Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the relationship between media and social change through a discussion of research conducted in India over the past five years. Social change in this context is about increased agency, mobility and participation for women farmers and women who work in the informal sector. The aim is to ask what constitutes positive social change for these women, and how communication technologies including radio and mobile phones contribute to this. How do these communication technologies enhance or extend initiatives that work to challenge and change the economic, social and cultural structures that traditionally exclude these women?

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the relationship between media and social change through a discussion of research conducted in India over the past five years. Social change in this context is about increased agency, mobility and participation for women farmers and women who work in the informal sector. The aim is to ask what constitutes positive social change for these women, and how communication technologies including radio and mobile phones contribute to this. How do these communication technologies enhance or extend initiatives that work to challenge and change the economic, social and cultural structures that traditionally exclude these women? The paper draws in particular upon research with the Deccan Development Society (DDS) in Andhra Pradesh where women farmers run Sangham Radio, and SEWA supported RUDI No Radio in Gujurat. The research with these women is used to critique approaches within the fields of Communication for Development (C4D), and Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D). Through studies of the particularities of use of media within these populations and their setting within local initiatives that aim to sustain livelihoods and achieve food sovereignty, we start to uncover the role of media for the meaningful mobility of these women, and the relationships of these examples to broader development discourse. Development discourse tends to emphasise the role of new media and technologies for increased flow of knowledge from North to South, whereas these local initiatives function by wholly different ways of knowing.