Armand Mattelart

Interview

• "The millenium bug: a techno-utopian myth" (Rome, 14/04/1999)

Biography

Armand Mattelart (mei@univ-paris8.fr) lecturers in Information and Communication Science at the University of Paris VIII. A media theoretician and student of the history and theory of communication, he is also the author of many well-known essays, translated into various languages, and has participated in numerous conferences. He began his university career as a lecturer-researcher in the Sociology of Population and the Sociology of the Media at the University of Chile in Santiago, and lived in Chile from 1962 to 1973. During the three years of Salvador Allende's presidency (1970-73) he actively participated in plans to reform the media.
Expelled during General Pinochet's dictatorship, he and Chris Marker made a full-length documentary (The Spiral, 1976), about the Chilean Popular Unity period. He has always remained in close contact with Latin America, where he regularly holds courses and carries out research with the Universities of Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.
In 1982 he was co-president, with Yves Stourdzè, of the inter-ministerial mission to evaluate French research in the field of the social sciences, including technology, culture and communication.

Bibliography

• Histoire de l'utopie planétaire, ed. La Découverte, 1999.
• La mondializzazione della comunicazione, Editori Riuniti, 1998.
• L'invenzione della comunicazione, Il Saggiatore, 1998.
• La comunicazione-mondo, Il Saggiatore, 1994, 1998.
• L'Internationale publicitaire, ed. La Découverte, 1989.