International Social Science Journal (Chinese Edition)

No.1, 2018

The role and place of Communication for Sustainable Social Change (CSSC) (Abstract)

Jan Servaes and Patchanee Malikhao

Over the years, different perspectives, based on both “western” and “eastern” philosophical starting points, have resulted in a more holistic and integrated vision of sustainable development. At the same time, a unifying theme is that there is no universal development model. Development is an integral, multidimensional, and dialectic process that differs from society to society, community to community, context to context. Communication in sustainable development has started to address the specific concerns and issues of food security, rural development and livelihood, natural resource management and environment, poverty reduction, equity and gender, and information and communication technology (ICT). However, perspectives on sustainability, participation and culture in communication changed over time in line with the evolution of development approaches and trends, and the need for effective applications of communication methods and tools to new issues and priorities. In this paper we attempt to identify the different approaches on Communication for Social Change available both in theory and praxis. We will assess their relevance and importance from the perspective of sustainability, and present a framework of sustainability indicators for impact assessment at the research and policy level, as well as a model to assess sustainability at a community level.