accreditation, rankings and assessments have contributed to en‑
hance a form of harmonization, if not of standardization of academic research and education worldwide. While promoting the highest academic standards
internationally must be seen as a very positive development, a number of disciplines are at risk of losing the intrinsic wealth that stems from the diversity
of approaches found in different settings. This is particularly the case in social science and humanities where harmonization may hinder innovation and
creativity. This panel will discuss the conflicting virtues of diversity and harmonization in communication research and education. The "principle of subsid‑
iarity", generally applied to public governance, will guide us in trying to determine what is best left to local initiatives, approaches and uses, and what is
best harmonized at the level of a region or at the global level.
PN 146
Contribution by Francois Heinderyckx
F. Heinderyckx
1
1
Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
The contribution will be concerned with academic subsidiarity in communication scholarship.
PN 148
Contribution by Barbie Zelizer
B. Zelizer
1
1
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA
The contribution will be concerned with academic subsidiarity in communication scholarship.