[ecrea] Future Imperatives of Communication and Information for Development and Social Change kicked off in Brussels. Next stop: Bangkok in December 2010.

>Future Imperatives of Communication and Information for Development
>and Social Change kicked off in Brussels. Next stop: Bangkok in
>December 2010.
>
>The first UNESCO-ORBICOM initiative Future Imperatives of
>Communication and Information for Development and Social Change
>roundtable was held at SIGNIS (the World Catholic Association for
>Communication) Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on 25 May 2010. The
>meeting was attended by representatives of several universities,
>research institutions and policy think-tanks, including the Brussels
>Centre for Journalism Studies (BCJS), Catholic Media Council
>(Germany), European Communication Research and Education Association
>(ECREA), Free University of Brussels (VUB), University of Reading
>(UK), the Kent State University (US), Tilburg University
>(Netherlands), Universite Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), University of
>Massachusetts (US), Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences
>(Netherlands) and Wageningen University (Netherlands).
>
>The roundtable was introduced by Jan Servaes who explained the
>background and objectives of this new initiative. It forms part of a
>series of preparatory and inter-connected roundtables, coordinated by
>ORBICOM-UNESCO Chairs in Communication, across the regions of the
>world to focus the attention of the most experienced and innovative
>information and communication scholars, practitioners and policy-
>makers on the new challenges towards world development and
>sustainability. Strategies and methods will be synthesized in a
>package comprising policy-intent papers, training kits and curricula,
>handbook, and journal articles. The package will define the structure
>of a cohesive and comprehensive international response to the emerging
>threats and challenges that the global community will soon have to
>address in a coherent and systematic fashion.
>The day was organized along the following themes: future imperatives
>regarding (a) ecological and environmental issues, (b) citizen
>participation and governance issues, (c) health and HIV/AIDS issues,
>and (d) multilateral research and development innovation processes.
>Each participant had received an extensive package with documents and
>bibliographies beforehand to prepare for a focused discussion and
>deliberation.
>
>Formal presentations were made by Esther Agyeman-Budu on
>Communicating Corporate Social Responsibility to the Local Community
>Stakeholder: How Good a Job are Corporations Doing?, by Sarah Cardey
>on From Behaviour Change to Social Change. Integrated Communication
>Strategies for HIV/AIDS, and by Loes Witteveen and Rico Lie on
>Embedded Filming for Social Change. Learning about HIV/AIDS and Rural
>Development Professionalism. The presentations were followed by
>lively discussions and mapping exercises which resulted in the
>following conclusions and recommendations for follow-up and action:
>
>-  Develop an identity of communication  link communicators and de-
>fragment the field. A general framework is needed that has some
>universal acceptance for Communication for Sustainable Social Change
>(CSSC).
>
>- More conceptual work is needed to develop specific frameworks for
>different kinds of communication for development. This highlights the
>importance of a contextual analysis (and the time to do it). How to
>integrate other disciplines (such as education and visual literacy)
>and corporate cultures in CSSC?
>
>- Provide a platform/repository of case studies (with failures or
>challenges and success stories).
>
>- The role of communication professionals in development has to be
>clarified. Which are their core competencies and skills, and how do
>they relate to the context/community?
>
>The two top-priorities identified by the participants were:
>
>-    The further development of a web-based and properly refereed
>Clearinghouse on Communication and Information for Development and
>Social Change. Existing projects need to be scrutinized and assessed
>on strict academic quality criteria.
>-    The drafting of a position paper outlining a framework for CSSC,
>which would incorporate an overview of theoretical perspectives,
>focusing on the field rather than discipline(s), and with an elaborate
>comparative assessment of case studies (both success stories and
>failures).
>
>The next roundtable will be held from 20 to 22 December 2010 in
>Bangkok, Thailand. For more details, go to:
>http://203.131.210.100/conference/
>
>Check for regular updates on www.csschange.org
>
>
>
>
>

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