ALAIC actively participates in the construction of spaces, such as CONFIBERCOM, that promote a fertile dialogue with the academic community.  It also takes part on major events in the field of communication worldwide (IAMCR, ICA, PANAM).  Since 2010, it has been promoting roundtables and workshops with other macro-regional associations in the area, as a way to establish a broad dialogue on key institutional and epistemological issues.  The session that has been convened in Santiago de Compostela has been made possible by the collaboration with Nordicom, the support of AGACOM, the participation of ASSIBERCOM of CONFIBERCOM and the involvement of two major national associations, AEIC and AMIC.
As during the previous the round-table held in Montevideo at ALAIC’s 2012 congress, the session’s goal is to build up consensus towards  assembling a common platform for action, aiming at rethinking  the relationship between communication and development, in an era of profound worldwide changes in power relations and hegemony.  In this context, what is the role of communication and, in particular, the responsibility of the academic field of Communication during the ongoing changes in the field of science and intellectual work, in general?
In that sense, is it possible to think of  the institutionalization of the field at the global level, giving weight to associations of researchers in shaping the political and social agenda?  We do not intend to answer these questions, but aim to reflect towards collective discussion of these problems at a future ALAIC-ECREA roundtable during the IAMCR Congress in June