Master of Advanced Studies in
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

In this course, we will begin with an overview of the literature on social change communication. We will examine how social change communication is defined, the frameworks of social change communication, and the methodological anchors for communication for social change. This overview will offer the basis for introducing the culture-centered approach to communication for social change, walking through the key concepts of the CCA, the role of social change communication from the global margins, and the transformative power of communication for social change when grounded in the voices of the margins. The course will critically interrogate the dominant ideas of development and situate these ideas in the backdrop of community voices at the global margins.

The focus of the course is to analyze the complex relationship between the concerned actors and stakeholders. Development cooperation and humanitarian action, most often, bring together actors and stakeholders from different cultural backgrounds. Their relationships are complex, not only on account of this cultural diversity but also because of the ‘awkward nature’ of the relations between recipient and donors of official development assistance (ODA) compounded by differences of power and wealth, of historical experiences as well as by different goals and time horizons.

Topics

Part 1
A theoretical framework for social change communication;
Dominant structures, development communication, and social change;
Cultural anchors for social change communication;
Voice, subalternity, and erasure;
Listening, dialogue, infrastructures of communication;
Projects of social change communication;
Activism and social movements.

Part 2
The international environment of humanitarian action and international development cooperation;
The architecture of international development cooperation and of humanitarian action: key concepts, approaches, actors, and instruments;
Recipient and donors.

Faculty