Freire and the Perseverance of Hope: Exploring Communication and Social Change
Paulo Freire (honoured person)
Amsterdam; London: Institute of Network Cultures;Loughborough University (2022), 146 pp.
"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 initiatives 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)
"In March 2021, the Institute for Media and Creative Industries at Loughborough University London organized a cycle called Paulo Freire Centennial: 7 Talks in Preparation for the Next 100 Years. It was an early step towards Freire’s birth centennial to be celebrated in September of that same year. The event got more than six thousand submissions for participation in its seven dialogues – 2.113 individual submissions from 48 countries, being the first thousand in the first six hours after opening registration. Aware of hate campaigns against Freire, those submissions were double checked and, for confirming a place in the debates, subscribers were requested to fill in a form and, among other questions, answer what they were looking for. Many summarized that, at that point, “Freire was more necessary than ever”. Filtering numbers, 856 individual participants from 42 countries enrolled in the seven dialogues, many in more than one of them. The collection of texts organized in this book comes from those seven debates. Twelve speakers, from 10 countries, representing experience from both research and practice in communication and social change, discussed the five principles of Freire’s ontological call: dialogue, love, empathy, hope and humility. Section 1 of this book contains the integral transcriptions of these lectures – some of them are direct translations to English as speakers addressed the public in their original languages. Section 2 is comprised of another group of transcriptions from the dialogues. In this case, the live debates that took place after each lecture were transcribed and organized under topics that unfolded between speakers and the audience. We have organized these around the three main topics that emerged in the debates: Network Society; Social Change; and Education. They are in turn internally organized under subtopics. Finally, Section 3 is comprised of a collection of texts written by young communication scholars and practitioners that attended the cycle. They write from their local perspective about how those discussions inspired or challenged their work and views of the future." (Introduction, page 10)
Introduction: why and how to read this book / Ana Cristina Suzina and Thomas Tufte, 9
SECTION I. REFLECTIONS ON FREIRE'S PRINCIPLES
Hommage to Paulo Freire on his centenary / Frei Betto, 13
A dialogue on communication from an indigenous Perspective in Mexico / Claudia Magallanes Blanco, 22
Where is dialogue in times of neoliberalism? / Mayrá Lima, 27
Paulo Freire, love and communication for social change / Karin Gwinn Wilkins, 32
The compassionate love in communication: an educational experience in India in the light of Paulo Freire's legacy / Xavier Carbonell, 37
Empathy for the other, a Freirean perspective / Linje Manyozo, 41
Paulo Freire and empathy and its implications for media and communication practitioners now / James Deane, 45
A dialogue with Paulo Freire: reflections on the social conditions of hope and the problem of equality of expression / Benjamin Ferron, 50
Communication and hope: producing audiovisual from the perspective of indigenous peoples / Eriberto Montalvo Gualinga, 56
On humility: reading Freire with Ubuntu / Colin Chasi, 58
Freirean 'humility' in the age of the proliferating spectacle: a reflection / Anita Gurumurthy, 65
Eating, drinking, dancing, singing and lifting the sky / Ailton Krenak, 70
SECTION II. DEBATING FREIRE'S IDEAS
Network society / Claudia Magallanes Blanco et al., 77
Social change / Frei Betto et al., 85
Education / Frei Betto et al., 94
SECTION III. FREIRE FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF YOUNG SCHOLARS
Re-thinking communication as a political tool with critical optimism / Fania Sánchez de la Vega González, 102
Love as praxis: reflections from Theatre of the Oppressed movement in Eastern India / Jharna Brahma, 106
Rethinking Freirean pedagogy in education and learning in Tanzania / Happy Singu Hansen, 112
Reflecting Paulo Freire on communication for social change in the digital age / Michael Dokyum Kim, 119
Communicating for or with the other? Reflections On Freire's dialogue and empathy in the South African COVID-19 communication response / Nompumelelo Gumede, 124
Education is an action of love engaged in preventing others from feeling the pain you felt / Elijerton Veras, 129
Epilogue: @paulofreire, 100 years and beyond? 132
SECTION I. REFLECTIONS ON FREIRE'S PRINCIPLES
Hommage to Paulo Freire on his centenary / Frei Betto, 13
A dialogue on communication from an indigenous Perspective in Mexico / Claudia Magallanes Blanco, 22
Where is dialogue in times of neoliberalism? / Mayrá Lima, 27
Paulo Freire, love and communication for social change / Karin Gwinn Wilkins, 32
The compassionate love in communication: an educational experience in India in the light of Paulo Freire's legacy / Xavier Carbonell, 37
Empathy for the other, a Freirean perspective / Linje Manyozo, 41
Paulo Freire and empathy and its implications for media and communication practitioners now / James Deane, 45
A dialogue with Paulo Freire: reflections on the social conditions of hope and the problem of equality of expression / Benjamin Ferron, 50
Communication and hope: producing audiovisual from the perspective of indigenous peoples / Eriberto Montalvo Gualinga, 56
On humility: reading Freire with Ubuntu / Colin Chasi, 58
Freirean 'humility' in the age of the proliferating spectacle: a reflection / Anita Gurumurthy, 65
Eating, drinking, dancing, singing and lifting the sky / Ailton Krenak, 70
SECTION II. DEBATING FREIRE'S IDEAS
Network society / Claudia Magallanes Blanco et al., 77
Social change / Frei Betto et al., 85
Education / Frei Betto et al., 94
SECTION III. FREIRE FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF YOUNG SCHOLARS
Re-thinking communication as a political tool with critical optimism / Fania Sánchez de la Vega González, 102
Love as praxis: reflections from Theatre of the Oppressed movement in Eastern India / Jharna Brahma, 106
Rethinking Freirean pedagogy in education and learning in Tanzania / Happy Singu Hansen, 112
Reflecting Paulo Freire on communication for social change in the digital age / Michael Dokyum Kim, 119
Communicating for or with the other? Reflections On Freire's dialogue and empathy in the South African COVID-19 communication response / Nompumelelo Gumede, 124
Education is an action of love engaged in preventing others from feeling the pain you felt / Elijerton Veras, 129
Epilogue: @paulofreire, 100 years and beyond? 132
