Seminar 4 May 2010 - Communicating for Social
Change: Lessons learnt from public health - Call for posters and papers.
Venue: University of Copenhagen, Fiolstræde 4-6,
1st floor ('Metro 8'), Copenhagen.
Seminar organized jointly by Glocal NOMAD, Danish AIDSNet, ADRA and ENRECA.
Introduction
A critical academic debate has in recent years
been growing as to the possibilities and
limitations of communication interventions in
the health sector. The critique has addressed
several issues: shortcomings in the
understanding of health as too biomedical; but
equally important - a critique of the
limitations in the way health communication
practitioners conceive of communication as too
instrumental and with too limited a focus on
individual behaviour change, not taking the
complexity of the health challenges into
consideration in communication interventions.
These debates have led to a fundamental
rethinking of the theory and practice of health
communication. This comes simultaneously with
the proliferation of public and academic
attention to public health and to the need of
health communication as a central discipline in
public health, and consequently as a scientific
field. Thus, at the heart of this debate lies
the tension between theory and practice in health communication.
The discussions of strengths and weaknesses in
health communication have to a large extent been
tied to the fight against HIV and AIDS. In
response to the complexity of the HIV and AIDS
problem, communication responses have
increasingly focused on the structural
determinants of health, and thus communication
for social change has emerged and grown as an
approach to health challenges in general and HIV
and AIDS in particular. A growing number of
scholars have in recent years contributed in
innovative ways to the production of new
knowledge, gaining new insights into the
complexity of the communication challenge
surrounding HIV and AIDS but also beyond this
theme specificity. A growing range of health
related topics, such as polio, tuberculosis,
malaria, alcoholism, domestic violence, disaster
management and conflict resolution have been
engaging in innovative (health) communication
practices and analyses. Some of these
experiences are those we wish to focus upon with this seminar.
It is in this context this seminar invites you
to discuss some of these innovations. We wish to
present this recent knowledge production and
relate the generated insights to the challenges
of health communication practitioners in NGOs,
in bilateral programmes and in international
agencies. Additionally, while having both
practitioners and academics share their
experiences, the seminar will also connect these
discussions to a policy debate and to a debate
about how to improve and qualify the role of
health communication in the work of
international development cooperation.
Therefore, Danida is invited to participate in the closing panel debate.
Program
Morning: Opening Lectures
8.30 Arrival, registration and coffee
9.00 Welcome by Glocal NOMAD and ADRA.
9.30 "Pushing the Boundaries of Health
Communication: Trends and Challenges"
Rafael Obregon, Associate Professor, Ohio University, USA.
10.15 "Innovative approaches to community
development-combining mass media with grassroots organization"
Thuli Shongwe, Soul City, South Africa.
11.00 Coffee Break
11.15 "Health Communication: from individual
behaviour change to civil society development and participatory governance."
Thomas Tufte, Professor, Roskilde University.
12.00 Poster Session
13.00 Lunch
Afternoon: Presentations of innovative health communication experiences
16.00 Panel Debate: Danida, AIDSNet, Enreca
Health-Danish Reserch Network for International Health
Call for Posters and Papers for Presentation:
All interested persons are invited to create a
poster based on their own research or work
experience in the field of health communication.
Selected posters will be displayed during the
seminar poster session. Printing assistance will
be provided by Enreca-Health if required. We are
also inviting papers related to communication
for social change in the public health arena for
presentation in the afternoon session of the
seminar. Participants wishing to discuss their
practice-based research are also invited to
present work in progress as well as completed projects.
Please send a one page abstract of your poster
or presentation paper idea by the 6th of April
to (nikita /at/ ruc.dk) at Roskilde University.
Registration: Participants are requested to
register at www.glocalnomad.net Registration Deadline: 25 April, 2010.
For any queries please email (nikita /at/ ruc.dk)
--
Nikita Junagade
Project Assistant / Projektmedarbejder
Media, Empowerment & Democracy in East Africa (MEDIeA)
and Glocal Network on Media and Development (Glocal NOMAD)
Roskilde Universitetscenter Institut for
kommunikation, virksomhed og
informationsteknologier Universitetsvej 1, bygn.
44.3 Postboks 260 4000 Roskilde
email: (nikita /at/ ruc.dk)
