Communication and Popular Cultures in Educommunicational Practices of INCUPO in Gran Chaco, Argentina

Abstract

This article explores the educommunicational practices and senses of the popular culture(s) of the Instituto de Cultura Popular (INCUPO) in Gran Chaco, Argentina, from the late 1960s to the present day, based on an ethnographic perspective through in-depth interviews and document analysis. This civil association, headquartered in Reconquista (northeastern province of Santa Fe, Argentina), emerges in a region characterized by sociocultural heterogeneity, including indigenous communities, farmers, and residents of peripheral neighborhoods with a subsistence economy. The results of the analysis point to community communication and popular education practices, as well as the meanings constructed by INCUPO members, who have used literacy through radio and other means for the social transformation of the popular peasant and indigenous sectors. It is concluded that Latin American processes promoted the construction of INCUPO as a pioneer in community communication and popular education in Argentina. Furthermore, this initiative has influenced other organizations and, specifically, communication political projects that, since the late 1960s, have exercised and contested the right to communication in the region.