This interdisciplinary collection of essays charts intersections between communication/cultural studies and a variety of emergent emancipatory and liberatory discourses. Every essay attempts, in one way or another, to speak to the following questions: What would a theory of liberation look like that is premised on a communication view of the world? How would such a view expand and even redefine our understanding of liberation? Finally, how would such a view enlarge our understanding of what is collectively, communally, and organizationally possible? In other words, the chapters articulate what can be loosely considered a humanist theory of communication and praxis. The goal is to move beyond discourses of liberation that are grounded in essentionalist assumptions and to move the conversation toward an engaged criticism on cultural and social levels that facilitates and encourages progressive action.This edited collection, thus, has as its goal a theory of human liberation grounded in communication as a resource for social and spiritual transformation. The chapters comprise a mix of conceptual and applied studies that interrogate the communicative practices that naturalize our hierarchical world, reifying and stultifying our moral and political imaginations. As an antidote to this problem, the contributors consider the importance of uncertainly and contingency in the development of human potential.Rather than fearing uncertainty and contingency and allowing that fear to control us, contributors argue that we should find within these conditions the source of our humanity and the strength to question and resist unjust social reifications. When we do this, we will rediscover the power of communication and regain an agency and control over our lives. We then can start the difficult but humanizing process of constructing the world anew. Case study exemplars of this construction, thus, are showcased.

From distinguished scholar Donna M. Mertens, this core book provides a framework for making methodological decisions and conducting research and evaluations that promote social justice. The transformative paradigm has emerged from - and guides - a broad range of social and behavioral science research projects with communities that have been pushed to the margins, such as ethnic, racial, and sexual minority group members and children and adults with disabilities. Mertens shows how to formulate research questions based on community needs, develop researcher-community partnerships grounded in trust and respect, and skillfully apply quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods data collection strategies. Practical aspects of analyzing and reporting results are addressed, and numerous sample studies are presented. An ideal core book for graduate courses, or practitioner resource, the book includes: Commentary on the sample studies that explains what makes them transformative. Explanations of key concepts related to oppression, social justice, and the role of research and evaluation. Questions for Thought to stimulate critical self-reflection and discussion. Advance chapter organizers and chapter summaries. The book is intended for graduate students in psychology, education, social work, sociology, and nursing, as well as practicing researchers and program evaluators. It will serve as a core book or supplement in Research Methods, Program Evaluation, and Community Psychology courses.

This open access volume assesses the influence of our changing media environment. Today, there is not one single medium that is the driving force of change. With the spread of various technical communication media such as mobile phones and internet platforms, we are confronted with a media manifold of deep mediatization. But how can we investigate its transformative capability? This book answers this question by taking a non-media-centric perspective, researching the various figurations of collectivities and organizations humans are involved in. The first part of the book outlines a fundamental understanding of the changing media environment of deep mediatization and its transformative capacity. The second part focuses on collectivities and movements: communities in the city, critical social movements, maker, online gaming groups and networked groups of young people. The third part moves institutions and organizations into the foreground, discussing the transformation of journalism, religion, politics, and education, whilst the fourth and final part is dedicated to methodologies and perspectives.

Digital Transformations in Turkey analyzes the genesis, dynamics, and operations of different communication contexts in relation to digital transformations in Turkey. The contributors tackle such topics as the impact of social networking channels like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter and the changing dimensions of social, cultural, and political ideologies. Akdenizli offers a multifaceted and balanced discussion of the role and impact of communication technologies in a country with questionable and blatant freedom of expression violations. This collection will appeal to scholars of communication, new media, and technology in emerging markets.

This volume chronicles the development of communication studies as a discipline, providing a history of the field and identifying opportunities for future growth. Editors Pat J. Gehrke and William M. Keith have assembled an exceptional list of communication scholars who, in the thirteen chapters contained in this book, cover the breadth and depth of the field. Organized around themes and concepts that have enduring historical significance and wide appeal across numerous subfields of communication, A Century of Communication Studies bridges research and pedagogy, addressing themes that connect classroom practice and publication. Published in the 100th anniversary year of the National Communication Association, this collection highlights the evolution of communication studies and will serve future generations of scholars as a window into not only our past but also the field’s collective possibilities.

A transformational approach to conflict argues that conflicts must be viewed as embedded within broader relational patterns and social and discursive structures. Central to this book is the idea that the origins of transformation can be momentary, situational, and small-scale or large-scale and systemic. The momentary involves shifts and meaningful changes in communication and related patterns that are created in communication between people. Momentary transformative changes can radiate out into more systemic levels, and systemic transformative changes can radiate inward to more personal levels. This book engages this transformative framework by bringing together current scholarship that epitomizes and highlights the contribution of communication scholarship and communication-centered approaches to conflict transformation in personal, family, and working relationships and organizational contexts. The resulting volume presents an engaging mix of scholarly chapters, think pieces, and personal experiences from the field of practice and everyday life. The book embraces a wide variety of theoretical and methodological approaches, including narrative, critical, intersectional, rhetorical, and quantitative. It makes a valuable additive contribution to the ongoing dialogue across and between disciplines on how to transform conflicts creatively, sustainably, and ethically.

This volume offers a view of the cultural, interpersonal and family consequences of mobile communication across the globe. The contributors analyse the effects of moble communications on all aspects of life, from the relationship between literacy and the textual features of phones, to the use of ringtones as a form of social exchange.