de la práctica a la teoría y viceversa

Aunque la comunicación ni siquiera aparece como disciplina en muchos catálogos de referencias internacionales, me gusta cómo cada vez se ve más centrada en las discusiones sobre el presente y el futuro de cualquier ciencia, pero sobre todo de esas hijas póstumas que son las ciencias sociales.

El marketing es de los que llegó antes de ayer y se reconoce por la importancia que cobró la comercialización en la edad de la industrialización y el consumo. En uno de los editoriales de este año de la revista europea, plantea Nick Lee cómo salvar la barrera entre la teoría y la práctica. Creo que no salimos de esa desde los griegos; sólo que nuestros maestros no cavaron semejantes abismos de separación. Sus palabras:


(...) it may be that arguments about the practitioner relevance of scholarly publications are rooted in suspicions that there is a lower value placed on practitioner-oriented publications by academic promotions boards and evaluation committees. Thus, those who wish to focus on practitioner relevance and engagement may feel that their path to promotion is less clear than for those who focus on publication in scholarly journals. This, we agree, is an issue worthy of consideration if we wish to maintain effective marketing departments that consist of a wide range of academics. Perhaps a solution for this is for more journals to specifically focus on serving practitioners with leading-edge research findings. For this to happen however, increased value must be placed by evaluation committees on such publications. Further, it may be the case that joint publications with practitioners should be encouraged, which reinterpret work that has previously been published in scholarly outlets.
In conclusion, it is to be hoped that the wide range of views expressed in this editorial has provided significant food for thought for academics at all stages of their careers. We recognise that there is some significant divergence in these opinions, and our aim was not to settle on an answer to the question of whether greater emphasis should be given to theoretical or practical relevance – indeed it can be seen that even our own personal views as co-editors are different to each other, and to many of our colleagues on the SAB. This we believe is valuable, even essential, to academic progress. However, we would like to close with perhaps the most important conclusion which can be drawn from this piece; that there is room for all types of inquiry within academic marketing departments. If practitioner relevance is to be encouraged, then it is vital that we learn to value such work equally with that focused on scholarly engagement. Equally, we must also understand that it is not necessary that the academic study of a practice must always have relevance to those who actually perform practice. Upon these twin pillars can be founded a scholarly discipline of marketing of far greater relevance to practice, as well as more likely to make significant original contributions to our knowledge of the world.


No sólo hay cabida, sino necesidad de otros tipos de investigaciones. Y se condenan tanto los departamentos como las revistas que rompen los lazos y la comunicaciones con aspectos intrínsecos e inseparables de la cambiante y compleja comunicación social.