"Pluriverse contains over 100 essays on transformative initiatives and alternatives to the currently dominant processes of globaloized development, including its structural roots in modernity, capitalism, state domination, and masculinist values. It offers critical essays on mainstreaming solutions
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that 'greenwash' development, and presents radically different worldviews and practices from around the world that point to an ecologically wise and socially just world." (Back cover)
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"Building on the work of Robert Chambers and Arturo Escobar, 'Communicating development with communities' is an empirically grounded critical reflection on how the development industry defines, im
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agines and constructs development at the implementation level. Unpacking the dominant syntax in the theory and practice of development, the book advocates a move towards relational and indigenous models of living that celebrate local ontologies, spirituality, economies of solidarity and community-ness. It investigates how subaltern voices are produced and appropriated, and how well-meaning experts can easily become oppressors. The book propounds a pedagogy of listening as a pathway that offers a space for interest groups to collaboratively curate meaningful development with and alongside communities." (Back cover)
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"Discourses of development in academic institutions must be thoroughly investigated. Using a set of Development Communication (DevCom) syllabi and the theories of Xu Xiaoge (2009) and Arturo Escobar
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(1995), this paper qualitatively investigated on the nature and process of the constructed discourse of development in an academic setting from sample course syllabi content, topics and activities. Results have shown that the syllabi's content and discourse are either pro-process or pro-participation development. Moreover, the set of studied syllabi have not actively articulated the post-development paradigm. The research suggests that faculty members who teach the course revisit the constructs of DevCom by constantly including development in the content, putting the discourse of alternatives to development, and theorising on the paradigm of development communication to further establish the field." (Abstract)
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"To reshape the field of development communication, Redeveloping Communication for Social Change proposes situating theory and practice within contexts of power, recognizing both the ability of dominant groups to control and the potential for marginal communities to resist. Contributors from communi
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cation and anthropology explore the global and institutional structures within which agencies construct social problems and interventions, the discourse guiding the normative climate for conceiving and implementing projects, and the practice of strategic interventions for social change. Examining early and emerging models of development, power dynamics, ethnographic approaches, gender issues, and information technologies, they speculate how a framework accounting for power might contribute toward new directions and applications in the field. Instead of mourning the demise of development communication, this volume should provoke critical debate that will help us change our approaches to meet new challenges." (Publisher description)
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