#Malawi sliding towards violent #anarchy

As unrest takes hold in Malawi, LSE’s Linje Manyozo urges his fellow citizens to realise that democracy is not just about speaking, but also listening

Critical reflections on the theory versus practice debate in communication for development

Even though the cliché ‘theory is practice’ registers in most communication for development debates, available evidence seems to suggest there is a growing chasm between the theory and practice of communication for development. This discussion argues that, with the increasing demand by governments and organisations for communication for development specialists, universities and training providers should rethink their graduate curricula. As course content, teaching methodologies and theoretical paradigms are revisited, trainers need to grill students on how the contestation of power is central to the application of communication in development. This paper advances two arguments. The first is that communication for development training has to begin listening to the innovative thinking that is shaping practice on the ground if the curriculum is to stay relevant. The second is that such programmes have forge strong linkages with development studies departments to ensure that students are well-grounded in development theory and practice

Reading modern ethnographic photography : a semiotic analysis of Kalahari Bushmen photographs by Paul Weinberg and Sian Dunn.

Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.Indigenous communities, like the Bushmen of the Southern Kalahari, always attract visitors who 'go there' to experience the 'life out there'. Travelling in their 4x4s, these visitors also bring cameras and take pictures of their interactions with subject communities as evidence of 'having been there'. For academics and journalists, these pictures are meant to illustrate their presentations of 'what is actually there'. Both types of photographs are known as ethnographic photography. This study. asks and attempts to answer the question: how do we study ethnographic photography? As much as photographers attempt to portray their subjects realistically, their representations are often contested and criticised as entrenching subjugation, displacement and dehumanisation of indigenous peoples through 'visual metaphors' and other significatory regimes. This discussion reconsiders the concept of imaging others, by offering an analytical semiotic comparison between Paul Weinberg's anchored and published photographic texts of the Bushmen, on the one hand, and Sian Dunn's unpublished, inactive texts of the #tKhomani Bushmen, on the other. The discussion is an attempt to understand documentary photographers, processes of producing of images, the contexts in which they are produced and how the communities that are represented make sense of them. Concerns with the objectivity of representation go beyond the taking and consuming pictures of other cultures. This study is, therefore, grounded in cultural, social and ideological factors that shape the production and consumption ofphotographic representations of and from other cultures

The contribution of citizen views to understanding women’s empowerment as a process of change : the case of Niger

This article investigates citizen’s views on women’s empowerment as a process of change in Niger, the lowest country on the Human Development Index where women suffer widespread gender inequality. It draws on semi-structured interviews with radio and civil society organisation (CSO) representatives and on focus group discussions with radio listeners. By discussing how empowerment is perceived by the three groups, it examines which aspects of life disempower women and what could contribute to an empowering environment. It goes on to analyse how these responses can be used to shape radio broadcasts, to promote further female empowerment. Contributing to journalism, development, and women’s studies, the article provides valuable and transferable insights into the understanding of female dis/empowerment, which can be used in other similar developing countries

The day development dies

There is a certain kind of thinking prevailing among Western thinkers which sacrifices rich narratives for theory. Theory becomes a prison, limiting knowledge production to references to (largely Western) scholarship. However, theory is not inaccessible: theory is coherent, theory is liberating, theory is narrative, it is everyday. This post-colonist auto-ethnographic orality uses personal experiences as a theoretical tool for explaining that in development thinking the 'experts' are morally and ideologically distant from local people, knowledge, and places, and hence they are illegitimate representatives who should never be consulted in the first place

Method and practice in participatory radio: rural radio forums in Malawi

Participatory development entails the active engagement of the citizenry in the production, sharing and utilisation of relevant knowledge towards improving their livelihoods. For much of the developing nations, especially in Southern Africa, without access to electricity, telephones, internet and television, radio is the only reliable, affordable, pervasive and extensive avenue for information and knowledge exchange that the majority of poor citizens can afford. Sampling a participatory radio project from Malawi, this paper critiques the depth of radio as a strategy for promoting community participation in development policy formulation and implementation. The paper argues that radio is a reliable tool for strengthening democratic values when employed as a tool for engaging marginalised communities to frame out their development aspirations, as this creates a sense of pride and ownership in development interventions

People's radio: communicating change across Africa

This book is a critique of communication for development that examines radio-based methods and practices employed to engage people in the process of social change. Community engagement is a participatory and deliberative process aimed at fostering good governance, improved livelihoods, safer communities and a sustainable environment. The author discusses the challenges of using radio as a tool for community engagement in development. It examines specific case studies from the African continent. The book also considers the different ways governments, organizations, broadcasters and communities can use radio networks as instruments of participatory knowledge production, exchange and utilization so as to bring about social change and development. Thus, this book is relevant to global discourses on communication and development. It demonstrates how elusive participation can become if implemented without adequate consideration of power relationships within indigenous and local knowledge systems. It proposes that more effective radio for development initiatives should be built on participatory action research, local communication needs, and indigenous knowledge systems. Effective radio should rely on relevant broadcasting technology and infrastructure, and designed to operate independently of donor funds