Guest professor: Karin Wilkins

Professor Karin Wilkins, University of Texas, Austin, is guest professor at Roskilde University 6-19 September 2009. She will participate in the PhD course on mediated communication initiatives 8-10 September. On 12 September Karin Wilkins will lecture in Malmö (see below).

Professor Wilkins will give an open lecture in the Ørecomm Open Seminar series at RUC on Monday 7 September at 13:15 in room 42.2.37 (slides available here as pdf):

Changing Communication for Social Change
Having suffered some well deserved blows, “development communication” as a field of scholarship and practice has been transitioning in approach and in name to “communication for social change.” At this critical juncture, it is time not only for appreciation of this transition, but also for critical reflection on potential future paths for this field. Following a brief overview of how central issues in the field have changed over time, I consider continuity and change in our current approaches. In many ways, dominant ideological approaches to development still prevail within larger bilateral institutions, whereas more alternative approaches find more possibilities in flexible nonprofit and nongovernmental institutions, nurtured through dialogues across and within practitioners and academics. Changes within our attempts to promote social change are not linear though, as suggested in models of societal transition from so-called “tradition” to “modernity,” but rather ebb and flow in relation to the agendas and practices of communities and institutions negotiating communication practices within political-economic structures. I will conclude with some questions for us to consider as we work toward improving our potential to create better strategies for “social change,” such as what themes and approaches become excluded from these parameters.

Professor Wilkins will also lecture on a similar theme at Malmö University’s Communication for Development programme (in K3) on Saturday 12 September, 9:30-12:00, room: U521. See the full ComDev seminar programme here (in the left menu, click on Seminars). Note in the seminar programme that on Friday 11 September at 13:00 you may follow professor Thomas Hylland Eriksen’s lecture on Globalization. Both lectures are webcast (register before!).