Reception is for Thinking: A “Place” for Clashing

Abstract

The discussion about reception studies in Latin America is a geopolitical issue, as culture and power intertwine in it. In this sense, there is a socio-historical context that must be considered. Latin-American reception studies are opposed to the main currents researching communication, which separate the contexts of products and circulation from the senses in the everyday clashes between social classes and popular culture. The hegemonic theoretical perspective in communication studies the subject as an object to be reached, protected, alerted or alienated. By resuming this discussion, we seek to: understand the relationships between the forces present in the process of scientific knowledge production; highlight a theoretical and methodological approach to the concept of social subject and of communication; discuss how the context of the last two decades has confronted and challenged the researchers of reception studies in their path to differentiate themselves from theoretical approaches returning with their linear design and of communication flow masquerading as “new” keywords to designate the subject of communication.