Todas las voces: Indigenous language radio, state culturalism and everyday forms of public sphere formation

Abstract

The debate over the definition of the public sphere is one of the more intractable struggles for meaning waged today. This article seeks to intervene in this debate, and to encourage participants to include Latin America as they mobilise their arguments. If public sphere theorists are genuinely interested in creating an international deliberative space, they must consider the particular challenges and possibilities of public discourse in less than democratic societies. As a model of discourse-centred democracy, the concept of the public sphere speaks to (and presumes) a relationship between democratic citizenship and communication. Analysis of this relationship in Latin America can open up a much-needed dialogue between critical communication studies and democratisation scholarship.