Communication for development and social change

This volume is first and foremost about people and the processes needed to facilitate sharing of knowledge in order to achieve sustainable developmental change. It underlines that development communication is based on dialogue, which is necessary to promote people's participation. The volume follows the two-way horizontal model and increasingly makes use of many-to-many forms of communication to facilitate the understanding of people's perceptions, priorities and knowledge with its use of a number of tools, techniques, media, and methods. It aims to give voice to those most affected by the development issue (s) at stake, allowing them to participate directly in defining and implementing solutions and identifying development directions. Based on the assumption that authentic participation directly addresses power and its distribution in society, which often decreases the advantage of certain elite groups, the authors argue that structural and sustainable change necessitates the redistribution of power. Communication is an essential element of every development and social change project, and it needs to be applied in different ways and at distinct levels according to the needs and characteristics of the context or community.