Activist Strategic Communication for Social Change: A Transnational Case Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Activism

2017 ◽  
Vol 67 (5) ◽  
pp. 702-718 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erica L. Ciszek
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Strategic Communication ◽  
Bisexual And Transgender ◽  
Communication For Social Change

scholarly journals Communication and Action: Re-Reading Habermas in the Age of Activism

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-252
Author(s):  
Magda Pieczka
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Public Relations ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Communication Theory ◽  
Linear Models ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Strategic Communication ◽  
Development Communication ◽  
Communication For Social Change ◽  
Explanatory Mechanism

The combined effects of digital communication technologies, political upheavals around the world, waves of powerful activism and protests have injected a new urgency into communication research. How communication theory is able to respond to this challenge is a matter of discussion, including the question of the adequacy of older theories to the new circumstances. This paper, aims to add to this discussion by returning to Habermas’s pragmatics, one of the 20th century communication classics, to reflect on how communication and other forms of action interact in campaigns for social change in the context of the growing reach of strategic communication and the growing role of social media in activism. This article starts by posing theoretical disjuncture as a problem shared by a number of communication subfields, such as public communication, public relations, communication for social change, and my particular example, development communication. The more recent scholarship, however, has moved away from this state of knowledge. Instead, scholars highlight the need to embrace non-linear models of communication for social change, and appear to embrace hybridity to deal with the theoretical confusion in the field. The analysis presented in this article aims to demonstrate that Habermas’s communication pragmatics works well to explicate complex campaigning practices in a consistent and yet theoretically expansive way. Re-reading Habermas makes it possible also to respond to the call articulated by social movement scholars to move beyond the limits of strategy and to recognize the importance of larger cultural conversations and scripts. Conceptualizing public campaigning as chains of speech acts, defined here as both linguistic and nonlinguistic acts, offers an analytical tool that works across different levels, spaces, and actors involved in social change efforts and that privileges communication as the explanatory mechanism for the contemporary social change praxis. Finally, returning to Habermas’s work underscores the importance of a valid position, rather than a desirable identity, from which to engage with others in the social world. This invites a clear and consistent focus on action and its basis (moral position) rather than on attributions ascribed to organizations and campaigners (identity). The key question thus shifts from ‘Do you like me/trust me sufficiently follow me?’ to a more substantial, ‘Is this a good thing to do?’.

scholarly journals Constructive Advocacy: Positivity and Solutions-Based Information in Activist Communication

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 202
Author(s):  
Erica Ciszek
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Strategic Communication ◽  
Transnational Advocacy ◽  
Journalism Studies ◽  
Advocacy Network ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Opening Up

Drawing from positive psychology and journalism studies, this article proposes constructive advocacy as a theoretical and methodological arena for public interest communications. Through a case study of a transnational advocacy network, this research employs a thematic analysis of in-depth interviews with 40 activists, exploring positivity and solutions-based information for social change. This study contributes to the new body of literature on public interest communications, opening up theoretical and methodological arenas in understanding how activists plan and execute strategic communication.

Traditionalism and politics: A case study of Northern Nigeria

1967 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 509-524 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. J. O. Dudley
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
High Time ◽  
The Political ◽  
Northern Nigeria ◽  
The North ◽  
The Right

In the debate on the Native Authority (Amendment) Law of 1955, the late Premier of the North, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto, replying to the demand that ‘it is high time in the development of local government systems in this Region that obsolete and undemocratic ways of appointing Emirs’ Councils should close’, commented that ‘the right traditions that we have gone away from are the cutting off of the hands of thieves, and that has caused a lot of thieving in this country. Why should we not be cutting (off) the hands of thieves in order to reduce thieving? That is logical and it is lawful in our tradition and custom here.’ This could be read as a defence against social change, a recrudescence of ‘barbarism’ after the inroads of pax Britannica, and a plea for the retention of the status quo and the entrenched privilege of the political elite.

scholarly journals Education for Social Change: The Case of Teacher Education in Wales

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8574
Author(s):  
Rebecca Weicht ◽  
Svanborg R. Jónsdóttir
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Entrepreneurial Education ◽  
Constructive Learning ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
The University ◽  
Action Competence ◽  
Shed Light

Entrepreneurial education offers valuable opportunities for teachers to foster and enhance creativity and action competence, which are also important for sustainability education. The University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) is a leader in the development of entrepreneurial education in teacher education both in Wales and internationally. The objective of this article is to shed light on how an entrepreneurial education approach can help foster social change. The aim of this study is to learn from teacher educators at UWTSD about how they support creativity, innovation, and an enterprising mindset in their learners. A case study approach is applied. By analysing documentary evidence such as module and assignment handbooks, we explore how teacher educators at UWTSD deliver entrepreneurial education for social change. Our findings indicate that UWTSD’s development of entrepreneurial education in teacher training has enabled constructive learning, cultivating creativity and action competence. We provide examples that display how the intentions of the Curriculum for Wales and entrepreneurial education approaches of the UWTSD emerge in practice. These examples show outcomes of the entrepreneurial projects that evince the enactment of social change. The findings also show that the educational policy of Wales supports entrepreneurial education throughout all levels of the educational system.

scholarly journals Addressing Sustainable Social Change for All: Upcycled-Based Social Creative Businesses for the Transformation of Socio-Technical Regimes

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (7) ◽  
pp. 2527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Calvo ◽  
Andrés Morales ◽  
Pedro Núñez-Cacho Utrilla ◽  
José Manuel Guaita Martínez
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Niche Construction ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
Grassroots Organizations ◽  
Global Challenges ◽  
Grassroots Innovations ◽  
Video Case Study

The global challenges caused by socio-economic inequalities, climate change and environmental damage caused to ecosystems, require changes in human behavior at all organizational levels, including companies, governments, communities, and individuals. In this context, it is important to analyse how social and creative companies that work in the fashion and industrial design recycling sector can address sustainable social change. In this paper, we propose an analysis in the countries of the global South. To learn how grassroots innovations can contribute to the development of sustainable strategies, we perform the framework of Technical transitions. We analyze the three main areas of activity that constitute an effective niche construction: social networks, expectations and visions, and learning. A qualitative methodology is used, a video case study with six grassroots organizations in South Africa, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Brazil. The results reflect the important role played by these grassroots innovations, contributing to the development of social and creative recycling companies that address socio-economic and environmental problems.

Women's liberation: A case study of organizations for social change.

1972 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-39
Author(s):  
Francie Ricks ◽  
George Matheson ◽  
Sandra W. Pyke
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Women's Liberation ◽  
Women’S Liberation

Conceptualizing social media sub-platforms: The case of mourning and memorialization practices on Facebook

2021 ◽  
pp. 146144482110357
Author(s):  
Sarit Navon ◽  
Chaim Noy
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
Personal Quality ◽  
Hybrid Nature ◽  
Communicative Functions

This article offers a conceptual framework of Facebook’s sub-platforms: Profiles, Groups, and Pages. We demonstrate the crucially different affordances that these sub-platforms possess, and the various resulting social practices and dynamics that they enable. With mourning and memorialization as a case study, our findings point at emergent practices ranging along a personal-to-public spectrum of communicative functions and media uses: Profiles offer a personal quality, albeit differently for the bereaved’s Profile and the deceased’s Profile; Groups possess a hybrid nature, combining self-expression alongside public aspects, reviving thus premodern bereaved communities; and Pages possess a distinctly public quality, serving as online memorialization centers where the deceased becomes an icon and a resource for mobilizing broad social change. This comparative and integrated approach may be applied productively to other contexts and other social media (sub-)platforms.

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