The negative effects of climate change are contributing to the growing complexity of issues challenging livelihood sustainability and are further threatening already vulnerable communities. In response to these challenges, new means of conceptualising problems needs to be investigated so as to adequately deal with the multi-dimensional issues that arise. Central to this are means of communication and participatory interaction with vulnerable communities in the development of adaptation strategies. Theatre has been identified as an effective means of inspiring change through a process of critical self-reflection and personal empowerment, making it a pertinent tool for climate change communication. This research demonstrated how theatre was used in the process of knowledge translation for climate change adaptation within the community of Amaoti, KwaZulu-Natal. Knowledge was gathered from the community through two processes; a vulnerability analysis that examined five main vulnerability components, and a theatre engagement process that resulted in the production and performance of a play, Fish Out of Water. The vulnerability analysis – conducted through a selection of participatory rural appraisal tools - determined that the community was particularly vulnerable with regards to water. In addition to this, it faced a series of social challenges, including high levels of disunity, high crime rates and poverty. This analysis was central to the development of adaptation strategies, which Fish Out of Water communicated through its performance, contextualised in the translated vulnerability knowledge. Responses to the play were analysed, indicating that the climate change information had been successfully communicated and that theatre itself was an effective means of communication. In addition to this, it was determined that this process had also contributed a greater sense of awareness of social issues and had inspired people to take actions to change their behavioural patterns. New social considerations were made, contributing to a comprehensive understanding of situational dynamics that could inspire change. While positive conclusions were drawn from this with regards to the use of theatre in climate change communication, significant challenges were experienced during the process indicating a series of more fundamental issues that need to be addressed. High levels of apathy, difference of value systems and constraining family-dynamics need to be taken into account if the implementation of such processes is to be successful. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2009.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Architecture and Planning, 1990. / Typescript (Photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 424-443).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Submitted by Noeme Timbo (noeme.timbo@metodista.br) on 2016-09-02T19:56:24Z No. of bitstreams: 1 JoseEduardoCosta2.pdf: 1826640 bytes, checksum: 8d99212824ad0b3815a8864adc90e73e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-02T19:56:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JoseEduardoCosta2.pdf: 1826640 bytes, checksum: 8d99212824ad0b3815a8864adc90e73e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-04-26 / Study of the comunicacional process and record of memory fragments from the small regional agriculturist established in Ribeirão Grande on the region of Vale do Paranapanema in the State of São Paulo. This research has set the objectives to present the reality of the small agriculturist; investigate communicational processes which influences in the preservation of values or their loss; comprehend the opinions of small agriculturists and the residents in Ribeirão Grande, State of São Paulo, concerned to their reality; their communication regarding their life style and production; comprehend how communication is produced throughout the small agriculturist daily routine, if there is a proximity relationship with the regional newspaper, concerning the existence or non existence of any mean of communication which relates the feeling of enrollment and the ―community‖ interests. The methodology of this project incorporates the bibliographic research, documental research and the case study of a local regional newspaper, aside from semi structured interviews with the farmers / Estudo do processo comunicacional e o registro de fragmentos de memória do pequeno agricultor na localidade de Ribeirão Grande, região do Vale do Paranapanema, Estado de São Paulo. Esta pesquisa tem como objetivos mostrar a realidade do pequeno agricultor; investigar sobre os processos comunicacionais que influenciam na preservação dos valores ou na perda deles, conhecer a opinião dos pequenos agricultores e moradores do município de Ribeirão Grande no Estado de São Paulo, sobre sua realidade, sua comunicação, seu modelo de vida e de produção, entender como se produz a comunicação no dia a dia do pequeno agricultor, e se há uma relação de proximidade com o jornal regional, sobre a existência ou não de um meio de comunicação que trabalhe os sentimentos de pertencimento e os interesses da ―comunidade‖. A metodologia deste trabalho incorpora a pesquisa bibliográfica, pesquisa documental e o estudo do caso de um jornal regional local, além de entrevistas semiestruturadas com os lavradores. Conclui-se que o pequeno lavrador e seu estilo de vida na região tratada não possui perscpectiva de futuro, imersos nas circunstancias que se encontram. Palavras-

Submitted by Noeme Timbo (noeme.timbo@metodista.br) on 2017-10-06T16:24:43Z No. of bitstreams: 1 ADRIANA MARCELO.pdf: 3818167 bytes, checksum: 671ca28ce762c282aaaae51d8cbb8b1f (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-10-06T16:24:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ADRIANA MARCELO.pdf: 3818167 bytes, checksum: 671ca28ce762c282aaaae51d8cbb8b1f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-04-05 / Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq / Study about the Quilombola community of Caçandoca, in Ubatuba, and its organizing process as well as the resident’s production of community communication actions. The research aims to verify the communicational process among the members in the community considering the historical background, cultural, the memory, the identity background and also the traditions and the conflicts that interfere with interaction among the members of Caçandoca. From the methodological point of view, it’s an investigational work uses both bibliographical and documentary research as a starting point to the structure of the theoretical research and documentary analysis. A field research was also developed with “observant participation” that allowed us to come closer to the subject of analysis and provided entanglement with the Quilombolas. The open interviews half structured with the residents and leaderships permitted us to understand the elements that build the community’s communicational process. About the observant participation, besides regular visits and participation in the group’s meetings we proposed gatherings to discuss the possible formation of a Local Communicational Committee to develop future community communicational actions. The results showed that the residents of Caçandoca go through several obstacles about the real state speculation and the invasions of possessions, but they’re in a different phase of structuring the politics organization, cultural and identity. The community communication better structured can represent a way to practice citizenship and the enlargement of the political and critical awareness by the improvement of the spread of information from all the Quilombola’s interests. / Estudo sobre a comunidade quilombola da Caçandoca, em Ubatuba-SP, e seu processo organizativo, bem como as atuações dos moradores na produção de ações de comunicação comunitária. A pesquisa tem como objetivo verificar o processo de comunicação entre os membros da comunidade, considerando os aspectos históricos, culturais, a memória, a identidade, as tradições e os conflitos que dificultam a interação dos membros da Caçandoca. Do ponto de vista metodológico, trata-se de um trabalho investigativo que utilizou pesquisa bibliográfica e documental, como ponto de partida para a estruturação da pesquisa teórica e estudo de documentos. Foi feita também pesquisa de campo participativa, na modalidade “participação observante”, que permitiu a aproximação ao sujeito de pesquisa e favoreceu o entrosamento com os quilombolas. As entrevistas abertas semiestruturadas com os moradores e lideranças possibilitaram compreender os elementos que compõem o processo de comunicação da comunidade. No que toca à participação observante, além de visitas periódicas e participação nas reuniões do grupo, propomos encontros para discutir a possível formação de um Comitê Local de Comunicação, para o desenvolvimento de ações futuras de comunicação comunitária. Os resultados demonstraram que os moradores da Caçandoca passam por uma série de dificuldades no que diz respeito à especulação imobiliária e invasão de posseiros, mas estão em uma nova fase de estruturação da organização política, cultural e identitária. A comunicação comunitária mais bem estruturada pode representar um caminho para a prática da cidadania e da ampliação da consciência política e crítica, a partir da melhoria da difusão das informações de interesse de todos os quilombolas da Caçandoca

project. It did this by reviewing relevant literature in development communication. The review done showed that literature is replete with arguments critical of the dominant paradigm due to its top-down nature of communication. Scholars critical of dominant paradigm argue that participatory communication should be given a prominent role to ensure that stakeholders work in concert to realise the stated objectives of their development project. The study highlighted many contentious issues surrounding the nature and practices of participatory communication. It pointed out that the issues have played themselves out in literature in the form of different typologies of participatory practices, which were dealt with extensively in this study. The discussion of participatory communication in literature is also mindful of different models of communication and the space they occupy in participatory communication practices. In this study, there was a discussion of transactional communication models as depicted by Nair and White (1993:52) and Steinberg (1997:19). Both scholars emphasise that participatory communication will not achieve its stated purpose without mutual agreement of the parties in communication. They equally stress the recognition of the possible effects of some contextual factors which may have bearing on the prevailing nature of communication. A review of different communication tools used by participatory development communicator was given in the study. These different communication tools were discussed in view of how these tools can be used to advance participatory practice in a development project, especially with reference to the project examined in this study. Using qualitative research method, different and appropriate interview methods such as semi-structured, focus group and post-survey interviews were used to collect data from the respondents in this study. The analysis and discussion of the data revealed that different challenges on the ground could affect participatory communication practices in a development project. With regard to the project examined in this study, the analysis showed that there is a weak stakeholder relationship, especially stakeholders identified in this study as field officers. The study highlighted that stakeholders such as the agricultural extension officers and animal health technicians are not very active in the implementation process of the project. Some of the reasons pointed out is the fact that the secondary stakeholder such as the Provincial Department of Agricultural (PDoA) to which these field officers belong is not playing active role in ensuring that they complement the efforts of other field officers such as the IDC representatives. The second reason is the fact that the participatory focus of the project was not properly communicated to the beneficiaries. This also transpired in their inability to reflect participatory practice in their relationship with the beneficiaries and other stakeholders of the project. Other challenges, among others, as pointed out in the analysis showed that participatory communication practice requires expert personnel to be successful. In the case of the project examined, apart from the fact that there is shortage of manpower to handle the challenges mentioned in the study, there is no communication expert among the few active personnel in the field. The findings of this study showed that there was no clear role and identification of responsibilities let alone coordination of all actors involved in the project. Through the selected case study, this study has not only provided avenue to explore both theoretically and practically participatory communication, but has added to participatory communication discourse that there is no easy answer to challenges field officers encounter in practice. This is the reason the different participatory practices characterising nature of the project this study has investigated was given.

This study explored community building as a method for addressing the problems faced by Mexican Immigrant and Mexican American communities. One of the assumptions that underpinned this study is that community building can be used to counteract racist attitudes toward ethnic minorities. Historically, people of Mexican descent have been the victims of such attitutudes have found their way in oppressive social and economic policy.

Thesis (M. A. (Communication Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2019 / Globally, over the years, health promotion organisations have developed communication campaigns geared towards addressing most major public health issues with the intention of preventing risky sexual behaviour. Teenage pregnancy is a major health, social, systemic and economic challenge, not only for the basic education sector but also, crucially for national development in general. The use of modern contraceptives, specifically implant contraceptives, has the potential to alleviate unintended teenage pregnancies. Modern contraceptives such as implant contraceptives have proven to be highly effective from 24 hours after insertion up to three years. Theoretically, the Health Belief Model and the Theory of Planned Behaviour have been applied to guide the study. A quantitative, descriptive survey was used in this study, with data collected using questionnaires. Purposive sampling of six secondary schools under the Mankweng Circuit in the Limpopo province where 306 participants were randomly selected was employed. Data were analysed using the SPSS version 26. The study revealed that that 34% of the participants were willing to use the implant contraceptive method based on the benefits found to be associated with the method. However, 66% were not willing to use the method regardless of the benefits found in using the implant contraceptives. In addition, it was found that only 3.9% of the participants were using implant contraceptives as a tool to prevent unintended pregnancies. This study makes a contribution to existing literature on implant contraceptives uptake among young women in South Africa. It would be informative to organisations and the National Department of Health who propose the use of implant contraceptives to stem increasing teenage pregnancies.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This study uses narrative analysis to investigate public communication efforts of community development groups to provide a richer understanding of the indicators of group success or failure in this context. The subjects are participants of the Indiana HomeTown Competitiveness program, an initiative that seeks to develop local economic capacity to move rural communities beyond outdated economic models and generate more innovative, sustainable community development. Indiana HomeTown Competitiveness emphasizes four points: entrepreneurship, leadership, youth engagement, and local wealth or philanthropic giving. The impetus for this study is the pilot program’s need for a better understanding of the manner in which participating groups might generate engagement from external community members. To better understand the groups’ success or failure regarding public communication efforts, instances of seven pre-determined themes derived from narratives provided by group members are investigated. The themes, identified by existing research, include group relationships, group structure, group process, member attributes, external forces, group communication, and member emotions. This study uses a blend of quantitative and qualitative analysis to give broad perspective to successful identification of effective tactics which groups may use to engage community members in economic initiatives by means of public communication. Though the study is exploratory in nature, the findings indicate that group communication, relationships, and group structure are likely predictors of a group’s success or failure. The findings of this study also offer a reflection of actions that were successful and also actions that were not successful to program participants, and documents results for future program participants to use. The results also expand upon the available research regarding community development using communication theory. Using a narrative approach also identifies directions of further study to address the multiple discourses created by groups that give insight into community and group communication.

This research has examined how Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can promote healthy eating habits amongst African Americans in low-income neighborhoods, a population that faces disproportionately high rates of diet-related health problems. In this dissertation, I describe the formative research I conducted to obtain system design guidelines and how I used those guidelines to develop two applications: EatWell and Community Mosaic. I also describe the results of the in-depth field studies I conducted to evaluate each application. Both EatWell and Community Mosaic incorporate the cultural construct of collectivism, a social orientation in which interdependence and communal responsibility are valued over individual goals and independence. As researchers have generally characterized the African American culture as collectivistic and argued for the value of designing collectivistic health interventions for this population, I examined the implications of taking such an approach to designing health promotion technologies. EatWell and Community Mosaic are collectivistic because they empower users to care for the health of their local community by helping others learn practical, locally-relevant healthy eating strategies. I discuss the results of my formative fieldwork and system evaluations, which characterize the value, challenge and nuances of developing community-based health information sharing systems for specific cultural contexts. By focusing on health disparities issues and the community social unit, I extend previous health technology research within Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). In particular, my results describe 1) a set of characteristics that help make shared material useful and engaging, 2) how accessing this information affects how people view the feasibility of eating well in their local context, 3) the way in which sharing information actually benefits the contributor by catalyzing personal behavior reflection, analysis and modification and 4) how sharing information and seeing that information's impact on others can help to build individuals' capacity to be a community health advocate. In addition, my work shows how examining cultural generalizations such as collectivism is not a straightforward process but one that requires careful investigation and appreciation for the way in which such generalizations are (or are not) manifested in the lives of individual people. I further contribute to HCI by presenting a set of important considerations that researchers should make when designing and evaluating community-based health systems. I conclude this dissertation by outlining directions for future HCI research that incorporates an understanding of the relationship between culture and health and that attempts to address health disparities in the developed world.