This Special Issue of Global Media Journal Towards Cosmopolitan Media and Communication Studies engages with the ongoing conversation on diversifying perspectives in the field. We believe that it is a normative imperative to shape our field towards more openness as ‘research thrives in diversity, and not in the singular dominance of certain methods, theories, or approaches’ (Tandoc et al. 2020). Epistemic consequences of dominant modes of knowledge production risk being viewed as the only legitimate knowledge claims. It can lead to the invisibility of entire research landscapes’ linguistic terrains, prevalence of the English language as lingua franca and difficulties to establish a horizontal dialogue among communication scholars’ communities. #CommunicationSoWhite (Chakravartty et al., 2018) highlighted exclusion of scholarly voices. In the spirit of a more open discipline, we choose using the concept ‘academic cosmopolitanism’ as a helpful way of thinking to creating more inclusive networks and a democratic and open approach to scholarly exchange (Beck, 2006; Waisbord, 2016; Ganter & Ortega, 2019; Badr, et.al., 2020; Ganter, 2020).
Instead of lamenting the situation, we consider this Special Issue a practical scholarly response to contribute to opening media and communication studies up. Academic cosmopolitanism combines intellectual and structural critique and aspires to create common spaces with room for differentiation. This Special Issue is a chance to practice ‘mindful inclusiveness’ towards under-represented geopolitical, methodological, and theoretical strands (Rao, 2019).
We believe that critical scholarly knowledge production can be a transformative act from within academia. Together with open-minded scholars this special issue aims at:- opening media and communication studies up
- helping understand the roots of the dilemmapromoting often under-represented voices
- helping unravel structural issues that foster imbalances in our field
- discussing the idea of academic cosmopolitanism - chances, obstacles and limits
- fostering epistemic transformation
- talking with rather than about different scholarly communities and realities
- Criticism of mainstream theories and/or analytical frameworks from the perspective of the Global South
- Exploration of tensions between globalization, academic cosmopolitanism, and local scholarship
- Discussion of fragmentation versus homogenization tendencies in media and communication studies and its consequences
- Auto-ethnographic experiences of marginalized scholars in media and communication studies and ways forward
- Suggestions for structural changes in the field of media and communication
- Critical examination and genealogy of de-westernization discourses in media and communication studies
- Practices of openness at individual or institutional levels (examples of programs, work of networks, and funding opportunities that exemplify academic cosmopolitanism)
- Examination of origins and challenges to and delimitations of academic cosmopolitanism (linguistic, structural, economic, socio-cultural, etc.)
- Debating the relevance and disruptions of media and communication studies in their academic ecosystems
- Methods of academic cosmopolitanism
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