Handbook of Communication for Development and Social Change

This handbook provides a single reference resource for communication for development and social change. Increasingly, one considers communication to be crucial to effectively tackle the major problems of today. Hence, the question being addressed in this handbook is, is there a right communication strategy? Perspectives on sustainability, participation, and culture in communication have changed over time in line with the evolution of development approaches and trends, and in response to the need for effective applications of communication methods and tools to new issues and priorities. Divided into prominent themes comprising relevant chapters written by experts in the field and reviewed by renowned editors, the book addresses topics where communication and social change converge in both theory and praxis. Specific concerns and issues include food security, climate change, poverty reduction, health, equity and gender, sustainable development goals, and information and communication technologies (ICTs). The book shows how communication is essential at all levels of society. It helps readers understand the processes that underlie attitude change and decision-making and the work uses powerful models and methods to explain the processes that lead to sustainable development and social change. This is essential reading for academics and practitioners, students and policy makers alike.

Jan Servaes (Ph.D.) was UNESCO Chair in Communication for Sustainable Social Change. He has taught International Communication and Communication for Social Change in Australia, Belgium, China, Hong Kong, The Netherlands, Thailand, and the United States, in addition to several teaching stints at about 120 universities in 55 countries.

Servaes is Editor of the Lexington Book Series Communication, Globalization and Cultural Identity (https:// rowman.com/Action/SERIES/LEX/LEXCGC) and the Springer Book Series Communication, Culture and Change in Asia (http://www.springer.com/series/ 13565) and was Editor-in-Chief of the Elsevier journal Telematics and Informatics: An Interdisciplinary Journal on the Social Impacts of New Technologies” (http:// www.elsevier.com/locate/tele).


Servaes has been President of the European Consortium for Communications Research (ECCR, later www. ecrea.eu) and Vice President of the International Association of Media and Communication Research (IAMCR, www.iamcr.org), in charge of Academic Publications and Research, from 2000 to 2004. He chaired the Scientific Committee for the World Congress on Communication for Development (Rome, 25– 27 October 2006),organized by the World Bank, FAO, and the Communication Initiative.


Servaes has undertaken research, development, and advisory work around the world and is the author of more than 500 journal articles and 25 books/monographs, published in Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Indonesian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Thai, on topics such as as international and development communication, ICT and media policies, intercultural communication, participation and social change, and human rights and conflict management. He is known for his “multiplicity paradigm” in Communication for Development: One World, Multiple Cultures (1999).



Some of his recent book titles include: (2017) Servaes, Jan (ed.) The Sustainable Development Goals in an Asian Context, Singapore: Springer; (2016) Servaes, Jan & Oyedemi, Toks (Eds.) The Praxis of Social Inequality in Media: A Global Perspective, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, Rowman and Littefield; (2016) Servaes, Jan & Oyedemi, Toks (Eds.) Social Inequalities, Media, and Communication: Theory and Roots, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, Rowman and Littefield; (2014) Jan Servaes (Ed.). Technological Determinism and Social Change, Lanham: Lexington Books; (2014) Jan Servaes and Patchanee Malikhao. Communication for Social Change (in Chinese), Wuhan: Wuhan University Press; (2013) Jan Servaes (Ed.). Sustainable Development and Green Communication: African and Asian Perspectives, London/New York: Palgrave/MacMillan; (2013) J. Servaes (Ed.). Sustainability, Participation and Culture in Communication. Theory and Praxis, BristolChicago: Intellect-University of Chicago Press; (2008) J. Servaes. Communication for Development and Social Change, Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore: Sage; (2007) J. Servaes & Liu S. (Eds.). Moving Targets: Mapping the Paths Between Communication, Technology and Social Change in Communities, Penang: Southbound; (2006) P. Thomas & J. Servaes (Eds.). Intellectual Property Rights and Communications in Asia, New Delhi: Sage; (2006) J. Servaes & N. Carpentier (Eds.). Towards a Sustainable European Information Society, ECCR Book Series, Bristol: Intellect; (2005) Shi -Xu, Kienpointner M. & J. Servaes (Eds.). Read the Cultural Other: Forms of Otherness in the Discourses of Hong Kong’s Decolonization, Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter; (2003) J. Servaes (Ed.). The European Information Society: A Reality Check, ECCR Book Series, Bristol: Intellect; and (2003) J. Servaes (Ed.). Approaches to Development: Studies on Communication for Development, Paris: UNESCO Publishing House.