"...the cycles and processes of re-appropriation of Freire's thought are still active years after his death in 1997. He continues to serve as inspiration for individuals and collectives that, in other geographical, social and cultural contexts, have plotted similar courses..." - Víctor Manuel Marí Sáez

This edition of Commons, a biannual electronic journal specialising in the communication field, focuses on the legacy of Paulo Freire in the field of communication for social change, particularly as it relates to the notion of participatory communication and the articulation of bottom-up development processes. This journal edition is the result of a seminar held on the subject at Loughborough University in London, United Kingdom in 2019, where around 30 participants concluded that the ideas of Paulo Freire are still alive and kicking but confronted with new and transformed challenges.

Six articles in the journal delve into the legacy of Freire in present-day Brazil, in many cases explored through civil-society-related case studies (involving new technology, media, museums, and activism), but also through an exploration of how Freire influences knowledge production and how cultural institutions negotiate Freirean legacy in exploring the future of a creative economy. Altogether, these articles seek to shed light upon the communication-related foundations of Freire's works and thoughts. Some deal with communication issues more explicitly, but all of them articulate in one way or another that communication should not be seen as a separate place in civil society development, as it is not a tool, but should be recognised as an integral part of building an emancipated society.

The Commons is edited by the Communication and Digital Citizenship Research Group of the University of Cadiz in Spain and has as its objective to explore communication that is at the intersection between the public and the political - in particular, the various techno-political dimensions of today's communication processes.

Editorial
El legado de Paulo Freire en España / The legacy of Paulo Freire in Spain [in English and Spanish]
By Víctor Manuel Marí Sáez
In contrast to the contributing authors who focus on the legacy of Freire in present-day Brazil, the editorial focuses on the legacy of Freire in the Spanish context, looking at his impact in the field of education, as well as communication. The editorial explains how the ideas of Freire were introduced in the field of education through activists, trade unions, and working-class political parties; through informal education initiatives; and by the so-called "Movements for Pedagogical Renovation" that introduced a number of novel educational methodologies for the purpose of creating a new society that is fairer and more democratic and participatory. In contrast, tracing the presence of Freirean thought in the field of communication in Spain is not as easy. "The theoretical currents of the field of communication that are more or less in keeping with Freire's approaches have had a tardy and negligible presence in communication research in Spain." Despite the slow start, the paper goes on to explain how Freire came into his own in the 1990s as one of the theoretical fathers of communication for social change in Spain.
Click here to access the English version of this article online.

De-constructing participatory communication and civil society development in 2020: a perspective inspired by Paulo Freire / Deconstruyendo la comunicación participativa y el desarrollo de la sociedad civil en 2020: una perspectiva inspirada en Paulo Freire [in English and Spanish]
By Thomas Tufte, César Jiménez-Martínez, and Ana Cristina Suzina
Abstract: "This article explores the 'mindprint' of Paulo Freire upon processes of social change in Brazil, with a particular focus on how his liberating pedagogy has influenced practices of participatory communication and civil society development. In exploring the legacy of Freire, his work is approached from the perspective of communication. This constitutes an original contribution as it positions Freire's work within a communication epistemology and his vision as one of communication. A brief rigorous review is conducted of the history and development of citizen engagement in Brazil from the 1950s until 2020, identifying key phases of democratic development, and the legacy of Freire herein assessed. It is found that rather than representing specific policies or formal educational projects, Paulo Freire has become a key symbol and inspiration that has influenced a broad gamut of civil society, and continues, in a variety of forms and contexts, to inspire social change processes in Brazil."

Conocer es actuar. Entre la epistemología genética y el legado de Paulo Freire / Knowing is acting. Between genetic epistemology and Paulo Freire's legacy [in Spanish]
By Jorge A. González
Abstract: "The key of knowledge construction has to do with empowering people. Especially those who have been 'designed' and treated as merely objects of study and not as active subjects of knowledge. That is one of the most important outcomes of Paulo Freire's legacy, not only in Brazil, but in the world. But, what does it mean to become 'subjects of knowledge'? The social actors who can confront their problems by mean of the construction of their own knowledge, do they really become empowered? The theory and findings granted from Genetic Epistemology, gives us a powerful theoretical and methodological tool for understanding the experiences of 'conscientization' as processes of empowering. Freirean method for literacy can be fruitfully interpreted under the light of a scientific theory of the processes of knowledge construction. In studying and practicing Communication for Development, I claim that Information, Communication and Knowledge must be taken as a crucial threefold, non-separable process that includes simultaneously biological, behavioural and social transformations, especially those that have been collectively created. These transformations improve both, individual and group capacity to differentiate and integrate (that means, 'knowing') their experiences of the world, and by doing that, empower their capacity of acting, confronting and overcome their social conditions."

The Views of the Youth on the Potential for Dialogue by Means of Digital Media through Paulo Freire's Perspective / Las visiones de los jóvenes sobre el potencial de los medios digitales para el diálogo desde la mirada de Paulo Freire [in English]
By Cássia Ayres and Cicilia M. Krohling Peruzzo
Abstact: "This article seeks to analyse the perceptions of a group of young Brazilians digital media users, on the role of the Internet as a means to facilitating dialogue between them and their elected representatives in the political sphere, based on the presuppositions of Paulo Freire's pedagogy. The methodology focused on the use of qualitative approaches which involved in-depth, semi-structured interviews with thirteen young people from São Paulo and Bahia who participate in the online political participation program, U Report. The findings suggest that the Internet is seen as having a limited role in dialogic processes by those interviewed, who also demonstrate that they are aware of the national situation and the structuring mechanisms of digital media."

Connections with Paulo Freire's legacy in anti-racism media activist collaboration in Finland / Conexiones con el legado de Paulo Freire en la colaboración mediactivista antirracismo en Finlandia [in English]
By Leonardo Custódio and Monica Gathuo
Abstract: "In this article, we introduce the Finland-based initiative Anti-Racism Media Activist Alliance (ARMA Alliance, 2018-2020). The article presents our ethical-methodological reflections about the processes of collaboration and dialogue we have experienced as co-founders and coordinators of ARMA Alliance. Our analysis is grounded on our joint retrospective analysis of how the activist-research purposes of ARMA Alliance connect with Paulo Freire's legacy. Our objective is to contribute to scholarship that problematizes the multi-layered relationship between research and activism in collaborative processes of communication for social change (in our case, against racism). First, we present what the ARMA Alliance initiative means and how it connects with Paulo Freire's work. Then, we look back at the decolonial insights, cathartic encounters and dialogues that led to the development of the initiative. After that, we reflect about the relationship between collaboration and conscientization. Lastly, we indicate some experiences in putting dialogue and collaboration into practice."

Aspiraciones progresistas, dispositivos conservadores: multiculturalismo, nueva museología y Paulo Freire / Progressive discourses, conservative devices: multiculturalism, new museology and Paulo Freire [in Spanish]
By Glauber de Lima
Abstract: "This paper addresses the political-discoursive use of Paulo Freire's by the new museology in Brazil. This latter is an approach which embodies a multicultural project to museums. The core argument is that it is a liberal formulation which instrumentalises Freire's ideas to seems progressive. The discussion grounds itself on textual analyses and political economy. As such, it examines Paulo Freire's texts, the rhetoric of the Brazilian cultural policy for museums, and museological practices. From these issues, it highlights that this museological view adopted Paulo Freire's dialogical perspective but, conversely, it overshadowed its materialist criticism. New museology has used Freirian lexicon to define its practices, albeit they have taken form by liberal ethics. In this sense, this work stresses this paradox to point out its effects on the current Brazilian debate on culture and citizenship."

Our collective narrative was being constructed in the film production / Nuestra narrativa colectiva se estaba construyendo en la producción cinematográfica - A conversation at the crossroads between militants, media production and research / Una conversación en la encrucijada entre los militantes, la producción mediática y la investigación [in English]
By Elisabet Cerqueira da Conceição, Luiz Enrique Gomes de Moura, Camila Freitas, and Paola Madrid Sartoretto
Abstract: "This text is based on a conversation between members in the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement [MST], a film producer and a media and communication researcher about the production process of the documentary Chão (Landless). Chão documents MST's processes of land occupation and the battles to gain rights to land in the state of Goiás between 2014 and 2018. MST's mobilization practices since the emergence of the Movement in 1984 have been much informed by Paulo Freire's emancipatory pedagogy. The Movement's historically situated social action constructs knowledge about reality at the same time that it changes reality. The documentary is an example of participatory media production in which the filmmaker and the militants constructed a narrative together from their different perspectives. This participatory process is used here as a departure point to discuss the experiential dynamics of the conscientization process from the different perspectives of research, media production, and militancy."

Exploring the mediascape from the Epistemologies of the South/Explorando el mediascape desde las Epistemologías del Sur [in English]
By Alexandre de Sousa Carvalho, Sofía José Santos, and Carlota Houart
Abstract: "Dominant literature on media and communication studies has insistently equated mediascape and high technology media as interchangeable concepts and realities instead of high technological media as part of a broader and more dynamic media pallet. By subscribing to this 'technology-driven Darwinism', we argue that existing dominant literature explicitly and implicitly excludes forms of mass communication that go beyond the media in its Western liberal form and procedures and, consequently, other voices, knowledge and messages. This article analyses the modern conception of media by exploring the 'abyssal exclusions' (Santos, 2007) it creates. To illustrate this further, we have selected the top five 2018 SCOPUS-indexed journals, from which we gathered a sample of 116 research articles that were published between 2016-2018, to shed light on some of the most recent research trends in media studies. The definition of media used by the articles contained in our sample shows that there is a technological and modernity-driven spectrum which is fundamental in defining what is and what progressively is no longer labelled, and hence considered, media. This understanding of the media fails to include forms of mass communication that go beyond the media in its western liberal form and, consequently, exclude subaltern voices, knowledges and messages."

Note: This special issue of Commons is part of the research project funded by the AEI (Spanish State Research Agency) "Digital Solidarity Communication. Analysis of the imaginaries, discourses and communicative practices of NGDOs in the horizon of the Agenda 2030" PID2019-106632GB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033.