International Relations Commission

Vice President (2018-2020 period)

Carsten Wilhelm, MCF, Haute-Alsace University, CRESAT

Contacts : vp-ri@sfsic.org

SFSIC’s International relations Commission aims to promote our discipline and to develop the interventional skills of ICS researchers internationally.

The commission remains vigilant regarding the evolution of the national and international context of our activities, which have an impact on ICS research as well as on the educational conditions of students in our field and possible collaborations in this sector.

For the 2018-2020 mandate, the International relations Commission focuses on four main missions.

  • Maintaining and strengthening existing relations with our partners and with national scholarly associations in our neighboring countries (SSCM, DGPuK, ÖGK, AMSIC, West Africa…).
    The SFSIC has long developed bonds with colleagues and their universities internationally. Regarding our relations with sister scholarly associations, these bonds have led to exchanges, particularly during the SFSIC congresses, but they have not been formalized.
    In the current mandate, the International Relations Commission is working to ensure that these links go beyond individual contacts and become more stable.
    To that end, a memorandum of understanding has been established with sister societies to strengthen the extent of collaborations and make them more visible.
    Alongside the Communication Commission, the SFSIC SSCM and DGPUK societies’ digital presences and reciprocal information will be systematized. Information in multiple languages will be more present on our website and social media, other examples include commented guest publications and thematic issues.
  • Maintaining and strengthening existing relations with international associations (IAMCR/AIECS/AIERI, ICA, EUPRERA, ECREA, ORBICOM). These precious connections with international organizations operating within our disciplines, representing, and promoting all their diversity, will be maintained, and developed. Alongside the Research Commission, the work started following the collaboration with the AIMCR/AIECS/AIERI on cross-publications, particularly within the RFSIC, will represent a stimulating project which will enrich our work with research carried out in other scientific environments.
    Beyond a more regular presence under the SFSIC banner at the congresses of these societies and particularly during the labeling of RFSIC as an affiliated journal of the ICA, discussions are underway to organize joint actions and pre-conferences during the ICA 2022 conference which will be held in Paris.
  • Developing the international dimension of the “Ethics in digital research” project
    This project aims to better probe the representations and digital practices in ICS in an effort to better guide the debate within the SFSIC on this topic. This project is being developed in close collaboration with the Research Commission.
  • Maintaining SFSIC’s commitment to co-constructing francophone ICS educational programs internationally (Projects Vietnam, China…).
    This project will be supported by the International Relations Commission and the SFSIC’s president who has been directly involved since the beginning, in relation with the Education Commission.

The work of the current team is a continuation of the achievements of the previous terms

Following multiple meetings and exchanges that are increasingly followed since 2013 (Dublin 2013, Montreal July 2015, Paris September 2015, Portland May 2016, Madrid July 2019) the IAMCR/AIECS/AIERI and the SFSIC have decided to jointly organize a series of events to encourage the creation of relations between ICS researchers from different countries and cultures.

Various initiatives to reinforce international relations between the SFSIC and the ICA also took place (cross-memberships, participation of colleagues in both congresses, affiliation by the ICA of the French Journal of Information and Communication Sciences). Several French colleagues had the opportunity to represent the SFSIC and various French scientific approaches during panels organized during the ICA conferences in San Diego in 2017 and in Prague in 2018. The same will happen at the ICA in Washington D.C. in 2019.

During the last ten years, a community of researchers in Information and Communication Sciences has been progressively developing in Vietnam. Several theses have been defended, students graduated with a master’s degree in Information and Communication Sciences from universities in the French-speaking world (France, Belgium and Canada). Courses are being developed in institutes and universities in Vietnam itself, also in collaboration with French and Belgian universities. Since then, multiple collaboration agreements have been signed and regular exchanges are taking place between the Universities of Paris XIII, Toulon, and Grenoble to assist our Vietnamese colleagues with the creation of a francophone degree in communication.

Concerning Germany, the SFSIC was present at the seminar of the international and intercultural group of the DGPuK, the German sister company of the SFSIC, which took place in Dortmund 15-16 January 2015. These exchanges have strengthened our relations with our German colleagues. The participation of several of them during the SFSIC’s XXth Congress held in Metz in 2016, and the attendance of SFSIC’s president alongside several other French colleagues at the DGPuK congress in Mannheim in 2017 are proving that.

A part of SFSIC’s Board had the opportunity to participate in the direction meeting of the learned societies DGPuK, SSCM, ÖGK, and SFSIC to concretize the concerted projects between the national associations. This resulted in the participation of the SSCM in the Paris congress in 2018. It was then followed by the SFSIC attendance at the SSCM’s congress in St. Gall in 2019. The organization of the firsts SFSIC’s tri-national Doctoral days in 2019, is the first official and concrete realization between the three societies DGPuK, SSCM, and the SFSIC.

In 2020 a joint event during SSCM’s and SFSIC’s congresses (round table, panel) extended this dynamic.