Abstract

What is the aim today of talking about philology, either in absolute terms or related to other concepts such as linguistics or language sciences? On the one hand, it seems unfair to resort to metaphors that pair (traditional) philology and (textual) necrophilia. On the other hand, turning our back on the reality is not the appropriate response to current problems: a more applied training (in the professional field) is needed, and (in the scientific context) the frontiers should be pushed back, because the old ones are obsolete and in need of reappraisal. Faced with a past and a present that are inevitably imperfect, this article is a reflection on the chances of a future in which philology (in the classical sense) is accompanied by language and communication sciences. The reason for this situation and for this specific proposal is not simply to follow the fashion or to embrace modernity, as the winner of the debate with antiquity: the aim is to try to provide a fuller professional training (a less erudite one) and a more interdisciplinary, less localist area of study. The context of the article is provided by comment on a brief series of sociopolitical and cultural events in our setting, all of them previous to the elections to the Parliament of Catalonia in November 2006. Any analysis of events of this kind, even the most superficial, shows that philologists or linguists should not undervalue a critical competence which, in its turn, should be transmitted to students as one of the skills involved in the processes of teaching, learning and knowledge transfer. Instead of limiting itself to the fields of grammar and history of literature, an imaginative (not imaginary) philology need to be open to criticism and communication. If the natural epistemological context of philology (of any philology) is also that of communication, we should not object to the efforts to strengthen the lines of convergence rather than divergence and contrast. Can a philology without communication produce anything but unemployable professionals? A clever (indirect) answer: although we may only be a fully-fledged nation in the preamble (not in the text) we should try hard to rescue our philology from the twilight zone.

Abstract

The prevalence of the pressure to publish and its effects on the professional career of researchers in Communication sciences in Spain is explored. The data collected through an online survey of 290 scholars from public and private universities shows how the pressure to publish in scientific journals affects almost all respondents. Also, the main causes of this pressure come from the evaluation systems and the researchers themselves. The fundamental motivations for publishing are to increase the professional reputation and leave a mark in the field of expertise, while the most prominent effects of the pressure to publish are stress, emotional fatigue, and frustration over publication failures. Regarding the perceived conflict between teaching and research, the study warns of a scenario in which research excellence may be at the expense of, or be disconnected from, teaching excellence. The prevalence and effects of each of these dimensions is explored according to the age, gender, academic range, researches’ years of professional experience, and the nature (public or private) of the university.

Abstract

The current positioning of research on Communication from a historiographic perspective and its legitimacy through the creation of symbolic capital are addressed. The research is divided into three parts: (1) the origins of the academic disciplines of Communication are inspected through the creation of the first faculties of Communication Sciences and the incorporation of their first professors; (2) the emergence of the areas of knowledge, which establish the current division within the disciplines of Communication Sciences, is observed; (3) the creation of symbolic capital related to the discipline is analyzed through the awarding of honorary doctorates (honoris causa) by the faculties of Communication Sciences in Spain.