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Armand Mattelart (born January 8, 1936) is a Belgian
sociologist, known as a leftist French scholar. His work deals with media, culture and communication, specially in their historical and international dimensions.
Life, experience, and academic work
After finishing his undergraduate studies Mattelart joined a community of secular monks in
Brittany
Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...
for one year, but went on to study Law and Political Science at the
Catholic University of Louvain
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
. Afterwards he studied demography at the Institute of Demographic Studies in Paris (founded by the left intellectual
Alfred Sauvy, who in 1952 coined the term Third World). Upon finishing his studies he was appointed as an expert on the politics of population by
the Vatican, and in 1962 was sent to the
Universidad Católica de Chile
The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (''PUC or UC Chile'') ( es, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile) is one of the six Catholic Universities existing in the Chilean university system and one of the two pontifical universities i ...
. While in Chile he married Michèle Mattelart.
While in Chile Mattelart was appointed to confront from a catholic spiritual perspective the strategic models for family planning which were at the time being pushed by the
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
and
Rockefeller Foundations and the Alianza para el Progreso (
Alliance for Progress
The Alliance for Progress ( es, Alianza para el Progreso, links=no), initiated by U.S. President John F. Kennedy on March 13, 1961, ostensibly aimed to establish economic cooperation between the U.S. and Latin America. Governor Luis Muñoz Marí ...
—a US official aid program). The US family planning model aimed to limit the natality to "improve the lives of the inhabitants of the continent" and of course in conflict with the Catholic teachings. The revolutionary transformations in Latin America post-1960 require that the Church enter the ideological fray and develop communication strategies applied to "ideological, political and social struggles" to create ideological and political alternatives to atheist communism or the "protestant North
American imperialism
American imperialism refers to the expansion of American political, economic, cultural, and media influence beyond the boundaries of the United States. Depending on the commentator, it may include imperialism through outright military conques ...
".
While always based at the Catholic Univ. of Chile, Mattelart underwent a transformation in his thoughts and beliefs. He initiated a collaboration with the Centro de Estudios de la Realidad Nacional (CEREN) (Center for the Study of the National Reality), founded in 1968 under the auspices of the Catholic Univ.
Jacques Chonchol
Jacques Chonchol (born March 26, 1926) is a politician and professor known for his work in the Chilean land reform movement of the 1960s and early 1970s. Conchol served from 1970 to 1972 as Minister of Agriculture in the government of President ...
was CEREN's director (also an important ideolog with MAPU—a left offshoot of the Christian Democrats which was also part of the Unidad Popular government). CEREN's first research conducted by Armando Mattelart, Michèle Mattelart, Mabel Paccini, et al., had to do with a structural left analysis of the liberal press, the "celebrity" publications, the pseudo-amorous magazines. Mattelart primarily studied ''
El Mercurio
''El Mercurio'' (known online as ''El Mercurio On-Line'', ''EMOL'') is a Chilean newspaper with editions in Valparaíso and Santiago. Its Santiago edition is considered the country's newspaper of record and it is considered the oldest daily in ...
'', the principal liberal newspaper. This was the starting-point of his lifelong involvement with the history of communications.
The ''Cuadernos de la Realidad Nacional'' (Notebooks of the National Reality), CEREN's publication, became the principal ideological generators and emitters during the social democratic government of
Salvador Allende
Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (, , ; 26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 3 November 1970 until his death on 11 September 1973. He was the fir ...
(1970–1973). The journal was similar to the French post-structuralist model, and it was primarily aimed to analyze the political economy of the mass media. Under this rubric, Mattelart and
Ariel Dorfman
Vladimiro Ariel Dorfman (born May 6, 1942) is an Argentine-Chilean-American novelist, playwright, essayist, academic, and human rights activist. A citizen of the United States since 2004, he has been a professor of literature and Latin American ...
published in 1971 the famous pamphlet: ''Para leer al Pato Donald, manual de descolonización antinorteamericana'' (''
How to read "Donald Duck", a manual for American de-colonization''), where they provided a Marxist structural analysis of global forms of American
consumer capitalism
A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. ...
. The pamphlet denounces "Yankee media penetration" through an assessment of
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
as global ideological conveyor of American liberal - and increasingly neoliberal - values. The book analyzed the celebrated family of ducks and presented them as nasty agents of the North American
cultural imperialism
Cultural imperialism (sometimes referred to as cultural colonialism) comprises the cultural dimensions of imperialism. The word "imperialism" often describes practices in which a social entity engages culture (including language, traditions, ...
. This book enjoyed great publicity and it became one of the best-selling books in Latin America during the 1970s, largely because of American-centered interventions in Latin America and repeated efforts by American political, economic, and paramilitary assets to undermine the democratically elected government in Chile.
After the
Chilean coup of 1973
Chilean may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Chile, a country in South America
* Chilean people
* Chilean Spanish
* Chilean culture
* Chilean cuisine
* Chilean Americans
See also
*List of Chileans
This is a list of Chileans who ar ...
, Mattelart returned to France where (at age 37) he had to restart his academic career—he became a visiting scholar at the
University of Paris VIII
Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis (french: Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis) is a public university in Paris, France. Once part of the historic University of Paris, it is now an autonomous public institution.
It is one of the th ...
Saint-Denis. He later became a full professor of Science of Information and Communication—a topic on which he later became a theoretician. In 1974, he worked on ''La Espiral'', a film justifying the Chilean route to socialism. Between 1983 and 1997 he has been Professor of Information and Communication Sciences at the
University of Rennes 2 – Upper Brittany
Rennes 2 University (UR2; french: Université Rennes 2) is a public university located in Upper Brittany, France. It is one of the four universities in the Academy of Rennes.The two others are: UBO (Brest), Western Brittany, and UBS in Lorient ...
, and in the postgraduate program at
Paris III (Nouvelle Sorbonne) -Rennes 2. Between 1997-2004, he has been Professor at the Université of Paris VIII. Since September 2004, he is Professor Emeritus.
Books translated into English
* ''
How to Read Donald Duck
''How to Read Donald Duck'' ( es, Para leer al Pato Donald) is a 1971 book-length essay by Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart that critiques Disney comics from a Marxist point of view as capitalist propaganda for American corporate and cultur ...
: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic''. (with
Ariel Dorfman
Vladimiro Ariel Dorfman (born May 6, 1942) is an Argentine-Chilean-American novelist, playwright, essayist, academic, and human rights activist. A citizen of the United States since 2004, he has been a professor of literature and Latin American ...
, translation by
David Kunzle) (International general Editions, 1975)
* ''How to Read Donald Duck: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic''. (with Ariel Dorfman, translation by David Kunzle) (OR Books, 2018)
* Communication and Class Struggle. An Anthology in two volumes (with
Seth Siegelaub, International general Editions, 1979 and 1983)*
* Multinational Corporations and the control of Culture, (Harvester Press, 1979)
* Mass Media, Ideologies and the Revolutionary Movement, (Harvester Press, 1980)
* Transnationals and the Third World: The Struggle for Culture, (Bergin and Garvey, 1983)
* International Image Markets. In Search of an Alternative, (with
Michèle Mattelart and
Xavier Delcourt, Comedia, 1984)
* Communication and Information Technologies: Freedom of Choice for Latin America?, (with
Hector Schmucler, Ablex, 1985)
* Technology, Culture and Communication: A Report to the French Ministry of Research and Industry, (with
Yves Stourdzé, Elsevier, 1985)
* (Editor) Communicating in Popular Nicaragua. An Anthology, (International general Editions, 1986)
* The Carnaval of Images: Brazilian Television Fiction, (with Michèle Mattelart, Greenwood, 1990)
* Advertising International: The Privatization of Public Space (Routledge, 1991)
* Rethinking Media Theories: Signposts and New Direction, (with Michèle Mattelart]
University of Minnesota Press
The University of Minnesota Press is a university press that is part of the University of Minnesota. It had annual revenues of just over $8 million in fiscal year 2018.
Founded in 1925, the University of Minnesota Press is best known for its boo ...
, 1992)
* Mapping World Communication: War, Progress, Culture (University of Minnesota Press, 1994)
* The Invention of Communication, (University of Minnesota Press, 1996)
* Theories of Communication. An Introduction, (with Michèle Mattelart, SAGE Publications, 1998)
* Networking the World 1794-2000 (University of Minnesota Press, 2000)
* The Information Society: An Introduction (SAGE Publications, 2003)
* The Globalisation of Surveillance (Polity Press, 2010)
External links
Sample articles by Mattelart
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mattelart, Armand
1936 births
Mass media theorists
Belgian sociologists
People from Jodoigne
Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis faculty
Academic staff of Rennes 2 University
Living people
20th-century Belgian writers
21st-century Belgian writers