Towards Transdisciplinarity and a Complex Role for the Scientist

This article, from the Glocal Times Issue 10, poses the question "What is the role of the communication researcher or scientist in participatory communication processes?" In answering the question, the article intends to re-examine and reposition the role of participation from the perspective of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR).


The author states that the term "participation" has become a "container concept" or a description whose meaning has become too inclusive, i.e., a term used "at least 7 times on each page of a project proposal" to refer to all forms of communication, including question and answer, rather than substantive dialogue.


Participation, as defined and expanded here, is not simply citizen consultation, but also includes both dialogue and commitment. As extended to repositioning the role of the researcher, "[t]he field of participatory communication often deals with complex problems, and the active involvement of the researcher in such complex problems is under discussion as an integral part of participatory communication research." Because of the complexity of establishing a platform for broad multi-stakeholder dialogue in many development-related fields, e.g., health or natural resource management, there is a demand for a variety of competencies for effective participation.


The article points out that scientists are often well-positioned to step beyond the traditional role of researcher to both facilitate and participate in these platforms. However, as a participant in a change process, the scientist becomes an engaged insider and not an objective "external expert". Thus, in a transdisciplinary approach in which all voices (academic and non-academic) have weight, "[c]oncerns of the researcher not only lie with issues related to critical analysis and monitoring and evaluation, but also with how to create commitment and engagement, how to manage the process of change and how to create and sustain equal participation of all."


When re-theorising participation and the issues of balancing stakeholder power, the author states that "[t]here is a need to incorporate political theories in theories of participatory communication"; and suggests that herein lies the future work of the IAMCR Participatory Communication Research (PCR) section.


The author concludes with a description of the aims of the PRC and details of its conference presentations and discussions from the 2007 IAMCR conference in Paris, France. The aims listed here are the following:

• "To work towards theoretical and methodological clarification.
• To share perspectives of participatory approaches focusing specifically on the communication processes in contexts of social change, including development communication.
• To discuss case studies across the spectrum of social change processes focusing on the (often integrated) use of communication and media at different levels of society."

The goal of the section and topics of interest are the following:


"The Section brings media researchers and practitioners together in communication aimed at achieving democratic and participatory social change. Topics of interest are broad, including: the ways in which communication processes can be used to incorporate participation, the subjects and processes of democratization, communication and information rights, [information and communication technologies] ICTs for sustainable development, health communication, environmental communication, agricultural extension services, folk media and social movements, communication planning activities and interventions, national and cultural identities, community studies and the relationship between participation, empowerment and gender, community radio and participatory video production, non-formal participatory forms of education, participatory rapid appraisals, and participatory action research."