The Sir John Monash Lecture (05/2015)

10 September 2015

Venue: Plenary Theatre, Monash University Malaysia
Time: 6pm

Communication for Sustainable Social Change: Three Development Paradigms, Two Communication Models, Many Applications and Approaches

The basic consensus on Communication for Social Change, or Development Communication, has been interpreted and applied in different ways throughout the past century. At theory and research levels, as well as in policy planning and implementation, divergent perspectives are on offer.

In this lecture, Prof Servaes will summarise the past of Communication for Development and Social Change; identify the roadmap for the future; and look at some of the key purposes, functions and approaches needed to steer communication for sustainable social change. He will also briefly assess communication and culture within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Speaker

Professor Jan Servaes

Prof Servaes is Chair Professor at the Department of Media and Communication, City University of Hong Kong; and UNESCO Chair in Communication for Sustainable Social Change at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has taught International Communication and Development Communication at about 100 universities in 43 countries, including Australia (Brisbane), Belgium (Brussels and Antwerp), the United States (Cornell), The Netherlands (Nijmegen), and Thailand (Thammasat, Bangkok).

Prof Servaes was the President of the European Consortium for Communications Research and Vice-President of the International Association of Media and Communication Research, in charge of Academic Publications and Research, from 2000 to 2004. He chaired the Scientific Committee for the World Congress on Communication for Development (Rome, 25–27 October 2006), organised by the World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, and the Communication Initiative.