Communication for Sustainable Rural Development and Social Change

IAMCR's Participatory Communication Section and Wageningen University in the Netherlands are organising an IAMCR 2014 pre-conference on Communication for Sustainable Rural Development and Social Change.

The conference will take place on 14 July in Hyderabad, the day before the main IAMCR conference. You are invited to register for participation and/or to submit a proposal. There will be space for only 50 participants and the deadline for submission of abstracts is 10 February 2014.

Hyderabad, India - 14 July 2014

Sustainable rural development is the kind of change that takes the current as well as the future generations of humanity and nature into account. Sustainability issues touch upon human rights, equity, participation and empowerment. It also aims to improve the quality of life and the integrity of the environment for all. Communication plays a vital role in this kind of change.

For many scholars in communication and innovation studies in the life sciences, India is a good case of a country where rural development and agriculture are directly linked to communication processes, including those mediated by technologies such as video and mobile phones. Being hosted by the Indian local organizers provides a unique opportunity to pay attention to issues of communication for rural innovation, food security, equity and access, rural extension and knowledge circulation.

This pre-conference is organized by Wageningen University and the Participatory Communication Research section of the IAMCR in cooperation with Digital Green in India, the universities of Queensland, Reading, Guelph and Hong Kong (CityU), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. It aims to bring together scholars and practitioners from around the world, but especially from Asia to share experiences in working in the field of Communication for Sustainable Rural Development and Social Change. It aims to share work experiences, theoretical developments and institutional contexts of our work. In cooperation with the FAO, special attention will be given to the International Year of Family Farming (IYFF). The conference also aims to set parts of the agenda for the upcoming international conference on Communication for Sustainable Development and Social Change at the end of 2014 in Hong Kong.

Topics

  • Innovative methodologies and new technologies for rural communication and extension
  • Interdisciplinary multi-stakeholder actions and social learning
  • Innovation system approaches and knowledge brokering
  • Monitoring and evaluation for learning and institutional change
  • Research and transdisciplinarity in communication for development theory and practice
  • Mainstreaming communication in rural development policies

Format

The one-day pre-conference will consist of a morning workshop, a lunch, afternoon presentations of selected contributions, and a closing event. The pre-conference will commence prior to the annual conference of the International Association for Media and Communication Research, which will take place from 15 till 19 July 2014 in Hyderabad, India. The theme of the conference is Region as Frame: Politics, presence, practice.

For more information see: http://iamcr2014.org/

Call for participation and presentations

You are invited to register for participation and or submit an abstract for a presentation of a paper, a report, a film, a process or other contributions that represent current issues.

The deadline for submission of abstracts is 10 February 2014. Decisions on acceptance of presentations will be communicated to applicants no later than 24 March 2014.

There are no specific guidelines for abstracts.

Abstracts can be sent to: rico.lie (at) wur.nl

Organizers

  • Rico Lie and Loes Witteveen, Center for Integrative Development, Wageningen University (The Netherlands) in cooperation with Loes Witteveen and Suzanne Nederlof, Rural Development and Communication, Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences (The Netherlands)
  • Elske van de Fliert, IAMCR Participatory Communication Research Section, Center for Communication and Social Change, The University of Queensland (Australia)
  • Sarah Cardey, IAMCR Communication and HIV/AIDS Working group, School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, University of Reading (United Kingdom)
  • Ataharul Chowdhury and Helen Hambly Odame, School of Environmental Design & Rural Development, University of Guelph (Canada)
  • Jan Servaes, Department of Media and Communication, City University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong)
    Rikin Gandhi, Digital Green (India)
  • Mario Acunzo, Office for Partnerships, Advocacy and Capacity Development, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Italy)

Participation

Please register by sending an email to: rico.lie [at] wur.nl

Maximum: 50 participants

Venue

Office of International Affairs, South Campus, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India.

Group transport will be arranged from the main hotels in the city to the campus.

Download this call for proposals in PDF format. icon IAMCR_PreConf_2014 - Call for Proposals (319.59 kB)