Abstract
This text introduces a special issue stems from the debate that has been developed within the Cost Action ISO906 Transforming Audiences Transforming Societies (TATS) around the policy implications of scientific knowledge produced in the field of audience research. This special issue has been conceived as both a place to collect the reflections on social relevance of participatory theory (conducted within the Working Group 2 of TATS) and a chance to relaunch the debate addressing a wider public which is interested in the topics of academia's social relevance and critical role but has not been involved before in TATS' research activities.
This two-folded rationale is reflected in the special issue's structure that is divided into two sections. The first one, entitled "Building bridges", collects papers produced and discussed by TATS researchers.
The second one, "Critique and social relevance", includes papers that were collected through an open call which asked for contributions analysing how the values of critique and social relevance are currently deployed in the contemporary research of communication and culture.