On May 8, from 15:00-17:00 we will be using this portal to broadcast a guest lecture from Mark Mullen titled “The US and Europe in Georgia: The Differences in How They Do Development.”
– And what that means for you as you try to get a job.
Mark Mullen is currently working in Georgia, and has long experience from working in different countries: East Africa working on drought relief, followed by democracy related work for the National Democratic Institute (NDI, www.ndi.org), two years in Palestine, a year in Albania then in 1997 as the head of NDI in Georgia until the Rose Revolution. Mark started the national chapter of Transparency International in Georgia (www.transparency.ge) and is involved in a number of non-profit and for profit and social enterprise in Georgia.
There are many interesting connections between Comdev and Caucasus Studies and something that we plan to explore more through these types of events in the future.
If you would like to join the lecture in person you are welcome on May 8, 15-17,
Citadellsvägen 7 (room 104).
To learn more about the Caucasus Studies at Malmö University please see the program website.
The first Comdev seminar of 2012 was held from Jan. 20th to the 21st and, as always, featured some engaging guest speakers covering a wide range of topics. The second day of the seminar was also held in conjunction with the Örecomm Open Seminar which featured Tomas Tufte from Roskilde University and Winston Mano from the University of Westminster in the UK. Both days were well attended by Comdev students with 20+ attending in person and more than double that online.
The first day began with Oscar Hemer presenting a brief introduction to the program for the new students which was followed by a short lecture on basic fundamentals of the field of Communication for Development and the various forms it takes.
The afternoon session featured Lisa Ann Richey from Roskilde University discussing her research on Product Red. She shared some very interesting insights on corporate social responsibility, ethical consumerism, and celebratory endorsement of aid. As always, her lecture was well received and set the stage for what was to come for the next day.
To begin the Saturday event, Florencia Enghel was on hand to talk about the course work and give a lecture about Communication and Development Cooperation. After Florencia provided an introduction to the course work, she added to what Lisa had presented, discussing how the private sector is playing a role in development and giving some examples of how they are using their influence in questionable projects.
After lunch, Thomas Tufte gave an in-depth look at Communication for Development and Social Change highlighting History and Current Challenges. Following the previous two lectures, the role of the private sector in development was still on the minds of some students, which led to some insightful questions and comments from online. Thomas also discussed the different forms which communication for development takes, along with various definitions. Winston Mano capped off the two-day event with his unique perspective on Media and Development in the Digital Age. He was able to draw on his experience from living in both Tanzania and Britain to give a well-rounded lecture.
When trying to assess our contemporary predicament, the once controversial G-word may be about to be replaced by another elusive concept: Mediatization. The second or third phase of the digital revolution, with its explosion of so-called social media, has made it adamantly clear to us how all sectors of culture and society are saturated with, and increasingly influenced by, mediated communication. Not only politics and the public sphere, but our private lives and everyday experiences are today inseparably entangled with the media.
This is not a “new” phenomenon. It can be traced back all the way to Aristotle’s Poetics, or at least to Marshall McLuhan’s media theory and catchy but obscure conception of the medium as the message… But whereas mediatization used to be largely confined to the global North, or the so-called developed world, and hence not a concern for the traditional field of Communication for Development, it is now truly a global phenomenon, as demonstrated by the ongoing so-called Arabic Spring.
Today’s media environments, in which “old” and “new” media converge in ever changing forms, are both radically transforming the arenas of public opinion and agency – redefining the very concept of a public sphere – and yielding new forms of expression that transgress former genre and media boundaries.
