Comunicación ascendente

Abstract

Internal communication within the university is considered in this study to be a circuit of a two-way flow of constant activity, top-down and bottom-up. Having observed that in the university situation the bottom-up flow of communication is weak, sometimes deliberately so in order to promote top-down communication, we have had recourse to the micro sociology of Erving Goffman in search of resources with which to increase bottom-up activity. The balance and cohesion of the university community are strengthened by the increase in this oft-ignored direction of information. The bottom-up flow has led us to the consideration of external bottom-up flows of communication, this being an opportune moment to consider the interdependence between internal and external communication. As will be seen, this paper has first put the specific question of internal communication into a general social context, based on the understanding that the willingness or unwillingness of society as a whole must affect a part, the university. Secondly, we have referred to the ambit of aesthetics to try to clarify the basis of creativity, that sovereign talent, which one must necessarily take into account in making a bottom-up communication plan. Finally, our path leads to the thinking of Erving Goffman, from whose baggage we extract keys and concepts such as team-work, ways of acting, spatial regions, background, definition of situation or realignment, with which to confront practical aspects of this promotion of bottom-up information flow.