CALL FOR ARTICLES | COMMUNICATION AND SOCIAL CHANGE (closed)

Title: Communication and Social Change

 

Editors:

Thomas Tufte - Loughborough University - Institute for Media and Creative Industries
Ana Margarida Barreto –  NOVA FCSH – ICNOVA
Nuno Correia de Brito – Universidade Autónoma – ICNOVA

 

Topics:

- Strategic Communication
- Communication in 3rd sector organizations
- Community Communication
- Alternative Communication
- Communication and Social Movements
- Communication and Activism
- Communication for development

 

As stated by Tufte & Tacchi in their book Communicating for Change (2020), “communicative practices are at the centre of all processes of social change” (p.1). But despite its omnipresence (or because of it) understanding the impact or role of communication practices in processes of social change is complex. This issue of Revista Media & Jornalismo wishes to shed light on this complex relation, between communication practices and social change, taking into consideration the new developments in technologically mediated practices of communication, but also the challenges, contestations and critiques of dominant paradigms of development and social change. The field of both research and practice around communication and social change has in recent years broadened, and this issue calls for contributions that shed light on the next-generation research questions and communication practices.

The concept of social change has also in the past been associated with several paradigms of development and social change with shifting attention given to power structures, international organizations, private entreprise and civil society. The longstanding legacy of two dominant paradigms of development, the modernization and participation paradigm remain strong (Peruzzo 2012, 2014), but the field has expanded in many directions in recent years. It is these new directions in both conceptual development and communicative practices enhancing social change, that this journal issue wishes to capture.

Epistemologies of the South, decolonial perspectives, intersectional approaches and a broad variety of critiques of dominant western paradigms of development are opening new avenues of inquiry, allowing new voices to be heard, and challenging power in multifaceted ways. Strategic communication is still very much part of the efforts to articulate change through or with communication, but the thinking informing the field of communication and social change draws on new sources and is opening to other knowledge systems.

Communication and social change seem in many ways to be a field in the early stages of reformulating theories of communication and change as well as seeing new practices of communication emerge or become visible. However, the dominant paradigms of communication and of social change are also innovating and gaining new strengths. What are the tensions, what are the debates in communication for development and social change today, and what practices and empirical cases are breaking new grounds or opening up for innovative and hitherto marginalized or silenced practices?

This call for articles welcomes contributions from voices and experiences previously not heard, but also from communities, social movements, organisations and companies north that are offering new and innovative perspectives on how strategic communication enhances social change and with what impact.

The purpose of this proposal for a thematic issue of the journal Media & Jornalismo is thus to receive articles that support and expand the reflection and study of this field of investigation and practice, cutting across the areas of media and communication studies, strategic communication and the field of social change and development.

 

IMPORTANT DATES

Deadline for submitting articles: September 30, 2022
Editors' decision: December 2022
Expected publication date: April 2023

 

Revista Media & Jornalismo (RMJ) is an open access peer-reviewed scientific journal that operates in a double-blind review process, being indexed in Scopus. Each submitted work will be distributed to two reviewers previously invited to evaluate it, according to academic quality, originality and relevance to the objectives and scope of the theme of this edition of the journal.
Articles can be submitted in English, Spanish or Portuguese.

Manuscripts must be submitted through the journal's website (https://impactum-journals.uc.pt/mj). When accessing RMJ for the first time, you must register to be able to submit your article and accompany it throughout the editorial process. Consult the Instructions for Authors and Conditions for Submission.

For more information, contact: patriciacontreiras@fcsh.unl.pt