Advanced Diploma in Publishing Policies and Management

The book, even in this era defined by digital communication technologies, remains the primary vehicle for transmitting knowledge and culture. Possessing an irreplaceable symbolic weight, it embodies two logics in its very definition. One is cultural and intangible, almost impossible to value, and the other is material, linked to the physical medium, which finds its quintessential expression in the printed book. As Pierre Bourdieu points out, the book is “a double-sided object, both economic and symbolic; it is simultaneously commodity and meaning; the publisher is also a dual figure, who must know how to reconcile art and money, the love of literature and the pursuit of profit” (Bourdieu, 1999: 242).

This game of multiple values ​​governs the publishing industry, even today, which has largely become a sector not exempt from the formation of large transnational oligopolies characteristic of globalization.

However, within this same context of concentration, thanks to decisive technological changes in both book production and distribution, a vast number of small and medium-sized publishing projects have also emerged across the continent. These projects, true guarantors of bibliodiversity, are born, thrive, or disappear in the diverse contexts of crisis that all too frequently plague Latin America.

Small and medium-sized publishing houses carry on a Latin American publishing tradition that received its initial modern impetus from publishers brought by the diaspora of the Spanish Civil War, primarily to Mexico and Argentina, but also to Venezuela, Uruguay, Chile, and the rest of the Americas. This publishing field was consolidated not only through the work of these publishers but also through policies and projects promoted by the state and public universities, such as the Fondo de Cultura Económica in Mexico and the University of Buenos Aires Press in Argentina. Many of these projects, which until the late 1960s enjoyed significant vitality and reach, were curtailed by the various waves of civic-military dictatorships that plagued the continent. Following this period, the entry into nascent globalization, coupled with the transnational expansion of the first Spanish publishing groups, brought a halt to the development of Latin American publishing.

From this ongoing process, shaped by the technological revolution of digital media, the publishing industry, across its entire value chain, has undergone (and continues to undergo) substantial modifications in its production and consumption processes. These processes are drastically transforming culture, bringing together hybrid and mixed media, languages, and narratives (Roberto Igarza). Not only are pre-existing practices and processes changing, but new appropriations and ways of relating to cultural goods are emerging, especially those arising from digital processes. In this context, reflection on the intersections between technology, digital convergence, readers/consumers, books, and publishers becomes essential for the sector. What are these new practices regarding written culture? Are new technological screens and other leisure and free-time activities related to the possibility of cultivating new readers? Do these new consumption patterns offer opportunities for the products of the publishing industry?

Similarly, trends such as Open Access, which starts from the initial premise that works produced with public funds should be publicly accessible, challenge traditional text circulation structures, with a democratizing proposal for access to information.

This new framework that constitutes the publishing activity needs not only consistent theoretical analysis, but also management tools that allow it to face the new challenges that arise.

Through sheer determination and unwavering commitment, the publishing industry always manages to survive and thrive. In a context of global concentration, the keys to this development lie in the collaborative work and strategies of independent publishers, but also in the public policies implemented by the government. These intersections and tensions form one of the fundamental themes of this course. 

GENERAL PURPOSE:

The overall objective of this Diploma program is to trace a path that allows for an analysis of the role of the publishing industry and books in contemporary societies. To this end, multiple analytical perspectives are presented. These include the social, economic, and political implications of books in present-day societies and their historical significance; the role of books and reading in cultural processes and their relevance to the circulation of knowledge; and more practical issues related to publishing planning, as well as the recognition of contemporary experiences of book-based projects. The program will also explore the transformations of the publishing sector resulting from the technological revolution and globalization processes, and provide tools for analyzing the production chain of cultural industries in general and the publishing industry in particular.

The Higher Diploma in Publishing Policies and Management is aimed at undergraduate and postgraduate students; teachers at all levels; activists and members of trade unions, social movements and political parties; public officials; members and managers of non-governmental organizations and professionals interested in the subject.

• Rodolfo Hamawi (UNDAV, Argentina)
• Ana Elisa Ribeiro (Brazil)
• Ezequiel Cafaro (UBA, Argentina)
• Camila Valdés León (UH, Cuba)
• José Luis De Diego (UNLP, Argentina)
• Jorge Fornet (Casa de las Americas, Cuba)
• Daniela Szpilbarg (UBA, Argentina)
• Natalia Porta López (National Reading Plan, Argentina)
• Dominique Babini (CLACSO)
• Laura Rovelli (CONICET, Argentina)
• María Yaksic (Chile)
• Roberto Igarza (UNR, Argentina)
• Lorena Fuentes (Banda Propia Editoras, Chile)
• Ezequiel Saferstein (UBA, Argentina)

The program consists of 6 modules of 3/4 classes per week, each taught consecutively and linked to each other.

Total workload of 128 hours.

The modules that comprise the advanced diploma are:

• Module 1. History of publishing and the circulation of ideas in Latin America.
• 2 module. Concentration, independence and contemporary processes in Latin American publishing 1990-2020
• Module 3. The place of the book in the Cultural Industries and public policies
• Module 4 The impact of the digital paradigm on the book ecosystem
• Module 5. Open Access. The free flow of knowledge as a frontier
• Module 6. The book as an event. Experiences of books and publishing in Latin America. Final integrative project.