This completely revised edition builds on the framework provided by the earlier text. It traces the history of development communication, presents and critiques diverse approaches and their proponents, and provides ideas and models for development communication in the new century.

This book applies a systematic communication perspective to the 40 plus years of development experience in the world. The communication perspective demonstrates that the role of commuincation in development is not limited to media technologies or to the economies of mass media, it is a way of thinking about the interaction among all development agents involved. It is an analytical review of development therories and practice both from international and India perspectives.

Re-imagining Development Communication in Africa is organized into three sections or parts, the first focusing on the past and the history of development communication scholarship; the second analyzes theoretical issues, and finally a third section that looks at country cases. The first part provides several perspectives on the historical development of the field as it pertains to Africa. Some of these look at ideological, indigenous contributions, and the particular importance of gender issues. The second section provides a critique of development communication theory and provides a more cultural appropriate alternative. Additionally, the book applies existing theory to practice in African communities. This leads to the third section of the book which focuses on development communication in some country cases such as in Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, and Rwanda.

Development theory and practice are often taught in a manner that strips them of their historical context and obscures alternative intellectual assumptions and critical frameworks. This prevents students from acquiring a holistic understanding of the world and consequently, when it comes to development practice, most lack the skills to live and engage with people. It has become crucial to properly consider what it means to conceive and implement participatory development out in the field and not just in the boardroom. Building on the work of Robert Chambers and Arturo Escobar, Communicating Development with Communities is an empirically grounded critical reflection on how the development industry defines, imagines and constructs development at the implementation level. Unpacking the dominant syntax in the theory and practice of development, the book advocates a move towards relational and indigenous models of living that celebrate local ontologies, spirituality, economies of solidarity and community-ness. It investigates how subaltern voices are produced and appropriated, and how well-meaning experts can easily become oppressors. The book propounds a pedagogy of listening as a pathway that offers a space for interest groups to collaboratively curate meaningful development with and alongside communities. This is a valuable resource for academics and practitioners in the fields of Development Studies, Communication for Development, Communication for Social Change, Social Anthropology, Economic Development and Public Policy. Foreword by Robin Mansell.

International development stakeholders harness communication with two broad purposes: to do good, via communication for development and media assistance, and to communicate do-gooding, via public relations and information. This book unpacks various ways in which different efforts to do good are combined with attempts to look good, be it in the eyes of donor constituencies at large, or among more specific audiences, such as journalists or intra-agency decision-makers. Development communication studies have tended to focus primarily on interventions aimed at doing good among recipients, at the expense of examining the extent to which promotion and reputation management are elements of those practices. This book establishes the importance of interrogating the tensions generated by overlapping uses of communication to do good and to look good within international development cooperation. The book is a critical text for students and scholars in the areas of development communication and international development and will also appeal to practitioners working in international aid who are directly affected by the challenges of communicating for and about development.

This valuable resource offers a wealth of practical and conceptual guidance to all those engaged in struggles for social justice around the world. It explains in accessible language and painstaking detail how to deploy and to understand the tools of media and communication in advancing the goals of social, cultural, and political change. A stand-out reference on a vital topic of primary international concern, with a rising profile in communications and media research programs Multinational editorial team and global contributors Covers the history of the field as well as integrating and reconceptualising its diverse perspectives and approaches Provides a fully formed framework of understanding and identifies likely future developments Features a wealth of insights into the critical role of digital media in development communication and social change