CfCSC Conference on Communication and Social Change

The Centre for Communication and Social Change (CfCSC) is holding its inaugural boutique conference titled “Beyond the Impasse: Exploring New Thinking in Communication & Social Change”. The conference will be held on January 29-31, 2013 at The University of Queensland, in Brisbane, Australia.

In the words of the CCfSC co-director Pradip Thomas: “Over the past decade, innovation in critical communication for social change (CSC) theory has failed to keep pace with both technological advances and the emergence of powerful new actors and entities. As scholars working in the field of CSC, it falls to us to provide a coherent critique of contemporary realities and identify effective practices that can make a real difference in people’s lives. We need to go beyond post-development critiques and embrace a politics of the possible for the 21st century.”

New opportunities and challenges for communication for social change can derive from massive investments in new technologies, the increasingly urban and technologically mediated development contexts, the influx of corporate funding in development, among others.

Keynote speakers Silvio Waisbord, Florencia Enghel and Jo Tacchi, along with the conference participants, will explore:

  • New advances in the theorisation of CSC
  • Emerging inter-disciplinary perspectives
  • Locally specific, context-based approaches to understanding key buzz words including ‘participation’, ‘access’ and ‘empowerment’
  • Innovative CSC methods, including visual methodologies
  • Critical perspectives on the creation and implementation of CSC policy
  • The political economy of CSC policy
  • Issues related to measuring ‘impact’ in CSC
  • The design of CSC interventions (i.e. software and hardware)

More information available here

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