"Today, DIY- do-it-yourself - describes more than self-taught carpentry. Social media enables DIY citizens to organize and protest in new ways (as in Egypt's "Twitter revolution" of 2011) and to repurpose corporate content (or create new user-generated content) in order to offer political counternar
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ratives. This book examines the usefulness and limits of DIY citizenship, exploring the diverse forms of political participation and "critical making" that have emerged in recent years. The authors and artists in this collection describe DIY citizens whose activities range from activist fan blogging and video production to knitting and the creation of community gardens. Contributors examine DIY activism, describing new modes of civic engagement that include Harry Potter fan activism and the activities of the Yes Men. They consider DIY making in learning, culture, hacking, and the arts, including do-it-yourself media production and collaborative documentary making." (Back cover)
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"Die Rolle der Medien für die Integration von Migrantinnen und Migranten wird in kommunikationswissenschaftlichen Studien oft thematisiert. Doch welche Möglichkeiten haben sie in Deutschland überhaupt, aktiv an der Medienproduktion zu partizipieren? Christine Horz untersucht am Beispiel deutsch-i
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ranischer TV-Produktionen in Offenen Kanälen das große Interesse der Einwanderer/-innen an der Medienbeteiligung. Die Verknüpfung empirischer Befunde mit einem kritischen Theoriegerüst bietet aufschlussreiche Einblicke in Produktionsprozesse, transkulturelle Medieninhalte und Exklusionsmechanismen in öffentlich geförderten Medien." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"From encouraging charitable donations and delivering public health messages to promoting democratic participation and state accountability, the media can play a crucial role in development. Yet the influence of the media is not always welcome. It can also be used as a mechanism of surveillance and
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control or to disseminate hate speech and propaganda. How then should we respond to the growing importance of the media - including journalism, radio, television, community media and social media - for poverty and inequality? The first step is to acquire an informed and critical understanding of the multiple roles that the media can have in development. To help achieve this, this book provides concise and original introductions to the study and practice of communication for development (C4D), media development and media representations of development. In doing so it highlights the increasing importance of the media, whilst at the same time emphasising the varieties, complexities and contingencies of its role in social change." (Publisher description)
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"Much has been written about theatre's capacity to create social change. Theatre of Good Intentions: Challenges and Hopes for Theatre and Social Change, however, looks at some of the reasons why achieving such goals is hard; examining what theatre can and can't do. It critiques the limitations of th
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eatre in the creation of social change, in order to engage in a productive discussion of theatre's strengths - and weaknesses - and theatre artists' opportunities to make change in an unjust world. This book focuses on theatre's impact on both participants and spectators, examining a wide range of contemporary applied and political theatre case studies, engaging with some of the most common forms of theatre used towards the goals of social change, including Theatre of the Oppressed, professional political theatre in performance, community-based theatre, prison theatre, and classroom drama. Theatre of Good Intentions constructs an argument advocating for artists and students to think strategically about the limitations and opportunities of theatre as a medium of social change." (Publisher description)
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"The article aims to provide a more historically grounded approach to the relationship between communication and participation, by distinguishing different waves of media democratization. The article first discusses the concept of participation and some of its complexities, and then sketches a serie
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s of intense moments of participation in and through the media in (mainly the second half) the 20th and the 21st century. At the same time, care is taken not to organize a linear-historical narrative, keeping in mind that the history of the democratization of Western societies and their media spheres is characterized by a series of continuities and discontinuities, dead ends and sedimented practices. Despite these ever-present fluctuations, the article argues that we can still see that structures, cultural resources and subjective dispositions have over time been geared more towards participation and equality, also within the media sphere." (Abstract)
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"Since it emerged, the field of communication for development has undergone a constant process of redefinition. Since the 1990s, the importance of participation in social and communicative processes has been stressed, and studies carried out during those years focused on participation as an importan
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t component to be considered. The so-called community media are privileged forces driving the participatory communication for development approach. Since their emergence and up to the recent studies, community media have been characterised by the centrality of citizenship participation in the creation of widespread messages, and in the processes of social change that they promote." (Abstract)
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"Dance, music, and oral narratives are an important and vibrant part of cultural practice and heritage in Timor-Leste. But while Timorese people have used such creative methods and processes during rituals, celebrations, and their fight for independence, today arts and artistic expression become an
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increasingly popular strategy in development cooperation. Especially different forms of so-called participatory theater with origins in development cooperation, arts, and social movements, present themselves as innovative, participatory, and well applicable in terms of capacity building and stimulating positive social transformation. Based on the author’s experience and observations, this article critically examines the alliance between various stakeholders in Timor-Leste engaging with the fact that the current scene of participatory theater can hardly be seen as an independent grassroots or even social movement, rather than an initiated top-down process by donors with specific agendas." (Abstract)
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"Through two case studies, this paper evaluates the value of the feminist visual methodology Photovoice as an interactive consultation tool with rural Rwandan women working in agriculture. This exploratory study suggests that it is possible, through an adapted Photovoice process, to engage and empow
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er women in the production of information about what is most relevant to them, and reach and engage practitioners and officials through an exhibition of participants' photographs and captions. This confirmation of Photovoice's applicability with rural women in the generation of information that captures the attention of stakeholders demonstrates its potential for reproducibility in other development contexts." (Abstract)
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"This reference manual guides the staff of development or other organisations to encourage individuals (either colleagues or community members) to share their personal stories and include their voices as part of a broader good practice documentation process. While SAfAIDS and Women’sNet focus on u
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sing the techniques to highlight interventions that advocate for HIV and AIDS, women’s rights, gender equality and sexual diversity programmes, the techniques discussed can be readily adapted for use in a variety of development issues." (Page 2)
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"International community development is increasingly using theatre as a tool. This article analyses this use, arguing that for theatre to be successful to support social change and development, participatory practice must be at its core. In exploring this, it looks at what affects theatre’s succes
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s in supporting social change and development and what hinders its use as a tool, and offers suggestions to practitioners and supporting bodies interested in using participatory theatre." (Publisher description)
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"How do students' online literacy practices intersect with online popular culture? In this book scholars from a range of countries including Australia, Lebanon, Nepal, Qatar, South Africa, Turkey, and the United States illustrate and analyze how literacy practices that are mediated through and influ
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enced by popular culture create both opportunities and tensions for secondary and university students. The authors examine issues of theory, identity, and pedagogy as they address participatory popular culture sites such as fan forums, video, blogs, social networking sites, anime, memes, and comics and graphic novels." (Back cover)
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"In recent decades the Maasai of East Africa have undergone substantive cultural change in response to national development efforts. This study uses participant observation, in-depth interviews, and digital photography to better understand the lived experience and development perspectives of Maasai
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women. Through dialog about digital photographs they had taken, Maasai women powerfully articulated their concerns and ideas about development and social change within their communities. Results show that Maasai women have a keen sense of the potential benefits and pitfalls of the social changes they are experiencing, particularly with regards to marriage relationships, gender norms, and education. Implications of the study of participants’ adept use of digital photography to facilitate dialog about development and social change are discussed." (Abstract)
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"The author discusses the challenges of using radio as a tool for community engagement in development. It examines specific case studies from the African continent. The book also considers the different ways governments, organizations, broadcasters and communities can use radio networks as instrumen
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ts of participatory knowledge production, exchange and utilization so as to bring about change and development. Thus, this book is relevant to global discourses on communication and development. It demonstrates how elusive participation can become if implemented without adequate consideration of power relationships within indigenous and local knowledge systems. It proposes that more effective radio for development initiatives should be built on participatory action research, local communication needs, and indigenous knowledge systems. Effective radio should rely on relevant broadcasting technology and infrastructure, and designed to operate independently of donor funds." (Back cover)
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"This article proposes an enhanced model of radio drama for development, which places forum theatre on the community radio platform. The model responds to the key development priorities of democratic, multi-directional communication, participation and social advocacy. It utilizes the mass disseminat
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ion advantages of the radio medium, the distinctive, dialogic qualities of community radio and the democratic and empowering tendencies of forum theatre to propose a prototype for fully participatory radio drama for development. The model was developed and tested during fieldwork at community radio stations in Laos in 2010 and 2011. Forum Theatre on the Air draws on two of the major theoretical paradigms of development communication: participatory communication and entertainment-education. The model creates an argument for a greater integration of these broadly complementary yet parallel hypotheses." (Abstract)
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