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[Commlist] Call for Book Chapters: Communication, Community Engagement and Community Development

Tue Apr 04 07:24:10 GMT 2023




*Call for Book Chapters:*

*Communication, Community Engagement and Community Development:*

*/Role of the Extractive Sector in Africa’s Development Agenda/*

Africa is endowed with enormous natural resources: crude oil and natural gas in Nigeria and Algeria, cobalt and copper in Zambia, bauxite in Guinea, and diamonds and platinum in South Africa, etcetera. For many African nations, the natural resource sectors, otherwise known as the extractive industries, are critical components of the economy, capable of stimulating economic diversification, long-term growth, generational equity, and reduction in inequality and poverty.Since the discovery of oil in Nigeria, the extractive sector has defined Nigeria's socio-economic development, leaving significant governance and social development challenges in its wake. Diamonds, coltan, cobalt and copper from the Congo DRC have triggered armed conflict and political instability in the country's East. Botswana, in contrast, has primarily attributed its extraordinary success in transitioning from an impoverished colony to a flourishing middle-income nation in less than 50 years to the effective management of its natural resources. Similarly, exploiting Mozambique's coal and gas reserves has stimulated inclusive development, significantly reducing the scars of the nation's post-independence conflicts. Therefore, natural resources can become a blessing or curse depending on how their proceeds are applied to drive the development agendas of host communities and nations.

However, the pace of economic development in Africa does not reflect the size or potential of its natural resources. That is primarily due to the failure to implement appropriate policies and establish strong institutions to manage the natural resource wealth. Beyond the systemic weaknesses, other factors contribute to the gap between natural resource endowments and community development in Africa. Among these factors is the inability of businesses in the extractive sector to effectively engage and communicate with their host communities to agree on expectations and a mutually beneficial development agenda. These communication challenges have led to avoidable conflicts and frustrations for stakeholders, especially companies, host communities and governments. The mismatch between the expectations of the host communities and the multinationals operating in the extractive sector in Africa disrupts the process of expanding investments in the industry and catalyzing community development with natural resource wealth.

While some organizations in the industry have done well in optimizing community engagement, others are still struggling to devise a win-win engagement strategy. Their efforts are militated by these host communities' polyglossic and heteroglossic characteristics, especially in Nigeria's Niger Delta region and the Congo DRC. This situation has necessitated a shift in approach as these organizations continuously devise strategies to facilitate a seamless and mutually beneficial communication approach towards engaging their host communities.

The question then arises as to how best to engage and obtain the cooperation of host communities with diverse tendencies and limitless expectations in a rapidly changing but interconnected world. The proposed book seeks to interrogate the foundational theories at the intersection of communication, community engagement and community development; the diverse approachs to engaging host communities in Africa’s extractive industry; the benefits and policy imperatives; and how these coalesce to stimulate continental economic growth.

*Recommended Themes*

1.Community Engagement in Community Development.

2.Challenges of Community Engagement in a Digitized World.

3.Local culture and Community Engagement.

4.Community Engagement and deliberative dialogue.

5.Considering the Muted Groups in Community Engagement.
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6.Revisiting Media Ecology in Community Engagement.

7.Participatory Approaches to Engagement.

8.Sustained Engagement and Participatory Culture.

9.Strengthening Community Engagement for Sustainable Development.

10.Community Engagement and Stakeholder Management.

11.Community Engagement: Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Decolonization.

12.Communication, Community Engagement and Knowledge Mobilization.

13.Community Engagement, Extractive Industries and Policy Imperatives.

14.Approaches to Community-Based Research.

15.Communication and Engaging Marginalised Communities.

16.Agitations, Media Activism and Community Engagement.

Interested authors are invited to submit a whole original chapter of up to 7,500 words, including references, or an abstract of 250-300 words, with a short biography of 75 words for all authors. The entire chapter must generally demonstrate the proposed chapters' theoretical and empirical foundations. At the same time, the abstract should succinctly state the aim of the study, the theoretical/conceptual framework, and the methodological approaches used. All submissions should be forwarded to Prof. Silk Ugwu Ogbu ((sogbu /at/ pau.edu.ng)) and Alakwe Kizito Ogedi, PhD ((kalakwe /at/ pau.edu.ng)) on or before May 05, 2023.

*Note that no payment from the authors will be required.*


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