[Commlist] Call for Abstracts: The Handbook of Health Communication in the Global South

Call for Abstracts: The Handbook of Health Communication in the Global South

Editors: Thomas Tufte, Vinod Pavarala, Eliza Govender

Introduction

This Handbook invites and wishes to engage with scholarship from the 
Global South that addresses epistemological and methodological 
advancements, as well as case studies, in health communication, within a 
communication for social change framework that addresses specific global 
health issues. The book will be published in the IAMCR-Wiley 
Blackwell-Wiley series of Global Handbooks in Media and Communication 
Research.

Focus of Handbook

While Western paradigms of thought - both within communication research 
as well as within the field of public health and wellbeing – dominate 
the international discourse, we have in recent years experienced a 
growing focus on the epistemologies of the South. These global south 
approaches to knowledge productions are calling for a need to better 
understand perceptions of health and wellbeing, practices of care from 
the perspective of knowledge systems and worldviews that lie beyond 
those of the dominant paradigms. Similarly, within communication 
research in general, and communication for social change research in 
particular, we have seen strong calls for epistemic freedom and we 
currently see growing visibility of Global South communication 
experiences emanating from community experiences and drawing on local 
knowledge systems and communicative practices. This handbook wishes to 
tap into these new developments in both public health and communication.

When reviewing the political economy of global health, we see how it 
reveals structural inequalities that historically, and still today, 
result in power imbalances, unfair distribution of resources, and, 
consequently, Global South populations being negatively affected. The 
COVID crisis and the struggle for COVID vaccines are a case in point, 
showing how the Global North benefitted to the neglect of populations in 
the more deprived regions of the world.

In practical matters, it is a fact that many public health issues are 
hitting hard on Global South populations. We see this recurrently in 
food security, nutrition, issues of diabetes, migration, health and 
mobilities, health emergencies, and public health challenges emerging 
from climate change.  This handbook wishes to introduce and unpack this 
field of experience, offering insights both into the actual health 
communication experience in these sections in the Global South, but also 
uncover some of the knowledge systems, resources, and practices of 
resilience that feature in these Global South experiences.

The focus of the book is on exploring the scholarship and methodological 
insights that address overall topics such as health disparities, 
tailored health solutions, innovative and community driven strategies, 
use of digital platforms and technologies that align with local 
infrastructures, and decolonial perspectives on health communication 
addressed by examining the power relations that perpetuate health 
inequities.

Some of the key global health issues we wish to include in the volume are:

  * Communicating risks and crises
  * Community health
  * Mental health
  * Popular communication and health
  * Treatment, Care and support in existing and emerging pandemics
  * Health and Wellbeing
  * Migrant health
  * Natural disasters, climate change and impact on health crises
  * Epidemics and Health/Health Crisis and misinformation

Health Communication topics this collection is particularly interested 
in are:

  * African, Asian, Latin American as well as Indigenous perspectives to
    health communication and healthcare
  * Epistemologies from the Global South on health, wellbeing and care
  * Theoretical contributions from the Global South: intersectionality
    of Health Communication, development communication and public health
  * Methodological innovations and centralisation of health in
    communication ecosystems (socio-cultural interactions, with
    communication and media technologies)
  * Decolonising and re-defining health communication
  * Community voices and participatory communication for health:
    processes and practices
  * The political economy of public health and health communication in
    the global south
  * Donor agencies in the public health, health communication and
    development agendas
  * Social justice, activism, and advocacy: Social movements for health
    and wellbeing
  * Communicating structural health inequalities, disparities, and
    change: race, ethnicity, caste, and gender
  * Digitalisation and health communication, health promotion and public
    health
  * Global health communication in the age of A.I.: Perils and 
possibilities
  * Global South health communication experiences from sectors such as
    food security, nutrition, diabetes, migrant health and mobilities,
    health emergencies, and public health challenges emerging from
    climate change.
  * Case studies that demonstrate Global South innovation in evaluation
    and impact of health interventions

Timelines

 1. Abstract Deadline (400-500 words): 12 May 2024.
//

/      To be submitted to one of the editors (emails below) /

 2. Notification of acceptance of abstracts: 22 May 2024

 3. Full chapter Deadline (5000 words): 1 September 2024

Editors of the Handbook:

Eliza Govender, University of KwaZulu-Natal, (Govendere1 /at/ ukzn.ac.za) 
<mailto:(Govendere1 /at/ ukzn.ac.za)>

Vinod Pavarala, Hyderabad University, (vpavarala /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(vpavarala /at/ gmail.com)>

Thomas Tufte, Loughborough University London, (t.tufte /at/ lboro.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(t.tufte /at/ lboro.ac.uk)>

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