The power of the pen used to spark images of the depicted dynamics between the powerful and the powerless is demonstrated in Swedish poet and activist Jenny Wrangborg’s collection of working-class poems. Wrangborg’s poems, which describe the daunting situations faced by marginalized members of the working-class sector causes the reader to question whether or not enough change is taking place, and at what paste is change truly happening in modern society. The use of Wrangborg’s work in this study is to demonstrate the role creative arts, specifically poetry plays in C4D. The findings of this study is to particularly show the way individual voices can be used to promote social justice whilst bringing attention to issues of class discrimination and gender inequality. In this study, I argue that poetry can be a vital mode of protest. The purpose of this study is to determine the strength a single individual has in helping to create change and transformation. The main aim and purpose of this research is to bring a clearer understanding of how poetry in the hands of an advocate can become a strategic communicative tool used to initiate societal change.

In many academic disciplines, there are promising discoveries and valuable information, which have the potential to improve lives but have not been transferred to or taken up in ‘real world’ practice. There are multiple, complex reasons for this divide between theory and practice—sometimes referred to as the ‘know-do’ gap—and there are a number of disciplines and research fields that have grown out of the perceived need to close these gaps. In the field of health, Knowledge Translation (KT) and its related research field, Implementation Science (IS) aim to shorten the time between discovery and implementation to save and improve lives. In the field of humanitarian development, the discipline of Communication for Development (ComDev) arose from a belief that communication methods could help close the perceived gap in development between high- and low-income societies. While Implementation Science and Communication for Development share some historical roots and key characteristics and IS is being increasingly applied in development contexts, there has been limited knowledge exchange between these fields. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the characteristics of IS and ComDev, analyze some key similarities and differences between them and discuss how knowledge from each could help inform the other to more effectively achieve their common goals.

A well-functioning media is a given part of any society, and can be a valuable tool in the democratising process of a country. The media is traditionally given the role of providing citizens with information about political events in society, and as a result enabling them to make informed decisions. Before the 1990s most of the Middle Eastern and North African media was controlled by governments and because of that they often failed in their responsibility as information providers. As new media such as the internet and satellite television were introduced to the region, the media paradigm shifted and a new arena for public debate arose and has continued to grow ever since. During the 2010-2011 uprisings in the region social media platforms were used by citizens to spread news about demonstrations and political moves, not only within countries, but also globally. Livestreaming applications in particular were used successfully, and videos filmed by citizen journalists were broadcast on international media channels This thesis focuses on the use of livestreaming by citizen journalists in Egypt and Syria to accomplish a social change, and on citizen journalism as an act of civic engagement. To provide an analytic frame, this thesis uses the work of Dahlgren (2009) and his six modes of civic engagement, to better and understand the role of citizen journalists in changing society. Through a number of qualitative interviews with citizen journalists, traditional journalists and Bambuser, this thesis concludes that citizen journalism did play and still plays an important role when it comes to civic engagement in Egypt and Syria although weather or not it might be able to take the role of traditional media in society remains to be seen. The interviews with citizen journalists were conducted in Cairo, Egypt and funded through a Minor Field Study grant.

The anti-evictions movement Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca (PAH) is one of the most effective and valued grassroots initiatives in Spain. It has convinced the majority of the population on the need to change the mortgage law, given solution to the immediate needs of its members via civic-disobedience actions and dignified the people who are not able to pay their mortgage debts. From being considered irresponsible victims, now they are seen as heroes fighting for a just cause and as the representation of the collective power of organized citizenship to produce social change.To find out if –and how- communication has been key in this transformative process, this research uses observations and in-depth interviews to respond to the question: What role does communication play in the PAH for the empowerment of its members and for the overall impact of the movement? The findings suggest that empowerment has been necessary to obtain impact, while impact has further promoted empowerment, in a virtuous cycle where internal and external communication practices, both interpersonal and mediated, have been central. The main communicative goal, as we will see, has been to transform people and society, and not to obtain visibility. Decentralisation, open and horizontal collective knowledge-sharing and decision-making, diagnostic and motivational counter-frames, a focus on positive messages and results, graphic elements, the savvy use of different media (Twitter, Facebook, videos, mass media) and a very skilled spokes-person are some of the key aspects of a successful communication strategy that has been able to challenge neoliberal frames and representations related to poverty. Several concrete activists have been very competent in designing and adapting the PAH’s use of communication, and in promoting contributions of many other participants throughout every part of the network. However, only a continuous effort in spreading knowledge and skills throughout the movement, in line with participatory communication approaches, will guarantee a sustainable and long-lasting impact.

This research project aims at exploring the role and potential of digital media in the current democratization process in Myanmar. Understanding democratization as a process of social change that implies empowering civil society and ensuring equality, the question is how digital media contribute to building a participatory democracy in Myanmar after a five decades long military regime. The fast chain of events that led to the recent gradual opening of Myanmar raises doubts and expectations colliding with the vibrant reality of the country. In order to analyse the role of digital media within such a fast-changing scenario, this research intends to answer the following questions: a) How do digital media portray Myanmar? This question will be analysed in relation to the media discourse of the official visit paid by Myanmar’s President Thein Sein to US President Barack Obama in Washington on 20 May 2013. b) How do stakeholders in Myanmar use digital media for democratization? To what extent can digital media become a tool for democratization within a very limited connectivity context? What challenges may the digital media imply in the democratization of Myanmar? Semi-structured interviews with stakeholders were conducted in Yangon to gather up-to-date and first-hand insights. The combination of two qualitative research methods, discourse analysis and semistructured qualitative interviews, aims at building a deeper understanding of the role and potential of digital media in Myanmar. This research pays attention to specificities of Myanmar’s cultural, political and economic context, with a focus on technology and Internet. Field research showed the importance of taking into account the role of social media. A brief theoretical discussion of key concepts such as ‘digital media’, ‘social change’ and ‘democratization’ is provided to build a solid basis for analysis.

The general concept of communication for development is that it explores the use of communication – both as a tool and as a way of expressing processes of social change. Artcan be regarded as a way of communication, and to use the arts in the field of communication for development is not new. Art as a force in social change has a long history.The purpose of this thesis is to take a closer look at the art project To Reveal, Remember and Expose and make an exploration of how or if an art project can facilitate new awareness,primarily around memories, heritage, identity and social change among project participantsand city inhabitants encountered by the project. The objectives of this thesis are to investigate the following questions: What kind of awareness will the participants get out of the project? Can the project create a new awareness in terms of memory and heritage? How does the project connect and relate to culture, identity and city space?Communication theory, concepts of culture and representation, identity and space in the formof private and public space are presented. Performance art and theory, art intervention, sitespecific art and tactical media are elaborated upon. The primary methodology used isparticipatory observation, which has been applied on the planning, actions and discussions ofthe project. An interview with the artist behind the project and a structural content analysis oftexts written by the students that participated in the art project will complement theparticipatory observation.The analysis of the project showed that the project could create awareness among itsparticipants, especially about people, time and space. The actions also gave some insight and awareness concerning memories and heritage of some objects and places. The projectconnected and related to culture, identity and space in different ways. There were similaritiesto tactical media as it create situations were criticality could occur, but it was hard to see awhole picture of the outcome as it was not possible to know what the “audience” thought. Alltopics are relevant in communication and development and social change, but the thesis wasnot able to show that the project could give access to ways of expressing processes of socialchange. For further research it is of relevance to consider the magnitude of social change anart project can bring, and take into consideration that social change usually take time and ishard to find in a short period of time.

Whilst the use of documentary film to mediate issues of international development and social change is nothing new, the tools of production, media environment, expectations of, and relationships between, audiences and content are evolving at a rapid pace, bringing new approaches and challenges. As INGOs, development agencies and media producers attempt to engage audiences in issues of international development and social change in an increasing saturated media environment, many are looking for more innovative, Web 2.0- native ways of presenting these issues. Interactive web documentary, a format that has emerged from the dynamic and frenetic Web 2.0 media environment, combining digital, interactive and social media with the documentary form, has begun to be used to communicate with and engage audiences in these issues. But how do audiences respond to this format? Within this paper I investigate, through a survey of three audience groups and two case study examples, supplemented by semi-structured qualitative interviews and focus group discussion, how interactive web documentary might affect audience engagement with issues of international development and social change. In so doing I uncover three modes of engagement: active engagement, emotional engagement and critical engagement, which appear to be enhanced by the format. At the same time I discuss barriers to engagement, such as access, audience interest and tensions between discourses of gaming and issues of international development and social change, all of which must be negotiated if the format is to succeed in its aims.

The aim of this study is to look at how organisations’ discourse is tailored to reach and persuade the donors, how it is constructed in terms of representation and power, and if there has been a change on representation of aid over the last decade. The study is conducted from texts and visuals from the Anglo-Saxon Save the Children Organization and the French Apprentis d’Auteuil Catholic Foundation to evaluate cultural points in relation to discourse constructions; most of the selected Material has been extracted from respective website at the same period of time (2003, 2013, and 2014) to make the comparison fair. The theoretical framework includes communication for development, post-colonialism, social theology, representation, discourse and power; the methodology is related to discourse analysis and visual analysis. The deconstruction of the texts has revealed that the traditional way of representing the disadvantaged as the voiceless ‘Others’ and the hegemonic approach, in the name of globalisation, are still strongly present as it seems to be a trigger for the act of donation. Nevertheless, according to studies, a new wind of social responsibility instead of Christian duty is emerging. A gap between the traditional representation of aid and actual modern actions implemented by organisations has been noticed mostly on the French national level. The recommendation to the organisations would be to compose a new discourse in their communication, placing the helper and the helped on a balanced representation, giving a common ‘human’ voice, promoting participation and insuring sustainable social change, towards a real changing of mentalities of the audience. This communication should also be homogenised between ‘old’ and ‘new’ media as well as speeches held by the organisations’ staff.

Traditional studies of the modernization-instability thesis have neglected the simultaneous influence of time and place on the relationship between modernization (social mobilization and political participation) and political instability, and the possible causal linkage between the two concepts. Empirical support for modernization-instability hypothesis will be obtained if and only if there is a strong positive correlation between modernization and political instability and the former causes the latter unidirectionally. Only then can one assert that modernization is exogenous, and that a policy geared toward restricting modernization is a proper anti-instability policy. This work attempts to address the question of correlation and causality through a pooled time-series cross-sectional data design and the use of Granger-causality tests. Particular attention is paid to the error structure of the models. Using pooled regression, a model of political instability is estimated for a total of 35 countries for the period 1960-1982. Granger tests are performed on twelve separate countries randomly selected from the 35. The results indicate that there is the expected positive relationship between modernization and political instability. Further, political institutionalization and economic well-being have strong negative influence on political instability. With regard to causality, the results vary by country. Some countries experience no causality between modernization and political instability, while some witness bidirectional causality. Further, some nations experience unidirectional causality running from modernization to political instability, while some depict a reverse causation. The main results suggest that modernization and political instability are positively related, and that political instability can have causal influence on modernization, just as modernization can exert causal influence on political instability.

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