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, Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, 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@gmail.com) and Dr Bright Molale (tmolaleb09@gmail.com) and cc 21804559@g.nwu.ac.za.

Deadline for abstracts is 14 June 2021. Notification of abstract acceptance or rejection is 02 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.

Mmutle, TJ. 2018. Strategic Communication Management for Government 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. eds. The Handbook of Development Communication and Social Change. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 147-167).

Are you a journalism educator? If so, we would very much like to invite you to complete a short survey aiming to assess your awareness of the impact of trauma assignments on journalists and your attitudes towards embedding trauma literacy into the journalism curriculum. The survey will take about 10 mins to complete, and your help would be very much appreciated. 

Please click on the link below to participate and we would encourage you to forward the survey to any of your colleagues.  

https://lincoln.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/impacts-of-trauma-assignments-on-journalists

Let us tell you a little bit more about this project and its aims. This survey is conducted by the newly launched Journalism Education and Trauma Research Group (JETREG), based at the University of Lincoln, UK, with membership from journalism scholars and practitioners from universities across the world. We were brought together by our shared concern about a possible failure of duty of care by journalism educators in not offering opportunities to journalism students to develop skills which may reduce risk to their personal and professional wellbeing. Evidence shows that an increasing number of journalists are disclosing personal histories of work-related emotional, professional and social adjustment difficulties including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other reactions evoked by what they have been exposed to. Our survey aims to examine the experience and attitude of journalism educators to work-related risks, especially when it comes to the practicalities of embedding material about traumatic stressors and their effects in journalism education.  

For any enquiries, or if you wish to join the network and find out more about our work, please contact Ola Ogunyemi, the JETREG, network convenor via oogunyemi@lincoln.ac.uk  

We are delighted to announce the publication of our new edited volume, titled Re-Imagining Communication in Africa and the Caribbean: Global South Issues in Media, Culture and Technology. The book brings together a selection of 22 scholars from the two regions, to provide critical explorations of people and media in their diverse engagements with culture, communication and technology in the 11 countries represented.

Details of the book can be found at the following link:

https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030541682

With change and reform at its core, this book traverses the domains of new media and traditional culture, music as resistance, reforms to communication theory, resisting colonial and imperial legacies, advocating journalistic renewal, and exploring new corporate and cultural strategies, among others. It covers print journalism, broadcast radio and television, digital media, popular music, and video games—in a range of national and cultural contexts.

The book also pays particular attention to the role of media and technology in the experiences of disadvantaged or under-represented groups, including women and indigenous communities. 

The editors are Hopeton Dunn, Dumisani Moyo, William Lesitaokana and Shanade Bianca Barnabas. Early endorsements of the book were provided by Professor Tawana Kupe, Media Scholar and Vice Chancellor of University of Pretoria; and Professor Rupert Lewis, Pan African Scholar and Emeritus Professor of Political Thought at the University of the West Indies.

Chapter contributors to the book include Melville Cooke of Jamaica, Herman Wasserman of South Africa, Anthony Gunde and Victor Chikaipa of Malawi, Hagos Nigussie of Ethiopia, Carol Munoz Nieves of Cuba, Shanade Bianca Barnabas and Itunu Bodunrin of South Africa, Daina Nathaniel of Trinidad and Tobago, Nicola Bidwell based in Namibia, William Lesitaokana and Seamogano Mosanako of Botswana, Parkie Mbozi of Zambia, Rachel van der Merwe of South Africa, Lloyd Waller and Nicola Satchell of Jamaica, Musonda Kapatamoyo of Zambia based in the US, Nova Gordon Bell of Jamaica, Collen Chambwera of Zimbabwe, Paul Chiudza Banda of Malawi, Dumisani Moyo of Zimbabwe, based in South Africa, and Hopeton Dunn of Jamaica, based in Botswana.

According to early reviewers, these scholars engaged critically with the central issues of how we communicate, produce, resist, reform, entertain, and build communities in early 21st-century Africa and the Caribbean.

Hopeton, Dumi, William and Shanade. :
E-mail:sbbarnabas@uj.ac.zaWebsite:www.uj.ac.za

Film Analysis Competition

You could win R10 000 with the acclaimed Karoo Sci-Fi film – WESENS!

The South African Karoo Sci-Fi film WESENS is bringing film lovers a first-of-its-kind film analysis competition where they can win big cash prizes.

The creative agency The Suits and LitNet are looking for a critical analysis of WESENS, the award-winning Karoo science-fiction film that was released in South African cinemas in October last year and that is now available exclusively on BoxOffice by DStv.

They ask for more than a conventional movie review. What they are looking for is a critical analysis where you examine the film and share your insights and interpretation of the themes and symbolism within it.

You do not have to recount the plot of the film, rather focus your analysis on how the metaphors, analogies and cinematic techniques that was used, add to your interpretation of the themes, symbolism and ultimate message of the film. 

The competition is open to pupils, students and film lovers. The critical analysis of the film must be between 500 and 1 200 words and entries must be emailed with the subject line: “Wesens” to Izak de Vries at LitNet – izak@litnet.co.za

Cash prizes include a R10 000 first prize, a R3 000 second prize and a R2 000 third prize. Entries have to reach LitNet on or before 9 May 2021 to be eligible for a prize.

What is also, very exciting, is that one of the judges for this unique film analysis competition is the renowned South African author and film critic, Leon van Nierop! 

Visit LitNet or WESENS for more information. We look forward to reading your interpretation of the first South African Karoo Sci-Fi film – WESENS!

Watch the DStv BoxOffice trailer of WESENS here.

Due to drastic cuts in UK overseas development aid, researchers working with Global Challenges funding are being informed this month their funding has been revoked or curtailed.  UK partnerships which have been built with Global South researchers over many years are being drastically affected.  UK-led climate-facing research, in particular, is being shut down or disrupted in the run-up to COP26. 

Please consider adding your name to the open letter at the following link, which calls for reversal of this decision and an opportunity for the UK to sustain its profile in leading research to tackle global challenges.  The letter will be sent to Dominic Raab and Rishi Sunak on 18th March and an effort is being made to publish it in a national newspaper. 

Thank you for your support.  

Chris Paterson, Leeds.

The open letter is here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wdIcqido2EfInzT9ZT4n-idgKdbUuNy7JxiUnbfwrh0/preview?pru=AAABeF6DeFk*X1n9RX4zWsdFcIchWVFaXQ

You can add your name to the letter here: 

https://forms.gle/9PLbn3mrghegcDcy9

(Deadline: 31.05.2021)

Dear Colleagues,

We hereby invite you to submit an abstract for the session “Digital Methods in Action: Use, Challenges and Prospects”, organized by Gabriel Faimau and Jannis Hergesell (Botswana and Germany) at the Online-Conference “1st International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Spatial Methods” (SMUS Conference) and “1st RC33 Regional Conference – Africa: Botswana” in cooperation with ESA RN21 “Quantitative Methods” 23 – 26.09.2021, organised and hosted online by the University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana. The deadline for submission is 31.05.2021. Please find details on the session, the conference and the submission process below.

Kind Regards,
Gabriel Faimau (University of Botswana, Botswana) and Nina Baur (TU Berlin, Germany) (Conference Organizers)

Session “Digital Methods in Action: Use, Challenges and Prospects

Session Organizers: Gabriel Faimau and Jannis Hergesell (Botswana and Germany)

The emergence of digital methods has presented various ways of studying and understanding digital phenomena in general as well as online and internet-related research in particular. This includes studies of online archived objects, online spatial analysis, social media and social networking, online network mapping, and various online social, political, economic and cultural references. Internet and online environment researchers have lately focused on addressing the following issues: How digital methods provide tools to respond to the challenge of Big Data on the one hand and how digital methods provide a base for what scholars call “online groundedness” in order to examine various socio-political change and cultural conditions shaped by online dynamics and constellations on the other? These digital methods widen the scope of researchers and change research practices and subjects fundamentally. However, this also raises “classical” questions of empirical social research: How are sampling strategies, data collection and methodological procedures changing? Do conventional quality criteria need to be adapted or supplemented? This session provides a unique platform to reflect on practical use of digital methods in various research fields and map out frameworks for exploring new possibilities for online social science research as well as encourage critical discussions on recent trends in the field of digital methods. We invite papers that address ways of doing and using digital methods, including but not limited to:Internet research and methodological innovation: Digital methods of social media research. Digital methods in studies of online political discourses and participation. Ethics and questions of digital research. Practical use and challenges of doing digital research and methods. Mixing methods in researching digital landscape. Insights from dealing with Big Data. Techniques and challenges of online data collection. Interdisciplinary cooperation between technical and social sciences on digital methods. Enhancement of “established” research designs by digital methods. Online participatory action research.

Submission of Papers

All sessions have to comply with the conference organization rules (see below). If you want to present a paper, please submit your abstract via the official conference website: https://gcsmus.org until 31.05.2021. You will be informed by 31.07.2021, if your proposed paper has been accepted for presentation at the conference. For further information, please see the conference website or contact the session organizers, Gabriel Faimau and Jannis Hergesell (faimaug@ub.bw; Jannis.hergesell@tu- berlin.de).

About the Conference

The “Global Center of Spatial Methods for Urban Sustainability” (GCSMUS) together with the Research Committee on “Logic and Methodology in Sociology” (RC33) of the “International Sociology Association” (ISA) and the Research Network “Quantitative Methods” (RN21) of the European Sociology Association” (ESA) will organize a “1st International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Spatial Methods” (“SMUS Conference”) which will at the same time be the “1st RC33 Regional Conference – Africa: Botswana” from Thursday 23.09 – Sunday 26.09.2021, hosted by the University of Botswana in Gaborone, Botswana. Given the current challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference will convene entirely online. The conference aims at promoting a global dialogue on methods and should attract methodologists from all over the world and all social and spatial sciences (e.g. area studies, architecture, communication studies, educational sciences, geography, historical sciences, humanities, landscape planning, philosophy, psychology, sociology, urban design, urban planning, traffic planning and environmental planning). Thus, the conference will enable scholars to get in contact with methodologists from various disciplines all over the world and to deepen discussions with researchers from various methodological angles. Scholars of all social and spatial sciences and other scholars who are interested in methodological discussions are invited to submit a paper to any sessions of the conference. All papers have to address a methodological problem.

Please find more information on the above institutions on the following websites:

• ‒  “Global Center of Spatial Methods for Urban Sustainability” (GCSMUS): https://gcsmus.org and www.mes.tu-berlin.de/spatialmethods
• ‒  ISA RC33: http://rc33.org/
• ‒  ESA RN21: www.europeansociology.org/research-networks/rn21-quantitative-methods
• ‒  University of Botswana in Gaborone: www.ub.bw

If you are interested in getting further information on the conference and other GCSMUS activities, please subscribe to the GCSMUS newsletter by registering via the following website: https://lists.tu-berlin.de/mailman/listinfo/mes-smusnews

Rules for Session Organization (According to GCSMUS Objectives and RC 33 Statutes)

1. There will be no conference fees.
2. The conference language is English. All papers therefore need to be presented in English.
3. All sessions have to be international: Each session should have speakers from at least two countries (exceptions will need good reasons).
4. Each paper must contain a methodological problem (any area, qualitative or quantitative).
5. There will be several calls for abstracts via the GCSMUS, RC33 and RN21 Newsletters. To begin with, session organizers can prepare a call for abstracts on their own initiative, then at a different time, there will be a common call for abstracts, and session organizers can ask anybody to submit a paper.

1. GCSMUS, RC33 and RN21 members may distribute these calls via other channels. GCSMUS members and session organizers are expected to actively advertise their session in their respective scientific communities.
2. Speakers can only have one talk per session. This also applies for joint papers. It will not be possible for A and B to present at the same time one paper as B and A during the same session. This would just extend the time allocated to these speakers.
3. Session organizers may present a paper in their own session.
4. Sessions will have a length of 90 minutes with a maximum of 4 papers or a length of 120 minutes with a maximum of 6 papers. Session organizers can invite as many speakers as they like. The number of sessions depends on the number of papers submitted to each session. E.g. if 12 good papers are submitted to a session, there will be two sessions with a length of 90 minutes each with 6 papers in each session.
5. Papers may only be rejected for the conference if they do not present a methodological problem (as stated above), are not in English or are somehow considered by session organizers as not being appropriate or relevant for the conference. Session organizers may ask authors to revise and resubmit their paper so that it fits these requirements. If session organizers do not wish to consider a paper submitted to their session, they should inform the author and forward the paper to the local organizing team who will find a session where the paper fits for presentation.
6. Papers directly addressed to the conference organising committee (and those forwarded from session organizers) will be offered to other session organizers (after proofing for quality). The session organizers will have to decide on whether or not the paper can be included in their session(s). If the session organizers think that the paper does not fit into their session(s), the papers should be sent back to the conference organizing committee as soon as possible so that the committee can offer the papers to another session organizer.