This week’s readings center on the importance of participatory social change strategies, the inherent tensions, and its potentials for social transformation. In the opening section of Chapter 9 of Communicating Social Change, Dutta (2011) draws upon Habermas’s (1989) concept of “openness, dialogue, and inclusiveness” as important tenets in participatory social change processes. The assumption is that such openness creates equal opportunities for community members to deliberate on a relevant issue to them. Drawing from the dynamics in our Hunger and Food Insecurity Coalition community project thus far, I am wondering how inclusive a participatory social change process can be. For instance, there are active and passive community members in the coalition. At our last meeting for instance, community members suggested having a “face for their proposed campaign against stigma” often associated with the hungry and food insecure. According to the community members, such person must be vocal, p
This blog offers Mohan Dutta's reflections on the theoretical framework of the culture-centered approach, examining the interplays among Structure, Culture, and Agency in shaping marginalisation and the ways in which communities at the margins challenge structures. Writings on the blog are continually being revised to reflect the organic analysis of structure and agency.