Social Movements, Media, and Social Change: Looking Back at the Gezi Uprisings

“In recent years, all around the world, albeit in different ways, we have been experiencing the simultaneous crisis of neoliberal politics, severe measures taken against the crisis, and the growing authoritarian regime of many governments. Ecological destruction, the privilege of capital over the interests of cities, and economic crises affect people in many regions of the world in a similar manner. However, as the rates of oppression and extortion increase, we see that the waves of uprising in the world have also started to rise at the same level.” (more…)

Weekend’s Food for Thought

This week we discuss an impact through innovation in education, healthcare and humanitarian work.  Also have a look at what responsible data is all about and how major media distorts crisis in Nepal.

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Communicambio2015: Discussing the post-Indignados era

Thomas Tufte, the co-director of Ørecomm, shares his impressions from Comunicambio2015, International Congress on Communication, Civil Society and Social Change, which took place in the University of Castellón.

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Tobias Denskus: Development Communication is Witness to Injustice

This week we talk with Tobias Denskus, a Senior Lecturer in Communication for Development at Malmø University and a member of Ørecomm community about prospects of the aid industry, a new generation of potential comdev professionals and practices that can have an actual impact.

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African Media in a Global Age

The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the University of Cape Town (UCT)  offer the 3rd LSE-UCT July School on 29 June-10 July 2015. This innovative two-week programme provides students, graduates and professionals from across the globe an opportunity to study important social sciences issues relevant to Africa today. The programme is taught by faculty from the University of Cape Town and LSE, two of the world’s leading institutions for teaching and research.

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New Issue of Glocal Times

Glocal Times is a web magazine published by Malmö University’s Master in Communication for Development, co-edited by Ørecomm participants Oscar Hemer, Florencia Enghel and Rebecca Bengtsson. A new issue of Glocal Times, Issue No. 20, was released last month.

“Amidst what may be described as a flurry of activity, Issue No. 20 of Glocal Times once again engages with communication for development from a threefold perspective: as a field of study, as professional practice and as an institutional project,” says Florencia Enghel when she presents the new issue.

Read her introduction to the new number below, or visit www.glocaltimes.se for the full issue.

“Nine months have passed since the publication of Issue No. 19 of Glocal Times, and in the meantime there has been plenty of activity within the field. (more…)

Open Seminar: Communication for Social and Environmental Change, Guelph 22-23 May

In less than two weeks the second seminar in the Glocal Classroom project is kicking off. This time in Guelph, Canada, under the title “Communication for Social and Environmental Change.” The programme will include speakers, panel discussions, radio broadcasts, student posters and interactions among academics and practitioners for critical reflection on communication and media for social and environmental change.

Themes that will be discussed include:

• Community engagement in rural and remote areas of Canada
• Participatory video and filmmaking
• Journalism within the community and international development context
• Community informatics and the use of information and communication technologies for teaching and learning globally

Have a look at the full programme here.

When? 22-23 May 2014
Where? Live-streamed at www.glocalclassroom.wordpress.com/video/

Thomas Tufte

ttufte@ruc.dk Professor of Media and Communication Studies School of Media, Communication and Sociology University of Leicester @ttufte21

Since 2004 I have been a professor in communication at Roskilde University. In 2008 I was, along

with Oscar Hemer, the co-founder of Ørecomm Centre for Communication and Glocal Change.

This has beenb my base in the past quite many years. Currently I also serve as a senior research

associate with University of Johannesburg, South Africa (2013-2016).

With a background in cultural sociology (MA, 1989) and media studies (PhD, 1995) my research

stretches from qualitative audience research over health communication to a broad spectrum of

issues within communication for development and social change. I worked for many years with

Latin America questions, but the past 10-15 years my focus has been mainly on Sub-saharan Africa

although I do still collaborate also with Latin American universities. Currently, I am the principal

investigator of the Nordic-Kenyan research project: ‘Critical Perspectives on New Media and Social

Change in the Global South’ (2013-2016). Theoretically, I am these years very interested in the

intersections between social movement theory, media and communication theory and development

theory.

Work history

Professor of Communication for Development, Roskilde University (2004-)

Associate Professor at Department of International Health, Univ. of Copenhagen (2003-2004)

UNESCO Chair of Communication, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (Jan-May 2003)

Visiting Scholar, Rhodes University, South Africa (Sept-Nov 2002)

Associate Professor (1999-2002) at Department of Film and Media Studies, Univ. of Copenhagen

Assistant Professor (1996-1999) at Department of Film and Media Studies, Univ. of Copenhagen

Junior Professional Officer at UNDP in Paraguay 1994-1996

Information and communication officer at Danchurchaid, 1990-1993

Recent Books

– Tufte, T, (2015). Comunicación para el cambio social. La participación y el empoderamiento

como base en el desarrollo mundial. Barcelona: Icária, Antrazyt Collections.

– A.H.Hansen, O. Hemer & T. Tufte (eds). 2015. Memory on Trial: Media, Citizenship and Social

Justice. Berlin and London: LIT Verlag.

– K.Wilkins, T.Tufte & R.Obregon (eds). 2014. Handbook in Development Communication and

Social Change, USA: Blackwell Wiley.

– T.Tufte, N.Wildermuth, A. Hansen-Skovmoes & W.Mitullah (eds). 2012. People Speaking Back?

Media, Empowerment and Civic Engagement of African Youth. Yearbook 2012 of The International

Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media. NORDICOM and UNESCO: Univ. of Gothenburg.

– C. M. Krohling Peruzzo, T. Tufte and J. Vega Casanova (eds). 2011. Trazos de una otra

Comunicación en América Latina: practicas comunitárias, teorías y demandas sociales. ALAIC y

Ediciones Uninorte, Barranquilla, Colombia.

For full list of publications, see http://ruc-dk.academia.edu/ThomasTufte or

http://rucforsk.ruc.dk/site/person/ttufte.

PhD Seminar: New Media and Social Change

As part of the research project Critical Perspectives on New Media and Processes of Social Change in the Global South, a Nordic-Kenyan PhD seminar is taking place 3-9 May 2014, in Eldoret, Kenya. The seminar will gather 23 PhD students from Kenya and the Nordic countries, and academics from MOI University, Roskilde University and University of Aarhus.

The focus of the seminar is to enable Nordic as well as Kenyan PhD students, researching on issues concerning media and social change, to learn about the research project, present their own PhD work and to get feedback from senior lecturers involved in the research project. Furthermore the seminar will involve some fieldwork in the vicinity of Eldoret. This seminar is the first out of two intended PhD-seminars.

The seminar conveners are Dr. Abraham Mulwo, senior lecturer at Moi University and Poul Erik Nielsen, associate professor at University of Aarhus, and Ørecomm members Jessica Gustaffson (post-doc in this research project from 1 July 2014), Martin Nkosi Ndlela, associate professor at Hedmark University College, Norway, and professor Thomas Tufte, RUC, are among the lecturers.

For more information about the project, contact Marie Brobeck.

Call for Abstracts: Ørecomm Festival 2014

Voice and Matter is the fourth annual Communication for Development conference arranged by Ørecomm, this year merged with Roskilde University’s biannual scientific conference, Sunrise.

The conference aims to explore the dynamic relationship – and possible convergence – between voice and matter in the context of communication for development theory and practice.

When? 17-20 September 2014
Where? Roskilde University (Denmark) & Malmö University (Sweden).

Ørecomm invites researchers, students, practitioners, authors, artists and filmmakers to submit abstracts in the following work streams:

• New Social Actors and ICT for Development. The technocentric concept of ICT4D raises questions on the power over and use of technology. Who are the new social actors and new social movements? How do they pursue their goals using ICTs? This session invites theoretical and empirical reflections, uncovering emerging perspectives on technology, voice and matter.
• ICT4D Without ICT4G? As photos of all-male ICT4D conference panels and technology fairs dominated by men are circulated on social networks, questions about gender issues in ICT4D research and practice are more pressing than ever. This panel invites theoretical reflections and innovative case studies on gender, power and the future of ICT4D.
• The Present and Future of Development Journalism
  International development journalism is exploring new avenues to connect with different audiences and to communicate social change. This panel highlights new innovative approaches as well as discussing the challenges and limitations in an age where ‘everybody is a broadcaster’.
• Fiction Matters Recent decades have in many parts of the world brought new genres of fiction to critical acclaim. New authors engage with movement, migration and change in ways that are debated globally. This panel will explore fiction, that in new ways engage with the relation between the social and the global, and between voice and matter.
• Histories of Diaspora Nation-states and national mentalities have shaped societies we live in through reductive classifications. New methods now move beyond this logic, allowing for improved understanding of the changing role of the state over time, and for new transcultural encounters. This panel explores methods in approaching the diaspora context in space and time.

Deadlines

• Submission of abstracts are accepted until 23 May 2014, oo:oo (CET)
• Accepted abstracts will be announced individually by 6 June 2014

Read the full call for abstracts here.

For more information about the conference, look here.

We are looking forward to hearing from you!