"We have in recent years seen growing calls for pedagogies for social change amongst communication and development scholars, identifying resistances, critiques, and emerging practices in the field. This review article addresses this ‘pedagogical turn’, suggesting that it is in these pedagogies w
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e can see the pathways to unlearn and relearn communication for social change. Offering a decolonial analytical lens, this article asks two questions: What characterizes these critical pedagogies? And how can the various pedagogies contribute to unlearning and relearning the field of communication and social change? This article is structured in five parts, first offering a review of key critiques articulated within the field of communication and social development in the past two decades, arguing that, in practice, what we are seeing is the organic development of a pluriverse of knowledges, values, and visions of society. Secondly, it proposes the decolonial term of ‘unlearning’ as a pedagogical pathway and epistemological ambition for the production and recognition of a pluriverse of knowledges, thereby challenging dominant perceptions of society and social change. Thirdly, it introduces a model of analysis which structures ways whereby we can think about monocultures and ecologies in relation to a range of dimensions of the pluriverse. Fourthly, it reviews key critical pedagogies, discussing how they address epistemic injustice both in broader societal contexts as well as in the university space. This article concludes by discussing how the process of unlearning through critical pedagogies has implications for the configuration and definition of the field of communication and social change, suggesting three areas for further research: ways of seeing (positionality), new subject positions (relationality), and new design processes (transition)." (Abstract)
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"The Brazilian educator Paulo Freire (1921-1997) is one of the most important thinkers of the 21st century, figuring among the most quoted authors in the fields of education and social sciences all over the world. He is also a core reference to an infinite number of grassroots and activist initiativ
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es globally. This book celebrates his birth centennial with a collection of 19 contributions from both experienced and young media and communication scholars and activists working in 11 countries. They reflect and debate Freire’s principles and ideas, revisiting their origins and interrogating their relevance to current challenges and struggles. The result can be summarized as a claim for affect as the core feature of social change and a tool for yielding resistance." (Publisher description)
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"This article proposes to view Freire’s thinking beyond a pedagogical method and rather as a model or even paradigm of development and social change. To build this as an original argument we firstly outline Freire’s ontological call, presenting and discussing his underlying five principles, of w
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hich one in particular, dialogue, situates Freirean thinking within communication theory. Secondly, we trace Freire’s legacy by presenting and discussing how Freire inspired three significant Ibero-American thinkers and practitioners within performing arts (Augusto Boal), communication (Juan Diaz Bordenave) and epistemology of change (Boaventura de Sousa Santos). This analysis underscores Freire’s significant legacy along global intellectual pathways both within humanities and social sciences. Finally, we deepen our analysis of Freire’s vision of development and social change, unpacking how he navigates between a normative vision grounded in a utopian aspiration for change, and a very systematic and rigorous methodology, his liberating pedagogy." (Abstract)
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"Only one of Freire’s (1969/1983) books directly and more broadly addresses the scope of communication; it is 'Extension or Communication?' published in 1969, originally in Spanish, during Freire’s exile in Chile. This book became an important reference for the studies and practices of participa
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tory communication worldwide and was decisive for the review of diffusion models, which took communication as a tool to guide the reproduction of models considered modern and developed, without paying attention to local experiences and knowledge. Approached more broadly, the transversality of communication in Freire’s pedagogical perspective can be discussed from at least three perspectives. The first combines language, education and communication. The second links education and communication with popular mobilization and, more openly, with processes of political engagement. The third stems from Freire’s own critical positioning in relation to the media. These three inflections will be discussed in more detail throughout the material compiled in this edition of MATRIZes." (Introduction, page 5)
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"This article explores the “mindprint” of Paulo Freire upon processes of social change in Brazil, with a particular focus on how his liberating pedagogy has influenced practices of participatory communication and civil society development. In exploring the legacy of Freire, his work is approache
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d from the perspective of communication. This constitutes an original contribution as it positions Freire’s work within a communication epistemology and his vision as one of communication. A brief rigorous review is conducted of the history and development of citizen engagement in Brazil from the 1950s until 2020, identifying key phases of democratic development, and the legacy of Freire herein assessed. It is found that rather than representing specific policies or formal educational projects, Paulo Freire has become a key symbol and inspiration that has influenced a broad gamut of civil society, and continues, in a variety of forms and contexts, to inspire social change processes in Brazil."
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"This collection presents 14 concepts from a multi-disciplinary collection of internationally leading and emerging scholars, from 13 countries on 5 continents. They come together around three meta-topics: citizenship and justice, critiques of development, and renewing thought (from and for the margi
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ns). The short chapter format ensures that authors get straight to the nub of their ideas, providing readers - students, scholars and practitioners alike - with accessible, engaging and innovative ways to think critically about communication and social change, in new ways." (Publisher description)
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"This article critically assesses the possibilities and limitations of strategic communication initiatives to enhance cultures of governance among youth in Northern Ghana. The analysis is embedded within contemporary debates about communication and social change, with particular focus upon dynamics
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between citizen media development, youth-centred citizen journalism, and processes of community mobilisation and development. Findings suggest that the project has opened up to dynamic, youth-led social change processes, evidenced by the creative, proactive enactment of citizen engagement. Youth changed not only their self-perception around agency and ability to act, but also influenced community development in a variety of ways." (Abstract)
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"Drawing on examples ranging from the Indignados movement in Spain to media activists in Brazil, from rural community workers in Malawi to UNICEF's global outreach programs, [the author] presents cutting-edge debates about the role of media and communication in enhancing social change. He offers bot
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h new and contested ideas of approaching social change from below, and highlights the need for institutions - governments and civil society organizations alike - to be in sync with their constituencies." (Publisher description)
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"The growing emphasis on collective action raises new questions for research and practice in communication for development and social change. What actors drive processes of collective action? What are the communication features of their interventions? What type of social change processes do they enh
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ance? What evidence demonstrates the impact of collective action processes? What theoretical frameworks inform our understanding of collective action and social change? What is the role of communication scholarship in this context? In this article, we address these questions, review the contexts of contemporary transformation and key debates in communication for development and social change, and propose a research agenda for an interdisciplinary field of inquiry." (Abstract)
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"This edited volume addresses various aspects of social and political development in Turkey and the latter's role within a global context. Paradigmatically and theoretically, it is situated in the realm of communication and/for social change. The chapters thread together to present a fresh and innov
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ative study that explores an array of issues related to the Gezi protests and their aftermath by scholars and activists from Scandinavia, Turkey and India. Through its thorough analysis of the government's repressive policy and the communication strategies of resistance, during the protests as well as in the dramatic on-going aftermath, the volume has wide international and interdisciplinary appeal, suitable for those with an interest in globalization, communication and media, politics, and social change." (Publisher description)
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"How should scholars approach study of the processes that characterize voice production among subaltern groups? The study builds on both Marxist and non-Marxist frameworks as theoretical trajectories for conducting class analyses that define how subaltern groups conceive, produce and consume their o
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wn voices. The discussion, a semiotics analysis in itself, aims to make significant contribution to communication studies, through demonstrating the fragile, slippery and class-based politics that are prevalent when marginalized groups use various art forms, even their bodies, as battlegrounds for contesting oppressive power relationships." (Abstract)
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"This chapter seeks to complicate our understanding of voice in development. It proposes that while it is important to consider not just voice, and the processes of valuing voice, it is also important to understand what voice and agency mean in the complexities of everyday life for populations who a
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re marginalized or disadvantaged. The chapter draws on research in an Indian slum cluster to illustrate how an ethnographic approach can help us to appreciate these complexities and problematize notions of voice. It explores examples of the ways in which people seek to remain unheard and invisible in official and formal terms, and suggests ways that we can rethink what voice might mean in development. While communication for development and social change cannot simplify complexity, it does provide a way of facilitating participation in the design of development. It can highlight the contestations and different perspectives involved, and can draw attention to the relationships of developers and people in development contexts." (Abstract)
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"The images used to market development often feature women, as victims of terrible traditions and disempowering situations, or – more commonly these days – as enterprising agents of change, poised to ‘lift’ economies and their families and communities. These images tell a story of victims an
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d heroines, representing development as a project of uplift and rescue. This chapter explores the politics of these representations. It takes as its point of entry a film project that sought to disrupt these narratives, producing a short film called Save us from Saviours. Engaging with those often represented as tragic victims and left out of the story of enterprising entrepreneurs to tell a story about sex work, collective action and social change, the film speaks to a set of larger questions about development intervention. Juxtaposing Save us from Saviours with another film, made at the same time about some of the same people, which gave rise to a third film, made by the sex workers in response, the chapter reflects on the complexities of development communications in an age of global connectivity." (Abstract)
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"When the Aboriginal Programs Unit of Australia’s ABC television began in 1988, every Indigenous person involved was a trainee under the direction of a Euro-Australian professional. They bore the burden of collective selfrepresentation in a televisual wasteland virtually devoid of Indigenous voice
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s. In 2011, Sally Riley (Wiradjuri) became head of the ABC’s Indigenous Unit, with plans to create innovative work that “comments on our own problems, our own issues”. Riley’s projects demonstrate how far Indigenous tv has come in 25 years; new productions expand beyond the burden of representation carried by the first generation, showing the complexities of daily life for diverse aboriginal subjects and audiences, enlarging the national imaginary through the local stories they tell. If the neighborhood of Redfern was known historically as the urban center of aboriginal political action in Australia, the show Redfern Now, has become an innovative site of cultural activism both on and off screen." (Abstract)
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"The documentary film Gringo Trails explores the long-term effects of tourism globalization on cultures, economies and the environment in the developing world through the lens of budget backpacker travelers and their storytelling. This chapter explores the travel narrative to tourism globalization a
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s it was visualized over a 30-year timespan through Gringo Trails and traces the effect of the film itself through it’s journey at international screenings and in press coverage. Tracking the film’s trajectory from it’s premiere in late 2013 through 2015 and the reactions to it either verbally or in print provides the catalyst for a discussion on the role of long-term, ethnographic filmic observation and research in exploring globalization processes; and, connects media practices to the scholarship on development, tourism studies, and the anthropology of tourism." (Abstract)
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"We draw on insights from a two-year research project, Politics and Interactive Media in Africa (PiMA), and the related applied research pilot, Africa’s Voices, which worked with local radio stations in eight Sub-Saharan African countries. We examine the social and political significance of new op
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portunities for voice, debate and claim-making in the mediated public sphere that interactive broadcast media enables, and how an approach to citizen engagement that values pluralism and inclusivity and is not extractive, might better seize opportunities that interactive broadcast offers. The chapter critically reappraises what kinds of engagement count in communication for development, what kinds of ‘publics’ audiences in interactive shows constitute and how we should understand the power of these ‘audience-publics’." (Abstract)
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"El inicio del siglo XXI ha venido marcado por los debates que, en el plano internacional, están sometiendo a revisión la comunicación para el desarrollo con el fin de proponer otras alternativas como comunicación para el cambio social o comunicación para el empoderamiento ciudadano y ecosocial
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. El debate conceptual que tiene lugar está lejos de resolverse con una respuesta fácil e inmediata, en la medida en que todos los términos que entran en escena requieren de un trabajo genealógico que permita identificar las tensiones, los actores sociales y las perspectivas de investigación en conflicto." (Editorial)
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