This article argues for communication for social change theory tobe based on a theory of knowledge, a specific understanding of process that feeds into practice, a knowledge of structures, a specific understanding of context and flows of power. It highlights the example of the Right to Information Movement in India as an embodiment of meaningful practice that was in itselfa response to the felt needs of people. It argues that the RTI movement provided opportunities to understand Voice as a practice and value through indigenous means, specifically through the mechanism ofthe Jan Sunwai (Public Hearings). It argues that when local people are involved in articulating 'needs', there will be scope for the sustainability of the practice of communication and social change and opportunities to theorise from suchpractice.
This work reviews social changes occurring in Venezuela during the last two decades, examining how they led to the development of a new health policy. Initially, the political context of the nineties is examined; this was a time when the neoliberal politics of the 1980's had a demonstrable impact on the living conditions and health status of the population. By 1999 social and political events led to a new Constitution which provided the juridical and legal framework for a new health policy. The conceptualization of health and the model of health care which arose from the constitutional process are considered, as well as the reaction of the dominant economic and political sectors to the new policies imposed by constitutional mandate. The emergence of Barrio Adentro and other social missions is analyzed as an essential factor in the initiation of structural changes within the country and its health institutions. The Barrio Adentro program is described in detail, along with key steps in the development of the Venezuelan National Public Health System. Finally, the impact of these new health policies on the quality of life of the Venezuelan population is delineated.
It is a truism to say that information in all its forms is now a commodity, to be packaged and sold, along with all the other products of our age, in the high street superstores. As this commodification increases, so it is increasingly easy to forget that information has value far beyond the commercial world. It has a value as an agent for social change, for development, as it introduces people to ideas, creates forums for debate and speaks of the possibilities that are open to us- were we only permitted to know of them. The possibilities for change available to the people of the South, for instance, reside in the media ownership of ideas through the channels of CNN and Voice of America: a distorted, pro-capitalist view of the world, where the only mention of your own country is to tell you how dreadful it is (Voice of America on Cuba is the classic example). In the countries of the North media manipulation is more refined. The ways by which information is controlled and mediated have a serious influence on the ways people think, how they communicate, what they believe is the "real world", what the limits of the permissible are.
Abstract Purpose This paper aims to examine how social entrepreneurship (SE) practices give rise to social change in the context of urban Brazil. Design/methodology/approach The study draws on a broader inductive, ethnographic and iterative practice-based study conducted in three Brazilian non-governmental organizations. Findings Social change is established through intertwined practices that involve active interplay of ambivalent positive and negative feelings associated with the social mission pursued by the social enterprise; flat organizational structures that encourage participation and taking of ownership among all stakeholders; and focused organizational objectives (social purposes). Research limitations/implications The paper presents an analytical framework composed of five propositions that may be used in future research aimed at maturing and refining the understanding of SE. The study also provides a methodological contribution for future studies of new phenomenon and young fields of research that often must rely on inductive methodologies, by demonstrating how an iterative thematic analysis can be used in practice-based studies. Practical implications This paper has practical implications directly connected to its social implications, because understanding how social change is achieved may enhance the effectiveness of SE practitioners in bringing desired changes about. Furthermore, the discussion also provided insights for practitioners to reflect upon the paradoxical nature of practices aimed at social change. Originality/value The study suggests a set of propositions and an original definition of SE that mitigates conceptual inconsistencies found in literature drawing on empirical data and by incorporating the political lens found in practice theory.
Premières lignes : "The decades following the Second World War were ones of crucial social change in Turkey. By the end of the 1950s, the social and political landscape of the country was transformed by demographic growth, expansion of education, development of industry, and massive migration to the cities and foreign countries. Settled mainly in the countryside, Alevis experienced this process of social change, which was characterised by urbanisation, social differentiation, the breaking down of former communities, and, more specifically, by the weakening of religious practice. Thus, in the 1960s they established closer contact with the "broader country" and partly lost their specificity."
Premières lignes : "The decades following the Second World War were ones of crucial social change in Turkey. By the end of the 1950s, the social and political landscape of the country was transformed by demographic growth, expansion of education, development of industry, and massive migration to the cities and foreign countries. Settled mainly in the countryside, Alevis experienced this process of social change, which was characterised by urbanisation, social differentiation, the breaking down of former communities, and, more specifically, by the weakening of religious practice. Thus, in the 1960s they established closer contact with the "broader country" and partly lost their specificity."
El artículo realiza una presentación de la burocracia, sus elementos, las diversas formas que adopta en los países en desarrollo, su racionalidad como estrategia política y los nuevos teóricos que la estudian. ; This article is a presentation of bureaucracy, its elements, the diverse forms it takes in developing countries, its rationality as political strategy and new theorists in the subjects.
This article is a presentation of bureaucracy, its elements, the diverse forms it takes in developing countries, its rationality as political strategy and new theorists in the subjects. ; El artículo realiza una presentación de la burocracia, sus elementos, las diversas formas que adopta en los países en desarrollo, su racionalidad como estrategia política y los nuevos teóricos que la estudian.
When a State has visionary and forthright governance in place, healthy and progressive change becomes a common place in society. However, and as this study points out, social change should be as situations required. However, where a government fail in its duty to initiate needed change, the public will have no option than to initiate one, either peacefully or violently. The focus of this article is, to stress that it is the duty of the State to bring about needed political, economic, social, and other changes for the good of society. It is part of State's duties not to allow a situation where the people will have to take laws into their hands to initiate change. Furthermore, social change is taken in this study to refer to every change, and improvements that takes place in society as against changes that take place in just the social sector of society alone. Thus, the political electoral process is a means of bringing about change in political leadership of a country. For instance, the clamour for general restructuring of the Nigerian State which has been on for some time now, is a desire for a general overhaul that would bring about change in virtually all sectors of society. Data for this study was collected through secondary sources, namely: books, newspapers/magazines, journal articles, and internet sources, and were analysed using content analysis. The specific objectives of the study are to: examine the Nigerian state with its multi-divinity; assess the level of response of government to people's quest for needed change; investigate the constraints and challenges to good governance and social change, and identify the consequences of non-response of government to public demand for social change in the Nigeria society. The study findings revealed that, good governance has not been attained in the Nigerian state mainly due to leaders' attitude of greed, selfishness and ignorance, such that changes only attend to areas of their personal interest alone, while the interests of the public are not usually ...
Modern, truly civilized society is more and more conscious of the roll and significance of women for the total social development and its changes and it gives them, in the broadest sense of social conduct, more and more possibilities to manifest their work, intellectual, organizational, and other values. It is also confirmed from the level of their political, economic (entrepreneurial), management, and social conduct which differentiate in many cultural environments, depending on the country, the orientation towards political parties, triteness of the local community, defining the position within the organization, modernity of the family, and real possibility of interpreting those values. Similarly, it is clear that, in principle, there are still many obstacles, antagonisms, prejudices and suspicions that hinder women in their overall social engagement, often consciously or less consciously (traditionally) rated, which ultimately has still resulted in social delay in terms of accelerating the pace of changing business policies, economic conditionality, entrepreneurial restraint, disadvantage and inequality based on gender differences, as well as exaggerated one-dimensionality and calibration of all segments of society development on the basis of the male orientation and their perception of the needs and solving social priorities.
In recent years, a collaborative approach to solving socio-urban problems has become common. In some cases, organizational changes have been worked out in enterprises and governments to accommodate the collaborative process, and people started recognizing the already present collaborative aspect of the creative process. Nevertheless, a rigorous theoretical/conceptual background that can sustain continuous social innovation based on accountable experimentation is still majorly lacking in these contexts. The specific approach elaborated for Metadesign by the author can provide a bridge between these innovative intentions and a new epistemological framework that has emerged from contemporary philosophy, anthropology, and complexity theory. In the context of the so-called "Smart City", Metadesign could serve as an accessible approach to the democratic organization of communities so they can perform qualified and consequential creative work, including rethinking their own role in urban planning (meta-action). This approach is based on a new social interaction repertoire, partially derived from the popularization of digital interaction, but also from a new epistemic: complexity theory involves extreme shifts in the prevailing epistemological outlook, requiring new cognitive tools to cope with the increasing cognitive load in social interaction needed in collaborative creative work. This new epistemic also involves changing the way we frame objects of knowledge, recognizing new "objects of design", of particular interest to the Metadesign action, that can mediate social change in a concerted and conscious manner.Keywords: metadesign, urban planning, social change, innovation, micro-politics, smart cities.
Community radio is a powerful tool for self-expression, alternative discourse, and democratizing media access. What is less established, though, is the role of community radio in the construction and expression of a mediatized identity. Drawing on research conducted at 2 community radio stations in India, this article considers mediatized identity formation and expression as facets of social change, and explores the role of community radio in these processes. This research found that community radio facilitates the articulation and expression of both community identity and individual identity among producers and volunteers. These processes can have significant benefits from a social change perspective in terms of both local knowledge sharing and empowering women. There are, however, significant gaps and silences in terms of how marginalized groups are able to access the same benefits. Participation in community radio allows certain groups to express identity in an increasingly globalized and homogenous media landscape.
One of the most significant social changes over the past 25 years in Tamil Nadu is the entry of women into the local political bodies of Gram Panchayat and Panchayat Samithi through a 33 % reservation system. Simultaneously, women are now to a large extent organised in Self-Help Groups, through which at least some of them can access loans either for small entrepreneurship or simply for smaller emergency/consumption loans. An important background to this is the increased participation of women in the non-agricultural labour market. In this article we report from a 25 year panel study of 213 agrarian households in six villages in Karur and Tiruchirapalli districts.
What characterizes the multidisciplinary field of communication for development today? And how do the Master's programme in Communication for Development (ComDev) at Malmö University, the Glocal Times web magazine and Malmö University and Roskilde University's joint bi-national research centre Ørecomm position themselves vis-à-vis this field of research and practice?
The historian Eric Hobsbawm defined the sixties as a moment of collective intensity. In addition to the political changes, the decade created the material conditions for the emergence of a new kind of subjectivity, supported by shared cultural expectations. Poetry followed these subjective and social transformations through the expansions of literary forms and modes of exhibition. The objective of this article is then to examine how the poetic landscape of the sixties was shaped by this revolutionary energy. In order to do that, I am going to focus on three different locations: Northern Ireland (Belfast), Scotland (Glasgow), and Brazil (São Paulo).
