Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2008. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 223-232). Also available online in Scholars' Bank; and in ProQuest, free to University of Oregon users.

This degree project explores the role of Rohingya photographers in the refugee camps in Bangladesh and their use of visuals and social media as tools for communication for development and social change. The Rohingya, a predominantly Muslim community, have faced discrimination and persecution for decades in Myanmar, which has resulted in their displacement to Bangladesh. The study argues that these Rohingya photographers challenge the binary representation of refugees in mainstream media as threats or victims by portraying the community as proactive and caring. They have made an impact by reaching thousands of people through their collective activism on social media and photography projects, and have also fought for their rights to be credited and paid for their published work. The research is relevant in the context of the increasing number of refugees worldwide and the need to challenge negative perceptions and promote inclusivity. The methodological approach includes online interviews, virtual research, and photography semiotic analysis. The findings highlight the photographers' efforts to improve their situation, preserve their collective memory, and achieve participation, despite their lack of rights and the dire situation in the refugee camps in Bangladesh.

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.

The demand and consumption of food products created by the livestock- and fishing industries, have a major environmental impact, affecting climate change, biodiversity, and ecosystems. Yet, there seems to be a lack of public awareness of the direct impact one’s choice of food has on the environment, which suggests that more effective efforts are needed in order to introduce the concept to consumers. By the influence of a post-humanist perspective, this thesis investigates how the environmental impact of consuming animal-based food is communicated by Swedish environmental non-governmental organizations, and how the organizations are actively working to change consumers’ dietary habits by selecting more sustainable options. The research has focused on the external communication channels of the organizations, where verbiage and imagery have been analyzed in context, by using an analytical perspective of a constructionist view of communication, of where I acknowledge that communication has changed in our digital society. The findings indicated that the organizations are showing clear efforts and willingness of communicating the environmental impact of consuming animal-based food, although these efforts remain quite limited. The promotion of a plant-based diet as a way to help mitigate climate change was also communicated to a fair extent, but the organizations seemed to be privileging the preferences of consumers for animal-based food products over the actual need for them. Given that scientific evidence has shown that human consumption of animal-based food products has a major environmental impact, the overall produced knowledge by the organizations’ communication of consuming such products is still lacking. This suggests that more effective communication efforts are still needed, given the severity of the issue, which requires a drastic social change in eating habits as currently practiced in developed nations, in order to effectively mitigate climate change.

Despite international regulations such as the Convention of the Rights of the Child andthe Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the global SustainableDevelopment Goals in Agenda 2030, everyone does not have the same rights toeducation. Children with disabilities are the most marginalised and excluded groups insociety and also overrepresented among those who are not in school. Disability rightsadvocates are advocating for children with disabilities having the right to education anddiscovering new ways of making their voices heard through digital media. This degreeproject explores how these advocates act as change agents in the Nepal disability rightsmovement, with a focus on communication and the role of media.Through the lens of communication for development and social change, the theoreticalframework outlines advocacy communication for social justice, and social movementsas ‘experience movements’. The material was collected during a two months field studyin Nepal between March and May 2019. A qualitative study was conducted withinterviews as the primary method (semi-structured and focus group discussions) andfield observation as secondary.The findings suggest that advocacy communication was used by all advocates and thatdigital media and information communication technology provided the potential toreach new audiences, without replacing the public sphere. Language and voice werehighlighted as invaluable for effective communication. The movement was not limitedto special education, rather advocated for equity, access and participation in qualityeducation for all children. Digital, policy and behavioural changes were seen; peoplenow talk about children with disabilities and inclusive education. Challenges for themovement (i.e. budget, human resources, collaborations, voice, defined target group(s),data collection) still persisted, nevertheless improved collaborations between thegovernment and the disability people's organisations outlined a will for improvement inparticipation and empowerment.

The Stolpersteine memorial art project commemorates individual Holocaust victims by placing small brass plates outside the last known place they freely lived or worked. To date around 70,000 of these ‘stones’ have been laid across 24 countries, making it the largest decentralised monument in the world. The work grows by virtue of community action from relatives, neighbours and activists. This paper examines how the memorial form functions in a specific context. An ‘unofficial' version has been running in Vienna since 2005, termed Stones of Remembrance. It shares key characteristics with Stolpersteine but the approach in the Austrian capital is distinctly different, with local interpretations. This case study into the Vienna experience investigates public response to these stones drawing on research material that includes interviews with specific stakeholders and the general public who encounter them on a day to day basis. It highlights Austria’s role in the Holocaust, and struggle to belatedly come to terms with its complicity in what happened on local streets. Key questions are whether placing history at a neighbourhood level engages the public more actively than centralised state actions? How do people understand and engage with these pieces and are they effective sites of memory, reflection or imagining? Public response in Vienna suggests that memorial stones might be valuable communication tools not only for remembering the past, but for the present too - as reminders of past abuses that can serve as warnings for the future. As an example of a participatory approach to memory work Stones of Remembrance / Stolpersteine can have relevance as a communication for development and social change tool, with potential application in other post conflict contexts.

This study investigates how the non-governmental women’s rights organization Kvinna till Kvinna structures their external communication to raise public awareness in Sweden of issues important for social change; and in what way strategic communication is used in this process in order to cope with contemporary challenges. A qualitative research approach is applied to create an in-depth understanding of this. Two methods, qualitative content analysis of online gathered material and semi-structured interview, are used to grasp the organization’s work with the external communication. The strategic participatory approach to communication for development and social change functions as the theoretical framework. The results identify the organization’s approach to social change, strategic thinking in the set of goals, communication tactics, communication strategies and use of strategic junctures. Kvinna till Kvinna communicates on the basis of a structured and strategic plan which decides what, when and how to communicate. By repeatedly sharing great amounts of information about women’s rights, development work and development challenges, the communication is characterized by persuasion as well as educational connections. The persuasive character is strengthened through the use of storytelling and celebrities that convey the information. Kvinna till Kvinna to some extent work according to the strategic participatory approach which indicates that the awareness of the public could be increased. It is however primarily strategic rather than participatory elements, that permeate the organization’s communication, which also function as a way to handle contemporary challenges. A strategic communication which takes the external environment into account is concluded to be a tool for counteracting threats by political developments. The study highlights that strategic elements are central for a non-governmental organization in its strive for promoting and achieving social change, but participatory elements can also be understood as valuable in this process. The case of KtK enabled a discussion about the applicability of the theoretical framework and through this, possible developments and additions to the framework were highlighted.

Un nombre d’auteurs appellent à reconsidérer la communication pour le développement et le changement social comme une question de techniques et société. Les modèles de l’intégration sociale des innovations en SIC sont donc utilisés ici pour étudier comment de nouveaux dispositifs d’appui sont acceptés et appropriés par leurs usagers dans les pays en développement, et notamment en Asie centrale (Turkménistan). Le fait que la réception et l’appropriation des dispositifs par leurs usagers est primordiale pour l’efficacité des programmes d’appui n’est plus à prouver. Nous synthétisons les modèles des écoles anglo-saxonnes et francophones et dégageons les axes communs, déterminants pour l’intégration sociale : en amont de l’usage (les modèles de l’acceptation) et en aval (les modèles de l’appropriation). C’est la construction du sens d’usage, où l’usager mobilise les représentations « déjà-là » et l’imaginaire, pour évaluer les avantages et les pertes liés à l’usage du dispositif, l’expérience anticipée ou perçue de l’usage situé. Cette construction mentale s’apparente dans la littérature à la formation de la valeur perçue d’usage (Jouet ; Mallein, Toussaint et coll. ; Boenisch ; Assude et al. ; Nelson ; Kim et al.) ; néanmoins, il serait nécessaire de mieux comprendre ce processus. Nous explorons ce concept en détail dans notre étude qualitative de cas multi-sites réalisée dans le contexte d’un des dispositifs d’appui à la PME au Turkménistan. Nous modélisons le rôle de la valeur perçue d’usage dans l’intégration de nouveaux dispositifs d’utilité sociétale et le mécanisme de sa formation mentale chez les usagers organisationnels. / Number of researchers call to reconsider communication for development and social change, as a problem of techniques and society. Thus, the models of social integration of innovations are used here to study how the new development support components are accepted and appropriated by their users in developing countries, notably in Central Asia (Turkmenistan). There is no need to prove anymore that users’ reception and appropriation is critical to the development programs effectiveness. Hence, we synthesize the Anglo-Saxon and French models and distinguish the common determinant axes for the innovation reception: before its actual use (acceptance models) and after it (cognitive appropriation models). It appears to be the mental construction of the meaning of use: the user mobilizes his representations « already there » and his imaginary to assess the associated functional and symbolic benefits-costs, the anticipated and perceived use experience. In the literature, this mental construction process appears as the formation of the Perceived Value of Use (Jouet; Mallein, Toussaint and coll.; Boenisch; Assude et al.; Nelson; Kim et al.). However, it would be necessary to further investigate this process. We explore this concept in detail in our qualitative multi-site case study, conducted within one of the SME support components in Turkmenistan. As result, we model the role of the Perceived Value of Use for the acceptance and the appropriation of the new services of social utility, as well as its mental formation on the organisational users’ side.