Critical Dictionary of Inter-American Studies - Volume IV : Media and Communication

The Critical Dictionary of Inter-American studies charts the field by focusing on the transnational or hemispheric dimensions of social, cultural and political dynamics in the Americas in history and contemporary times. The ever increasing and multi-layered processes of integration and transnationalization in the Americas entail the necessity of a standard reference book for both scholars and students capturing the terminological and methodological rethinking of (trans)area studies in the current era of globalization.

The Critical Dictionary defines areas as transversally, multiply connected and in process, and as comprehensible only within the larger frameworks of a North-South dialogue, mobility and entanglements. In order to organize the broad field of Inter-American studies, the dictionary is divided into five subject oriented volumes: 'History and (Post-)Coloniality', 'Politics and Societies', 'Media and Communication', as well as 'Literature, the Arts and Popular Cultures' and 'Political Economy and Governance' cross-indexed volumes and contain approximately 100 entries and a conceptual introduction. Each of these volumes is conceived as a platform of interdisciplinary dialogue containing entries which are written against the backdrop of a broad range of different disciplinary approaches. The Critical Dictionary seeks to provide the terminology needed to explore the hemispheric space of entanglements in the Americas as a new perspective in area studies.

As a standard reference book the focus on the dynamics of entanglements in the Americas puts emphasis on the mutual construction of meaning and concept perspective.

Conceptually it stresses the dimension of 'inter' as a discursive zone to capture the dynamics, negotiations and power relations of knowledge production from diverse loci of enunciation. Due to its interdisciplinary approach, the dictionary is of interest to a broad array of academic disciplines and as such a must have to