[Commlist] Call for Proposals: Strategic Communication Management for Development and Social Change: Governance, Sustainability and Participatory Perspectives in Africa

*Call for Chapters (CFP): B**ook Project **(_NB: No payment from 
authors/APC will be required)_*

*Title: Strategic Communication Management for Development and Social 
Change: Governance, Sustainability and Participatory Perspectives in Africa*

**

*Editors: Dr Tsietsi Mmutle*, School of Communication Studies, 
North-West University, South Africa; *Dr Tshepang Molale*, School of 
Communication Studies, North-West University, South Africa;* Dr 
Olebogeng Selebi*, Department of Business Management, University of 
Pretoria, South Africa;* Dr Olanrewaju Olugbenga Akinola*, Department of 
Mass Communication, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Nigeria.**

**

*Background*

In a post-colonial landscape, governments from across the African 
continent are experiencing a myriad of disparate challenges related to 
development and social change (cf. Chambua, 1994; Raheem, Anamuah-Mensah 
& Dei, 2014). At the heart of these challenges, is the need to bring 
about development, rapid urbanisation, as well as the improvement in the 
quality of life for all citizens. However, several stumbling blocks 
stand in the way of this, namely:

·Corruption

·Challenges with management and sustainable use of natural resources

·Conflict

·The debt-crisis and underdevelopment

·Contestation around legitimacy in the democratisation processes 
(including protests, violence and resistance, extremism, extreme poverty 
and famine)

·Pandemics (i.e. Ebola, Malaria and Covid-19)

These issues have adversely affected the achievement of goals related to 
humanitarian upliftment, development and social change for all African 
nations. Consequently, citizen participation lies at the heart of these 
challenges when considering the question of sustainable governance and 
policy development for social change in an African context. To this end, 
various case studies exist where local citizens do not inform 
sustainable development programmes; while the promotion of bottom-up 
development and social change is largely replaced by top-down 
instrumental action approaches and hemispheric communication (cf. 
Williams, 2006; Molale, 2019; Mwesigwa, 2021). For example, in the 
context of South Africa’s citizen participation in local government’s 
Integrated Development Planning processes, Molale (2019) found that 
although community participation is hailed as the communicative 
blueprint for promoting inclusive development and social change for all, 
the problem lies with top-down and modernisation-pronged approaches 
employed by development managers instead of listening to the needs and 
expectations of local community members, who should be at the forefront 
of integrated development planning. Likewise from an East-African 
perspective, Mwesigwa’s (2021) recently discovered various 
practice-based and operational as well as socio-economic challenges, 
such as marginalisation of certain voices in the communities (i.e. 
women), the dominance and favour given to certain elites in communities 
during citizen participation processes, a lack of accountability and 
high levels of corruption as well as a conflict of interests; as 
stumbling blocks towards the enhancement of citizen participation in 
Uganda. While in West-Africa, the findings of Krawczyk & Sweet-Cushman 
(2017) affirm that high levels of citizen engagement and involvement in 
local politics has a direct correlation to and positively impacts good 
governance. The authors further identified that non-active participation 
in local politics is a determinant of corruption and may pose a risk of 
apathy as citizens often disengage in participatory processes if their 
views and perspectives around local development planning are not 
prioritised.

As an attempt that further necessitated the need to expose the 
complementary nature of Strategic Communication Management (SCM) and 
Communication for Development and Social Change (cf. Waisbord, 2014) in 
the pursuit of sustainable solutions to governance problems and 
challenges in an African context; Mmutle (2018) developed a Strategic 
Communication Framework for Participatory Communication aimed at 
addressing inclusive citizenry engagement and public participation in 
governance and sustainability programmes. Although Strategic 
Communication is recognised as a deliberate and purposeful tool for good 
governance, its accentuated value in promoting development and social 
change is yet to be fully explored. This is especially because there are 
no clear, precise and sustainable communication-based strategies, and 
contextual approaches, aimed at addressing social change problems faced 
by governments across the African continent (cf. Otto & Fourie, 2016; 
Mwesigwa, 2021) from a multidisciplinary context.

The objective of this edited volume is to draw insights from scholars 
across the African continent in the fields of Strategic Communication 
Management as well as Communication for Development and Social Change 
by unravelling the complementary nature of scholarship between the two 
fields, through the lens of prevailing governance and sustainability 
challenges facing African countries, today.

In view of the above, scholars interested in African Development, 
Communication for Development and Social Change, as well as Strategic 
Communication are invited to submit proposal aimed at exploring 
different themes, including:

·Communication for social change, Bottom-up Development and Social 
Movements in the local government sphere;

·Strategic Communication in Governance, Planning and Policy reforms;

·On the pragmatics of Hemispheric Communication and deepening 
underdevelopment in the local government context;

·Strategic Management and Participatory Communication in Government 
programs;

·The role of multi-stakeholder partnerships in achieving development 
objectives geared towards good governance in Africa;

·Strategic Communication for Nation-Building and Social Cohesion

·Public participation, protests and resistance from "below";

·Communicating Development and Humanitarian crises facing Africa;

·Public Sector Health Communications and Development;

·Top-down instrumental action versus Dialogic approaches to development 
and social change in Government Communication;

·Media relations, accountability and contested Development narratives 
with the Fourth Estate;

·Social Media and eParticipation in government development programs.

*_The above themes are by no means exhaustive._*

*Submission details:*
Interested contributors are invited to submit an abstract of between 
300-500 words and a short (not more than 300-words) biography to Dr 
Tsietsi Mmutle ((mmutletj /at/ gmail.com) 
<https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/h/1x81p8znjj4r3/?&cs=wh&v=b&to=(mmutletj /at/ gmail.com)>) 
and Dr Bright Molale ((tmolaleb09 /at/ gmail.com) 
<https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/h/1x81p8znjj4r3/?&cs=wh&v=b&to=(tmolaleb09 /at/ gmail.com)>) 
and cc (21804559 /at/ g.nwu.ac.za) 
<https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/h/1x81p8znjj4r3/?&cs=wh&v=b&to=(21804559 /at/ g.nwu.ac.za)>_._

Deadline for abstracts is *14 June 2021*. Notification of abstract 
acceptance or rejection is 0*2 July 2021*. Deadline for submission of 
full chapters is *10 December 2021*. Feedback from reviewers will be 
sent to authors *by 28 February 2022* and revised manuscripts should be 
submitted by *1 April 2022*. The book is earmarked for publication in 
Palgrave Macmillan and a tentative publication date is *30 June 2022. 
**Please note that no payment from authors/APC will be required.*

*References*

Chambua, S.E. 1994. The Development Debates & the Crisis of Development 
Theories: The Case of Tanzania with Special Emphasis on Peasants, State 
& Capital. /In /Himmelstrand, U., Kinyanjui, K., & Mburugu, E. 
/eds./ African Perspectives on Development: Controversies, Dilemmas & 
Openings. Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota Publishers, 37-50.

Krawczyk, K & Sweet-Cushman, J. 2017. Understanding political 
participation in West Africa: the relationship between good governance 
and local citizen engagement. /International review of Administrative 
Sciences/, 83(1):136-155 doi.org/10.1177/0020852315619024 
<http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.1177%2F0020852315619024&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNGpcRv4oXtneMPYoInXl5glqq602g>.

Mmutle, TJ. 2018. /Strategic Communication Management for Governance and 
Sustainability: A Participatory Communication Perspective for Inclusive 
Citizenry Engagement/. Pretoria: University of Pretoria. (Thesis- PhD).

Molale, TB. 2019. Participatory communication in South African municipal 
government: Matlosana local municipality’s Integrated Development Plan 
(IDP) processes. /Communicare, /38(1): 57-75.

Mwesigwa, D. 2021. Towards enhancing local citizen participation in 
Uganda. /Dynamics of Politics and Democracy/, 1(1): 15-28. DOI: 
10.35912/DPD.v1i1.449.

Raheem, K., Anamuah-Mensah, J., & Dei, G.J.S. 2014. Re-Thinking 
Development and Growth Theories for Africa: Issues in the 21^st 
 Century?. /In /Asabere-Ameyaw, A., Anamuah-Mensah, J., Dei, G.S., & 
Raheem, K. /eds. /Indigenist African Development and Related Issues: 
Towards a Transdisciplinary. Perspective. Rotterdam, Netherlands: Sense 
Publishers.

Waisbord, S. 2014. The Strategic Politics of Participatory 
Communication. /In /Wilkins, K.G., Tufte, T., Obregon, R. /ed/s. The 
Handbook of Development Communication and Social Change. Chichester, 
West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 147-167).


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