VOLUME 3

NUMBER 1-4
2009
ISSN 1555-8711

Communication for
Development
and Social Change
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: JAN SERVAES (CSSCHANGE@GMAIL.COM)

* OSEE KAMGA
MOBILE PHONE APPROPRIATION IN CÔTE D’I VOIRE: DIGITAL
PRACTICES AND DIGITAL IMAGINARY

The development of mobile phone industry in Côte d’Ivoire has been largely boosted
by people’s sense of resourcefulness. Then meaningful discourses around this
technology started to emerge in the country when their uses became widespread
among the populations. This article claims an imaginary of uses, and envisages digital
imaginary as consecutive to digital innovation. It aims at showing the key role the
imaginary plays in the appropriation of techniques in developing countries.
Specifically, it shows how the mobile phone, as a digital technology, has contributed
to shape the way Ivoirians perceive and speak of their day-to-day lives, how practices
around the mobile phone have generated new narratives, new discourses and new
terminologies in social interactions.

* CHRISTIAN FUCHS
NEW IMPERIALISM, FINANCE CAPITAL, CAPITAL EXPORT & THE
INFORMATION ECONOMY

This article first discusses the notions of new imperialism, global capitalism, and
empire that have been employed by various scholars such as Alex Callinicos, David
Harvey, Ellen Meiksins Wood, Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt, Leo Panitch and
Sam Gindin, William I. Robinson, Leslie Sklair, or Christian Zeller. In order to
theoretically ground these notions, a precise notion of imperialism is needed. Such a
grounding can be achieved by returning and reloading classical theories of
imperialism. The paper at hand discusses the analytical role of Lenin’s and
Bukharin’s notions of imperialism for studies of new imperialism. Based on
theoretical foundations, it is discussed how a notion of new imperialism grounded in
Lenin and Bukharin can be used for empirically testing the relationship of the new
imperialism and the information and media economy.

* ERIC FREEDMAN
ENVIRONMENTAL JOURNALISTS AND ECOLOGICAL
NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS IN KYRGYZSTAN AND
KAZAKHSTAN: TOO RARELY THE TWAIN MEET
Environmental NGOs and journalists rarely interact in ways that effectively push
ecological concerns into public debate and official action in Kyrgyzstan and
Kazakhstan. Interviews with journalists, enviro-NGO leaders, and policy experts in
both countries reveal a fundamental reason for this is the weakness, passivity, and
political and economic vulnerability of both public actor institutions—NGOs and the
press. NGOs in these countries operate under governmental scrutiny—and sometimes
as de facto arms of regimes or parties—with meager financial support and
inadequately trained leaders in a region with little tradition of grassroots collective
activism. Similarly, press organizations operate under strict governmental and extra-
governmental controls and constraints, as well as shaky fiscal conditions and self-
censorship in countries that have never known a free, independent press.
Environmental journalism is not highly regarded in either country. The findings have
implications for current and potentially future roles of enviro-NGOs and journalism in
other authoritarian post-communist states where both essential components of civil
society remain weak or nonexistent.

* NIALL STEPHENS
ENVIRONMENTALISM IN THE PRINT MEDIA: NORTH AND SOUTH

This article explores the portrayal of environmentalism and environmentalists in news

stories published in both the global north and in the global south. It presents a content
analysis of three newspapers from three different countries: The New York Times of
the US, La Nación of Chile, and The Hindustan Times of India. It finds significant
differences in the subject matter of environmental stories, particularly between the
New York Times, in which most environmental stories were on climate-related issues,
and the Hindustan Times, in which most environmental stories were about freshwater
quality and river ecology. At the same time, the article argues that the overwhelming
emphasis on elite perspectives on the environment in all three papers promotes, and
perhaps reflects, a view in the global south as much as in the global north of
environmentalism as a postmaterialist disposition and the privilege of elites. It draws
on stories from the sample to discuss the possible negative consequences of such a
perspective for environmental politics and social change.
* PATCHANEE MALIKHAO
UNDERSTANDING THE SPREAD OF HIV/AIDS THROUGH
GLOBALIZATION AND SEXUALITY IN THAILAND
This article explores the dynamic interaction between Thai culture and globalization
in different historic periods, resulting in current pluralistic sexual values, norms and
practices. Two important factors, which fuel the hybridization of Thai sexuality,
values and practices are being explicated. They are firstly, endogenous factors which
emerged since the archaic past into two distinguishing features of the Thai culture
(patriarchy and Thai Buddhist worldview), and secondly, exogenous factors which
emerged in the contemporary globalization period: neo-liberalism, capitalism,
modernization, urbanization, Vietnam War and tourism. Different degrees of impacts
of globalization on traditional culture resulted in the current Thai sexual practices
which spurred the spread of HIV/AIDS in Thailand.

* BOONLERT SUPADHILOKE
RIGHT TO COMMUNICATE, PUBLIC PARTICIPATION AND DEMOCRATIC
DEVELOPMENT IN THAILAND

This study is designed to trace the evolution of Human Rights and its associated Right
to Communicate, with particular reference to people’s participation, as well as to
examine their applications in the democratic development process through various
case studies in Thailand. The study was based on documentary analysis, personal
observations, interviews, case studies and secondary data analysis. The results
showed that although the concepts Human Rights and Right to Communicate (RtC)
have long existed in Thailand, they have become known to the public only after the
1932 democratic revolution when Thailand had been changed from an absolute
monarchy to a constitutional monarchy. In fact, RtC can be traced back to Buddhism,
a national religion, which takes a significant departure from western traditions in
defining the term “freedom” as an individual’s human right to be free from such
defilement, known as “Kilesa”, as craving, anger and illusion --- all causes of
suffering. As a basic Human Rights, RtC has gradually evolved based on a “two-way,
interactive and participatory process”. RtC reflects a variety of its elements and
visions, notably: (a) “a right to assemble, a right to discuss, a right to participate and
related association rights;” (b) “a right to inquire, a right to be informed, a right to
inform, and related information rights;” and (c) “a right to culture, a right to choose, a
right to privacy, and related human development rights,…The achievement of a right
to communicate would require that communication resources be available for the
satisfaction of human communication needs.”
* MOHAMMAD SAHID ULLAH & LINDA HULTBERG
WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT AND POVERTY REDUCTION THROUGH
MOBILE PHONE MICRO-ENTERPRISE: A FOLLOW-UP STUDY OF THE
VILLAGE PAY PHONE PROGRAM OF THE GRAMEEN BANK IN
BANGLADESH

This article deals with the Village Pay Phone (VPP) Program -- a socio-economic
development program initiated by Grameen Bank in The People’s Republic of
Bangladesh in 1997. The article focuses on the female owners of the VPP who live in
rural areas of Bangladesh and intends to describe how the women have implemented
the VPP and the mobile phone into their everyday life as well as how they have
become empowered throughout the program. The study, which the article is based
upon, has a hermeneutic phenomenological approach and aims for an understanding
of experiences of and nuances of meanings the owners put in the VPP. Empowerment
is defined as a subjective experience and referred to as both a relational and
motivational construct. The sample constitutes sixteen female owners, or previous
owners, of a VPP from various parts of Bangladesh. Empirical data was collected
through one hour interviews with each respondent and strived to open up for
conversation. The article describes the female owners’ access and use of the mobile
phone and factors that influence the implementation process. Aspects of
empowerment are derived from the sample’s experiences of benefits and restraints
throughout the program.

* USHA M. RODRIGUES
TELEVISION POLICY IN INDIA AND DEVELOPMENT: AN UNFULFILLED
AGENDA

The impact of the exponential growth in television channels, television viewers and
the television software industry in India since 1991 has been well documented
(Rodrigues, 1998 & 2005). This article critically examines the Indian government’s
television policy during the following decade and a half, and analyses whether the
policy adequately met the challenge of the entry of private and foreign channels into
Indian homes. The paper discusses the continuing role of television vis-à-vis
television policy in a developing country within the framework of the modernity
theory put forward by scholars around the mid-20th century which still forms “the
core of our assumptions about economic development, social change, and the
influence of communication in these processes” (Stevenson, 2003, p.2).

* CHINTANA MONTHIENVIVHIENCHAI
THAI SMILES WITH DIFFERENT MEANINGS

The article investigates different types of Thai smiles Thai people use as a method of
indirect communication. The types of Thai smiles were drawn from smiles described
in Thai literary works from the Sukhothai period (1257 CE) to the present time.
Subsequently, they were categorized into two groups of expressions of emotion:
enjoyment and non-enjoyment smiles. Smiles in both categories were then again
grouped into different types of smiles based on their meanings. The procedure yielded
113 types of Thai smiles, out of which there are 38 types of enjoyment smiles and 75
types of non-enjoyment smiles. Smiling, a form of nonverbal communication across
culture has various meanings in Thai contexts. It often acts as an important nonverbal
cue in Thai communication style and plays an important role in intercultural
communication between Thai people and foreigners.

* SILVIA BALIT
REMEMBERING COLIN FRASER
Colin Fraser passed away at the age of 73 on 15 September 2008. He was among the
pioneers in the use of communication for development, a relatively new discipline on
the development scene

* ELENA KHATSKEVICH
EDUTAINMENT FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION
Book review of Esta De Fossard (with contributions from Michael Bailey) (2008).
Using edu-tainment for distance education in community work. New Delhi, India:
SAGE Publications India, 308 pp.

More details on
http://www.hamptonpress.com/comm_dev_social.htm
http://www.temple.edu/sct/cdsc/