Meeting of Latin American participants at the annual congress of IAMCR – Stockholm 2008

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On july 22, 2008, 16 hrs., at Stockholm University, we, the Latin American participants in the 2008 congress of the IAMCR/AIECS/AIERI, celebrated a meeting aimed at furthering an intercultural dialog initiated in November 2007 with the signing of an agreement between IAMCR and ALAIC. The attendants to the meeting believe that the specificity of Latin American culture within IAMCR does not just refer to mere linguistic distinctions, but to aspects related to identity and ideology. Such aspects, indeed, align us with other regions of the so called “global south,” as it was evidenced the day after our meeting, with the establishment of the IAMCR South Network –a group in which we participate along with representatives from Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. On the other hand, we cannot lose sight of the fact that Spanish speakers constitute one of the world’s largest linguistic communities. Along with those constituted by Portuguese and French languages (the latter also official language of IAMCR), the weight of Spanish within IAMCR should not be underestimated.

In any event, there was consensus among the attendants to this meeting against the idea of creating a section of Latin American scholars that operates as a “ghetto” within IAMCR. On the contrary, we agree on the need for Latin American scholars to participate in a variety of divisions, sections, networks, and spaces for decision-making within the organization, in order to expand the region’s intellectual presence in it and, as much as possible, promote a more extended use of the Spanish language. This, however, would not prevent the creation of a section of Latin American studies which would include researchers from every region, as suggested by some attendants to the meeting. Nevertheless, it is important to reiterate that our goal is not isolation or geographic sectarism, but rather to counterweight possible hegemonic trends at different levels of the organization.

In this sense, the main suggestion emerging from the meeting was the creation of a journal of Latin American-related research in English language, intended to disseminate academic thinking and scholarly production in the region, as well as foster international dialogue in the broadest sense, both with our habitual interlocutors from the north and with those from Africa, Asia, and Oceania. César Bolaño and Joseph Straubhaar have volunteered to formulate an inclusive and realistic proposal in this regard.

With respect to other participants’ suggestions more specifically related to the operation of the IAMCR/AIECS/AIERI, we can highlight the following:

1. To seek, at the International Council of IAMCR, more representative quotas of participation from different regions of the world.

2. To expand the number of academic publications affiliated to IAMCR, both for those that can be freely accessed on the net, and those that could be offered at subsidized cost to the organization’s regular members.

3. To explore the possibility that the abstracts sent to the different divisions for the selection of presentations at the organization’s annual congresses be requested, processed, and published in at least two of the three official languages of IAMCR.

4. To explore the possibility of expanding simultaneous translation services to a larger number of sessions during the annual congresses, keeping in mind that current costs make it impossible to offer such a benefit to all sessions, round tables, and meetings.

5. To pursue the implementation of a policy of multilingual publications, through the definition of agreements with Latin American publishing houses.

6. To define a strategy aimed at facilitating translation into English for papers and materials presented by Latin American scholars. This could be done with finanacial support of IAMCR/AIECS/AIERI, or from organization such as UNESCO, in order to internationally promote the academic production from the region.