PARTICIPATORY COMMUNICATION DEVELOPING ALTERNATIVE EPISTEMES FOR EMANCIPATION

The rise of participatory communication in development research calls for a deconstruction of social contexts, separating out their constituent parts and reconstructing a thematic universe for pursuing social transformation. Participatory communication offers a form of engagement between a particular group and the society’s social, political and economic dimensions through cultural analysis, understanding what ‘development’, ‘growth’ and ‘prosperity’ signify singularly to that particular group- the undoing of the legacy of an historical explanation. This paper traces the evolution of communication approaches for development to identify points of inflection that allowed for changes to take place in the communication discipline. Understanding the politics and aesthetics of communication strategies paved way for identifying ways of negotiating with differences encountered in varied cultural settings. What thus emerged is a pedagogy of learning from the subaltern, appreciating explanations that emerge from within the communities so that the researcher can shuttle between the outside predicaments and the inside truths.  An attempt has also been made to understand the challenges and possibilities which the participatory communication approach promises.