Pluralism, pressure, and partnership: AANZCA and the future of global communication scholarship

Resumo

This article advances an "archaeology" of academic cooperation in communication research from the standpoint of the Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand Communication Association (AANZCA), in dialogue with ALAIC's Carta de La Paz and the Research traditions in dialogue project. It argues that AANZCA's forty-five-year history is best read as a deliberate experiment in disciplinary pluralism, sustained through trans-Tasman expansion, durable journal and prize infrastructure, and the articulation of eclecticism as a position rather than a deficit. Drawing on Waisbord's post-discipline thesis and bibliometric evidence ranking Australia third and New Zealand twenty-first among 130 countries publishing in Communication, the article positions AANZCA's pluralism as the practical basis for reciprocal, non-hegemonic cooperation with international partners. International cooperation, it concludes, is now a precondition for sustaining critical communication research.