Reconceptualising Communication for Development: A Critical Appraisal of the Field

"Communication for development (C4D) was defined by the World Congress on Communication for Development as '...a social process based on dialogue using a broad range of tools and methods. It also seeks change at different levels, including listening, building trust, sharing knowledge and skills, building policies, debating, and learning for sustained and meaningful change..."

Since the early 2000s, the field of communication for development (C4D) has progressively undergone both an evolution and a revolution in its approaches and methods. This Special Issue of the journal Social Sciences aims to critically review this reconceptualisation of C4D through the presentation of a range of scholarly and practical perspectives in areas that include communication for social change, behaviour change communication, rural communication, communication for peace, participatory communication, indigenous voices, climate change communication, communication in protracted emergencies, and media development.

Contacts of the open-access (free) issue include:
 

• Interdisciplinary Perspectives: Rethinking Communication for Development and Social Change in Health Communication, by Eliza Govender [Soc. Sci. 2025, 14(2), 56; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci14020056 - 22 Jan 2025] - "...Communicating for Health-as-Development (C4HD)...foregrounds health as development, which caters to the messy, unidirectional, non-process-orientated, non-measurable and often non-data-driven approaches to health outcomes. It is in these messy health communication efforts that real development takes place. This paper, using examples from HIV and COVID-19, discusses these ongoing developments in the field and the convergence of public health and communication for development and social change from an interdisciplinary perspective, by exploring three key concepts: community engagement to influence decision making, community agency and ownership, and context and collaboration, which contribute to understanding communication for health-as-development."
• Cultural Studies with Communities in South Africa: Implications for Participatory Development Communication and Social Change Research, by Lauren Dyll and Keyan G. Tomaselli [Soc. Sci. 2024, 13(11), 614; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13110614 - 13 Nov 2024] - "This article theorizes the role of local and indigenous culture in its intersection with development initiatives. It argues that Communication for Development and Social Change (CDSC), through a cultural studies framework, strengthens the potentiality of democratization and participation within community-based development and social change settings. We advocate that applied cultural studies can facilitate agency (through voice and self-representation) in social interventions....We illustrate how CDSC strategies, influenced by applied cultural studies, can work with an agentic imperative to effect development and mutual understanding in a defined geographical area, where multiple stakeholder agendas, cultural backgrounds, and ontologies are to be negotiated."
• The Feminist Gaze on Communication for Social Change, by Karin Gwinn Wilkins [Soc. Sci. 2024, 13(11), 580; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13110580 - 28 Oct 2024] - "...In this article, I aim to critique the discourse that celebrates digital technologies as tools to promote participatory governance, entrepreneurship, and collective activism through a feminist gaze that privileges the political and economic contexts that condition access to voice, the capacity to listen, and potential for dialog. This analysis builds on an understanding of mediated communication as a prism rather than as a projected mirror, structuring our potential as well as our challenges in creating constructive social change. We need to be accountable toward social justice, relying on our critical appraisals and informed dialogs to create paths to stronger and more impactful communication for social change."
• Border Tensions for Rethinking Communication and Development: A Case of Building History in Ticoya Resguardo, by Eliana Herrera-Huérfano, Juana Ochoa-Almanza, and David Fayad Sanz [Soc. Sci. 2024, 13(9), 451; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13090451 - 28 Aug 2024] - "This article proposes rethinking communication, development, and social change from a decolonial perspective through the case study of the Ticoya resguardo. It examines how the oral traditions of Indigenous elders construct a history of the territory, positioning orality as a practice of communicative and cognitive justice that transcends the dominant structures of the nation-state....Producing a radio series narrated by participants was crucial for gathering the elders' narratives through conversations, social mapping, and storytelling....The conclusion underscores the necessity of a decolonial perspective, recognizing the impact of monocultures in obscuring diverse forms of life..."
• Subversive Recipes for Communication for Development and Social Change in Times of Digital Capitalism, by Jessica Noske-Turner, Niranjana Sivaram, Aparna Kalley, and Shreyas Hiremath [Soc. Sci. 2024, 13(8), 393; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13080393 - 25 Jul 2024] - "...This paper argues that meaningful uses of social media platforms for social change requires cultivating a hacker mindset in order to find tactics to subvert, resist, and appropriate platform logics, combined with an ecological sensibility to understanding media and communication. This paper analyzes how metaphors, specifically of a recipe, can offer a productive, praxis-oriented framework for fostering these sensibilities. The paper draws on insights from workshops with IT for Change, a civil society organization in India, which is both a leader in critiquing the political and economic power of Big Tech especially in the Global South, and beginning to use Instagram for its work on adolescent empowerment."
• Reconceptualizing ICTD: Prioritizing Place-Based Learning Experiences, Socio-Economic Realities, and Individual Aspirations of Young Students in India, by Manisha Pathak-Shelat and Kiran Vinod Bhatia [Soc. Sci. 2024, 13(7), 379; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13070379 - 22 Jul 2024] - "This paper critically examines the neo-liberal conceptualization of Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICTD)....Using the rapidly growing EdTech segment in India as a case, this paper observes that...three major factors - challenges of access and autonomy, continued relevance of place-based learning and in-person interactions, and uneven quality and rigor - influence low-income students and families to not completely buy the promise of access, equity, and quality that EdTech companies and governments advance. We explore the significance of the socio-economic and cultural contexts of young learners in the global South context and argue that they...do not fully benefit by the experimentation, DIY practices, and tech-lead learning opportunities and resources offered by EdTech platforms in their current state."
• Unlearning Communication for Social Change - A Pedagogical Proposition [see Related Summaries, below], by Thomas Tufte [Soc. Sci. 2024, 13(7), 335; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13070335 - 25 Jun 2024] - "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 we 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?..."
• Communication for Development: Conceptualising Changes in Communication and Inclusive Rural Transformation in the Context of Environmental Change, by Sarah Cardey, Pamela Joyce Moraleda Eleazar, Juliet Ainomugisha, Macneil Kalowekamo, and Yurii Vlasenko [Soc. Sci. 2024, 13(6), 324; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13060324 - 19 Jun 2024] - "...[T]he roots of C4D come in part from rural development and agricultural extension....However, after decades of action to address these interrelated rural development challenges, much remains to be done. This paper critically considers the following: What does inclusive rural development mean now, in light of environmental change, and how does this affect the conceptualisation and practice of C4D? This was done by using three countries as case studies: Malawi, Ukraine, and the Philippines. Each of these countries represented contrasting challenges and opportunities for rural development and environmental change..."
• Social Movements, Social Change, and International Cooperation: Strategic Insights from Latin America and the Caribbean, by Cássia Ayres, Jair Vega-Casanova, and Jesús Arroyave Cabrera [Soc. Sci. 2024, 13(12), 639; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13120639 - 27 Nov 2024] - "...Latin American perspectives of social and behaviour change (SBC) emphasise engagement with social movements to contribute to social justice, creating alliances to amplify the voices of those most affected without interfering with the organic nature of citizen-led movements. This prompts the following inquiries: Can we categorize as social movements those with popular roots but espousing hegemonic interests? How can the Latin American tradition of social movement action and reflection inform strategies for social change? How can SBC strategies counteract anti-human rights movements and empower social movements prone to inclusion? This essay addresses these questions."