Accuracy: Content that is valid and without errors of fact, interpretation, or judgment.
Advocacy: Communication directed at policymakers and decisionmakers to promote policies, regulations, and programs to bring about change.
Availability: Content (whether a targeted message or other information) that is delivered or placed where the audience can access it. Placement varies according to audience, message complexity, and purpose—from interpersonal and social networks to billboards, mass transit signs, prime-time TV, and radio and from public kiosks (print or electronic) to the Internet.
Balance: Where appropriate, content that fairly and accurately presents the benefits and risks of potential actions or recognizes different and valid perspectives on an issue.
Consistency: Content that remains internally consistent over time and also is consistent with information from other sources.
Consumer health informatics: Interactive health communication (see below) focusing on consumers.
Consumer health information: Information designed to help individuals understand their health and make health-related decisions for themselves and their families.
Cultural competence: The design, implementation, and evaluation process that accounts for special issues of select population groups (ethnic and racial, linguistic) as well as differing educational levels and physical abilities.
Decision support systems: Computer software programs designed to assist diagnostic and treatment decisions. Examples include drug alert notification systems, prompts to implement practice guidelines, and health risk appraisals.
Evidence base: Relevant scientific evidence that has undergone comprehensive review and rigorous analysis to formulate practice guidelines, performance measures, review criteria, and technology assessments for telehealth applications.
Formative research: Assesses the nature of the problem, the needs of the target audience, and the implementation process to inform and improve program design. Formative research is conducted both prior to and during program development to adapt the program to audience needs. Common methods include literature reviews, reviews of existing programs, and surveys, interviews, and focus group discussions with members of the target audience.
Health communication: The art and technique of informing, influencing, and motivating individual, institutional, and public audiences about important health issues. The scope of health communication includes disease prevention, health promotion, health care policy, and the business of health care as well as enhancement of the quality of life and health of individuals within the community.
Health education: Any planned combination of learning experiences designed to predispose, enable, and reinforce voluntary behavior conducive to health in individuals, groups, or communities.
Health literacy: The degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.
Health promotion: Any planned combination of educational, political, regulatory, and organizational supports for actions and conditions of living conducive to the health of individuals, groups, or communities.
Interactive health communication:The interaction of an individual with an electronic device or communication technology to access or transmit health information or to receive guidance on a health-related issue.
Internet: A worldwide interconnection of computer networks operated by government, commercial, and academic organizations and private citizens.
Literacy: The ability to read, write, and speak in English and to compute and solve problems at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job and in society, to achieve one’s goals, and develop one’s knowledge and potential
Medical informatics: A field of study concerned with the broad range of issues in the management and use of biomedical information, including medical computing and the study of the nature of medical information itself.
Outcome evaluation (sometimes called impact evaluation): Examines the results of a communication intervention, including changes in awareness, attitudes, beliefs, actions, professional practices, policies, costs, and institutional or social systems.
Patient communication: Information for individuals with health conditions to help them maximize recovery, maintain therapeutic regimens, and understand alternative approaches. Patient communication includes educational resources, provider-patient communication, and, increasingly, peer-to-peer communication.
Process evaluation: Monitors the administrative, organizational, or other operational characteristics of an intervention. Process evaluation includes monitoring the dissemination of communication products to intended users (whether gatekeepers or audiences) and audience members’ exposure to a message. For an interactive health communication application, process evaluation may include testing how the application functions.
Reach: Information that gets to or is available to the largest possible number of people in the target population.
Reliability: Content that is credible in terms of its source and is kept up to date.
Repetition: Delivery of and access to content continued or repeated over time, both to reinforce the impact with a given audience and to reach new generations.
Risk communication: Engaging communities in discussions about environmental and other health risks and about approaches to deal with them. Risk communication also includes individual counseling about genetic risks and consequent choices.
Social marketing: The application of marketing principles and techniques to program development, implementation, and evaluation to promote healthy behaviors or reduce risky ones.
Tailoring: Creating messages and materials to reach one specific person based on characteristics unique to that person, related to the outcome of interest, and derived from an assessment of that individual.
Targeting: Creating messages and materials intended to reach a specific segment of a population, usually based on one or more demographic or other characteristics shared by its members.
Tele-health: The application of telecommunication and computer technologies to the broad spectrum of public health, medicine, and health.
Telemedicine: The use of electronic information and communication technologies to provide clinical care across distance.
Timeliness: Content that is provided or available when the audience is most receptive to, or in need of, the specific information.
Underserved: Individuals or groups who lack access to health services or information relative to the national average. The underserved population may include residents of rural, remote, or inner-city areas; members of certain racial and ethnic groups; socio-economically disadvantaged persons; or people with disabilities.
Understandability: Reading or language level and format (including multimedia) appropriate for a specific audience.World Wide Web (Web): An international virtual network composed of Internet host computers that can be accessed by graphical browsers.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Communication for development: new paradigms
Communication will be considered as a means to build flows of information between social actors for change, grassroots movements and institutional organizations. Rather than bottom-down communication strategies, local communities are calling for a multi-level strategy to achieve self empowerment regarding their own rights and resources. While the participatory approach has been shown to be the contemporary way to deal with conflicts related to natural resources management, there is a need for empowering democracy through an integration of local and central perspectives.
Communication for development has became the main point that has to be stressed if we want to highlight the existing gap between the legal status of women in water management and the effectiveness of their representation.
We are going to discuss three main topics to draw a frame for social communication in the Indian scenario in order to discuss the implementation of a reform on local communities policies on water and natural resources management. The same reform includes the introduction of women participation in the decision making process at local level.
1. New policies in natural resources management
2. Lack in communication. Missing information or misinformation? A communication gap between Indian Parliament and Local Stakeholders
3. How do local actors deal with communication of development? Two different perspectives.
We will present these main issues to give a sample of an information bias in government policies towards development. It links between social actors at the grassroots level and international public sphere. As we discussed, it also aims to point out the need of a new theoretical approaches in communication of development, to shift from a top-down perspective to an orchestral view.
It has emerged from research a lack in communication on new policies on natural resources management (water, water bodies, social forest) in the process to rely the power from the central government to local communities. The new policy on natural resources management has been introduced to promote and involve local communities in the decision making processes and women’s participation in the decision making process about natural resources management is one of the statements of the reform. However, the central authority made no plans for an information campaign to communicate to the citizens the reform of the Indian Parliament.
The 73rd Amendment Act was held in 1992 and it was supposed to empower to local institutional bodies and to ensure women’s participation in it. However, despite their new legal status, the target of the reform had no information about their new tasks. As we are concerning community empowerment in natural resources management, it is clear that there can be no empowerment without awareness.
Misinformation on natural resources policies can lead to a mismanagement of those resources rural communities are relying. Moreover, local communities knowledge would give important samples of sustainable resources management.
Because of that, communication can represent an important tool in the development process, not only to spread information from policy makers to users, it can help gathering knowledge from the local communities and wave it into more sustainable projects and policies for development. As it can be observed by Indian local realities all over the country, this approach may lead to some goals in communities empowerment.
1. New policies in natural resources management
The process of decentralization became effective in 1992, with the 73rd Amendment Act, the core of this act, held by the Parliament, was the attribution of legal status to the Panchayati Raj (local governance committees). New powers have been given to the local institutions, at state level, block level, district level and village level.
73rd and 74th Amendments Act . Amendment namely local bodies of governance at the village and city level: The village panchayats (local governments) and the city nagarpalikas (municipalities). The 11th and 12th schedules to the constitution lay down lists of subjects to be devolved to the panchayats and nagarpalikas. The list includes, inter alias, drinking water, water management, watershed development and sanitation. This may play an important role in water development, however, the process of decentralization is still evolving.
At the actual situation in India related with the Panchayats law process:
In 1992, the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, passed by the Indian Parliament, puts natural resources management under the Panchayati Raj control. Periodical elections once in five years at village level, intermediate level and district level, reservations for scheduled castes and tribes and reservations for women (1/3rd of the total seats at each level) are some significant features of the new system. After it has been conferred constitutional and legal status, the Panchayati Raj would be widely accepted as Institutions to enact people participation in self - governance. The Panchayats have now full authority to prepare plans for economic development and social justice and to implement those schemes. This includes ten fundamental items related to natural resources management that are listed in the well known Eleventh Schedule. As the law stands, each Gram Sabha (a local body which gathers all the eligible voters) will have the competence to preserve traditions, cultural identity, natural resources, and the usual way of resolving conflicts.
2. Missing information or misinformation? A communication gap between Indian Parliament and Local Stakeholders
New powers had been formally addressed to local Panchayats, though no implementation of the legal status has followed. In other words, the legal status of Panchayats has changed, but it has no effectiveness. We are overstressing this point to highlight that there has been no communication from the government about the new status of Panchayats, nor there has been taken initiatives to facilitate people’s awareness about the reform. Moreover, if the goal to achieve was supposed to be community empowerment and de-centred governance, it is an assumption that the first step for empowerment is the access to the tools to negotiate power.
First of all, there is no information throw the people of the rural areas about their political rights on natural resources. Second, the Panchayat empowerment to facilitate communities in critical resources management is quite far to be truth.
No information has been spread towards the local bodies to enhance the self-government process and rural women are still marginalized. This attitude of the central government can be described also as a risky behaviour because of the probability of loosing local knowledge on water management, which can mean a loss in terms of knowledge on more sustainable techniques.
Women marginalization is just one flap of the communication problem: because of the lacking information process from the centre (government) some local communities are creating parallel informal bodies for water management to ensure equality among the users. Particularly, local informal committees for water management are coming to light. As some researchers (Ragupathy 2004) had shown, people may not trust elected Panchayats which members may not have a stake or interest in the common property because they can look at these resources as income generators.
As evidence of that, there have been cases of corruption in Panchayats, especially in those areas with no monitoring of the electoral process. As it has been stressed by some scholars (Cleaver 1991) encouraging women to play important roles in water management. can lead to more sustainable uses, ensuring efficiency and effectiveness and a more responsible management of the projects implementation plan.
As well known, water users are a female community, on the other side, decision makers are mainly male dominated community. It has also been stated that women participation in decision making can lead the community to feel local institutions more accountable.
As we have discussed above, miscommunication is the major problem. If citizens, which are the target of the reform, are not aware about their rights on the environment they are living with, they do not have any chance to take part in the development process. As it could be observed by the field research, the communities of this area feel they do not have rights to put their voice in the negotiation on the natural resources they depend on. Infect, they are not aware they have the power to preserve the water, the forest, the land.
In rural areas of very few know about Panchayati Raj updates. People look at roles and duties of these institutions in different ways and it mostly depends on their own local experience with the authority. This issue need to be specified: we are talking about overlapping between formal and informal institutions in development projects and their interlinking with traditional and modern once. It can be useful to introduce a conceptual frame on local institutions. About this, Mosse suggests as a result of his work in South India (1997), that finding the right space in which the project should work was a matter of balancing the need for authority with independence from patronage (Cleaver 2003).
In our perspective, the Gram Sabha, the collective body of all the eligible voters, is supposed to be the soul of the panchayat institutions in order to further people’s participation in a democratic way. But, we can observed from the field, that unless the intervention of a non institutional subject (NGO) as a third actor between the central government and the local communities, neither the Gram Panchayat nor the Gram Sabha are viewed as instruments of empowerment for/from the communities. Not to mention the political representation for women that is still far to be assumed.
3.How do local actors deal with Communication of Development? Two different perspectives
No real empowerment followed the Amendment Act and no information has been spread by the Government. The only empowerment plan made by the Government is the “Community Empowerment for Sustainable Development” run by the United Nations Development Program. Among the communities of rural areas this program is run by local NGOs.
As community rights on water resources are becoming an increasingly controversial issue in Indian society, thus it has become imperative for some local social actors to enhance women’s roles in local self governance.
The main purpose of communication in self government empowerment is to shift from a formal representation to a concrete role in decision making process.
As it was testified by local communities in rural areas, centralization of power on natural resources is increasing and the Panchayats are just administrative bodies. Moreover, when the elected committees do not depend on the resources they responsible for, there can be cases of corruption, as it was for the Panchayats in rural areas. We can assume by some literatures (Mosse 1997; Cleaver 2003) that people who is not directly involved in the resources management and outcome can defeat or not contribute to the management, behaving as free-rider, it has also been stated that formal structures may not be able to represent new roles and duties in community relationships development (as changes in gender relationships).
From the 73rd Act of the Indian Parliament, communities, and women within the communities do have power to preserve water and natural resources they depend on. Members of local communities now have a role in making and modifying rules on natural resources management.
Leaving behind a functional approach and considering the cultural aspects of this reform, we can clearly identify a high potential and a communication bias. Women’s role in water management is identified as crucial. It is well known that female members of rural communities are described from some literature on NRM as the gatekeepers of local knowledge and techniques. Because of that, and because of the impact on traditional roles and hierarchies, women participation in decision making process is seen as a mean to ensure a more equitable and accountable management of natural resources.
Participation and discussion are basis of every day decision making so it can be misleading to focus only to formal institutions. The social locus of negotiation present traditional rules that are somehow changing and reproducing hierarchy and those rules and roles have to be taken into account in the process of communicating for development projects.
Because of their knowledge on the resources and their knowledge on the resources use, Indian women can be a dramatic catalyst of change in the development process. Self-determination about natural resources, community ownership on water and land and political representation for women in the Panchayat are some interlinked issued that have to be discussed in the awakening process.
Indian scenario’s approaches for Communication of Development
In the disappointing progress of Panchayat Raj institutions reforms, we met some reactions among local actors which are trying to avoid the failure of the Indian Parliament approaches in communicating new policies. More specifically, we will mention two approaches seen in the Indian scenario, among those local social actors who are advocating for local communities rights on water resources management and towards women empowerment within the communities.
Our purpose is to draw specific tools, the uses of the media, presence at grassroots level and communication paths they are using, in order to highlight their strategies and goals, emphasising their complementarity.
The first social subject is working to spread information at grassroots level throw local communities empowerment. Following its view, the main task to address is capacity building strategies for women in Panchayat, thus pre- during and post-election workshops are held in rural villages to let male and female villagers be more comfortable with elected women covering critical roles. Interface meetings for women of rural areas are taking place once a year to gather all the eligible female voters and give them an interface with decision makers. The purpose of the meeting is to train women to raise their voice and to achieve a self-confident approach throw information and acknowledgement about their rights. The political arenas are seen as a stage where rationality is the first step to negotiate.
In this way of thinking, development is empowerment at grassroots level which means clustering awareness on citizens rights and duties towards the ecosystem and natural resources they are living with. Public sphere is a dialogical stage in which negotiation throw the actors is a meaning of languages (Habermas 1992; Privitera 2001). The language of norms give the power to negotiate also to the people who is coming from the social space, throw knowledge on norms laws they have the power to raise their voice towards the authority.
A different approach comes from the assumption that advocating on the national stage needs the support of the international social network. The social subject ( or social actor) we are now describing is struggling at national level throw a media campaign at the international level. It is advocating for local communities rights on natural resources by using many languages at different levels (into different arenas). This actor is using a conceptual frame which evokes myths and symbols of the Indian traditional culture to create a conceptual framework (net of meaning) that has the power to capture the most scarce resource of the public sphere: attention (Hilgartner and Bosk 1988). Thanks to social networking and to the rhetoric of myths and symbols (see rituals) they are creating new spaces to negotiate policies at national level. In this frame they are building a strategy which is using three rethorical topics:
· Emotional
· Cognitive
· Prescriptive
The use of symbolic signals leads to changes at an information- knowledge based level, it will further give the assumption of a different concept of development that keep the distance from the mainstreaming perspective on the concepts of development-gender-natural resources management. Throw shaping the ideas on development they are making pressures to the Indian government to change his policies towards development.
Despite the disappointing progress of the Indian reform process on panchayat law, it is not our purpose to state the effectiveness of those strategies described above. They are part of a process under construction and is not possible right now to define future interactions among the actors.
We can find in the social context new patterns to draw as we are concerning Communication of Development. As fields research are showing (Cleaver 2003; Mosse 1997) new perspectives in Communication of Development needs to investigate interactions among concepts like development, participation and communication. Moreover, institutions, agencies and researchers have to look thorough into criss-crossing of different arenas of the communication process (Hilgartner and Bosk 1988).
Conclusion: A conceptual frame for development
We want to frame the discourse on development from an “endogenous” perspective because we are talking about natural resources which local communities depend on. Although many literature talks about development as a strictly endogenous process, this remains a wishful thinking. Development implies that local actors, both institutional and informal, are should be engaged in a negotiation on their positions and rules in social, economic and political arenas. In addition to that, transnational and global flows have an important influence on this process.
If we consider development as the empowerment of marginalized groups, we must consider that the only way to achieve it is by using local knowledge in the strategy building process. Local stakeholders interests and traditions are tools and means to implement so called participatory strategies.
It has been show from the field research that development is becoming an integrated “orchestral” process which embrace social, cultural, human, environmental, economical and political perspective. Despite that and although it has been stressed in many literature on development, that there is a need of local communities to have more focus on their own social production and re-production, a different participatory approaches is hard to handle.
Increasing recognition of grassroots, community-based development in asserting, defining, organizing and acting to build their own realities was a big step in last thirty years in the short history of development studies. But there is still a gap between policies and implementation of these strategies, as we have stated below. It has been notice in the field resource that there is a call for political processes in which participation is not a mere operational goal but a mean to ensure more equity on natural resources conflicts.
We saw two different communicational approaches within the social facilitators that have been analyzed. Those approaches comes from two different areas of the social discourse. One talks about rights of citizenship and the other is inspired by the symbolic and ritual sphere.
The first one uses a grassroots approach, where leads the assumption that changes can arise within the community. Those changes in the political behaviour at grassroots level can lead to develop horizontal networks called “voice” (Hirshman 1970). The focus is not on giving more “voice” to subaltern groups but to re-positioning them into local political arenas, which means that these groups can be perceived as legitimate political interlocutory in development process. This implies that people from these communities are considered “citizens”, instead of “underdeveloped” or just “backwards”. This is possible in the way in which one can assume that natural resources are a right instead of a need: that allows communities to stand for those rights and it legitimate them to ask a position and a role in negotiation process in public and political arenas. This define the participatory process as citizens actions more than as an instrumental process.
The political perspective calls for an “orchestral” and deliberative exchange between actors, so, concerning participatory process it’s not about attaining a consensus between parts, it is about negotiating stakeholders interests and visions. This collective definition ask for different frames as it can happened at institutional or community-based level. It has been stated by Habermas (1992) that decisions are taken throw discussion or “reasoning”: he develops from the idea of public sphere a theory of the communication action, placing an emphasis on the possibilities of attaining consensus through the exercise of rationality in public deliberation, which is pragmatic rather than idealistic. Instead of searching consensual solutions for local problems, the focus of this process is to highlight dissimilar perceptions of reality and different stakes concerning specific and defined issues.
Moreover, in the globalized context of economics and governance, translocal identifications and transnational flows of ideas, people and resources, discourses on participation are gaining space into public arenas, involving even more complex configurations. These growing actors are calling for political spaces within and outside the national-state (Cornwall 2002).
Strictly related with this is a call for spaces of participation, sites for communication, possibilities, and circulation of information, which define, on the one side, the chance of expression of different opinions and interests, and the empowerment through information and communicational interaction on the other side.
The life world of social knowledge distribution can be implemented by socio-cultural relations and clusters of values that are sensitive to local realities, it can further push for social engagement.
It is very clear that media have a significant role to play in national development with the changing communication and media scenario all over the world, it is possible to evolve appropriate communication strategies to meet the development needs of the people. The growth and expansion of satellite communication has opened up several possibilities for exploiting modern communication technologies for development.
Communication for development has became the main point that has to be stressed if we want to highlight the existing gap between the legal status of women in water management and the effectiveness of their representation.
We are going to discuss three main topics to draw a frame for social communication in the Indian scenario in order to discuss the implementation of a reform on local communities policies on water and natural resources management. The same reform includes the introduction of women participation in the decision making process at local level.
1. New policies in natural resources management
2. Lack in communication. Missing information or misinformation? A communication gap between Indian Parliament and Local Stakeholders
3. How do local actors deal with communication of development? Two different perspectives.
We will present these main issues to give a sample of an information bias in government policies towards development. It links between social actors at the grassroots level and international public sphere. As we discussed, it also aims to point out the need of a new theoretical approaches in communication of development, to shift from a top-down perspective to an orchestral view.
It has emerged from research a lack in communication on new policies on natural resources management (water, water bodies, social forest) in the process to rely the power from the central government to local communities. The new policy on natural resources management has been introduced to promote and involve local communities in the decision making processes and women’s participation in the decision making process about natural resources management is one of the statements of the reform. However, the central authority made no plans for an information campaign to communicate to the citizens the reform of the Indian Parliament.
The 73rd Amendment Act was held in 1992 and it was supposed to empower to local institutional bodies and to ensure women’s participation in it. However, despite their new legal status, the target of the reform had no information about their new tasks. As we are concerning community empowerment in natural resources management, it is clear that there can be no empowerment without awareness.
Misinformation on natural resources policies can lead to a mismanagement of those resources rural communities are relying. Moreover, local communities knowledge would give important samples of sustainable resources management.
Because of that, communication can represent an important tool in the development process, not only to spread information from policy makers to users, it can help gathering knowledge from the local communities and wave it into more sustainable projects and policies for development. As it can be observed by Indian local realities all over the country, this approach may lead to some goals in communities empowerment.
1. New policies in natural resources management
The process of decentralization became effective in 1992, with the 73rd Amendment Act, the core of this act, held by the Parliament, was the attribution of legal status to the Panchayati Raj (local governance committees). New powers have been given to the local institutions, at state level, block level, district level and village level.
73rd and 74th Amendments Act . Amendment namely local bodies of governance at the village and city level: The village panchayats (local governments) and the city nagarpalikas (municipalities). The 11th and 12th schedules to the constitution lay down lists of subjects to be devolved to the panchayats and nagarpalikas. The list includes, inter alias, drinking water, water management, watershed development and sanitation. This may play an important role in water development, however, the process of decentralization is still evolving.
At the actual situation in India related with the Panchayats law process:
In 1992, the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, passed by the Indian Parliament, puts natural resources management under the Panchayati Raj control. Periodical elections once in five years at village level, intermediate level and district level, reservations for scheduled castes and tribes and reservations for women (1/3rd of the total seats at each level) are some significant features of the new system. After it has been conferred constitutional and legal status, the Panchayati Raj would be widely accepted as Institutions to enact people participation in self - governance. The Panchayats have now full authority to prepare plans for economic development and social justice and to implement those schemes. This includes ten fundamental items related to natural resources management that are listed in the well known Eleventh Schedule. As the law stands, each Gram Sabha (a local body which gathers all the eligible voters) will have the competence to preserve traditions, cultural identity, natural resources, and the usual way of resolving conflicts.
2. Missing information or misinformation? A communication gap between Indian Parliament and Local Stakeholders
New powers had been formally addressed to local Panchayats, though no implementation of the legal status has followed. In other words, the legal status of Panchayats has changed, but it has no effectiveness. We are overstressing this point to highlight that there has been no communication from the government about the new status of Panchayats, nor there has been taken initiatives to facilitate people’s awareness about the reform. Moreover, if the goal to achieve was supposed to be community empowerment and de-centred governance, it is an assumption that the first step for empowerment is the access to the tools to negotiate power.
First of all, there is no information throw the people of the rural areas about their political rights on natural resources. Second, the Panchayat empowerment to facilitate communities in critical resources management is quite far to be truth.
No information has been spread towards the local bodies to enhance the self-government process and rural women are still marginalized. This attitude of the central government can be described also as a risky behaviour because of the probability of loosing local knowledge on water management, which can mean a loss in terms of knowledge on more sustainable techniques.
Women marginalization is just one flap of the communication problem: because of the lacking information process from the centre (government) some local communities are creating parallel informal bodies for water management to ensure equality among the users. Particularly, local informal committees for water management are coming to light. As some researchers (Ragupathy 2004) had shown, people may not trust elected Panchayats which members may not have a stake or interest in the common property because they can look at these resources as income generators.
As evidence of that, there have been cases of corruption in Panchayats, especially in those areas with no monitoring of the electoral process. As it has been stressed by some scholars (Cleaver 1991) encouraging women to play important roles in water management. can lead to more sustainable uses, ensuring efficiency and effectiveness and a more responsible management of the projects implementation plan.
As well known, water users are a female community, on the other side, decision makers are mainly male dominated community. It has also been stated that women participation in decision making can lead the community to feel local institutions more accountable.
As we have discussed above, miscommunication is the major problem. If citizens, which are the target of the reform, are not aware about their rights on the environment they are living with, they do not have any chance to take part in the development process. As it could be observed by the field research, the communities of this area feel they do not have rights to put their voice in the negotiation on the natural resources they depend on. Infect, they are not aware they have the power to preserve the water, the forest, the land.
In rural areas of very few know about Panchayati Raj updates. People look at roles and duties of these institutions in different ways and it mostly depends on their own local experience with the authority. This issue need to be specified: we are talking about overlapping between formal and informal institutions in development projects and their interlinking with traditional and modern once. It can be useful to introduce a conceptual frame on local institutions. About this, Mosse suggests as a result of his work in South India (1997), that finding the right space in which the project should work was a matter of balancing the need for authority with independence from patronage (Cleaver 2003).
In our perspective, the Gram Sabha, the collective body of all the eligible voters, is supposed to be the soul of the panchayat institutions in order to further people’s participation in a democratic way. But, we can observed from the field, that unless the intervention of a non institutional subject (NGO) as a third actor between the central government and the local communities, neither the Gram Panchayat nor the Gram Sabha are viewed as instruments of empowerment for/from the communities. Not to mention the political representation for women that is still far to be assumed.
3.How do local actors deal with Communication of Development? Two different perspectives
No real empowerment followed the Amendment Act and no information has been spread by the Government. The only empowerment plan made by the Government is the “Community Empowerment for Sustainable Development” run by the United Nations Development Program. Among the communities of rural areas this program is run by local NGOs.
As community rights on water resources are becoming an increasingly controversial issue in Indian society, thus it has become imperative for some local social actors to enhance women’s roles in local self governance.
The main purpose of communication in self government empowerment is to shift from a formal representation to a concrete role in decision making process.
As it was testified by local communities in rural areas, centralization of power on natural resources is increasing and the Panchayats are just administrative bodies. Moreover, when the elected committees do not depend on the resources they responsible for, there can be cases of corruption, as it was for the Panchayats in rural areas. We can assume by some literatures (Mosse 1997; Cleaver 2003) that people who is not directly involved in the resources management and outcome can defeat or not contribute to the management, behaving as free-rider, it has also been stated that formal structures may not be able to represent new roles and duties in community relationships development (as changes in gender relationships).
From the 73rd Act of the Indian Parliament, communities, and women within the communities do have power to preserve water and natural resources they depend on. Members of local communities now have a role in making and modifying rules on natural resources management.
Leaving behind a functional approach and considering the cultural aspects of this reform, we can clearly identify a high potential and a communication bias. Women’s role in water management is identified as crucial. It is well known that female members of rural communities are described from some literature on NRM as the gatekeepers of local knowledge and techniques. Because of that, and because of the impact on traditional roles and hierarchies, women participation in decision making process is seen as a mean to ensure a more equitable and accountable management of natural resources.
Participation and discussion are basis of every day decision making so it can be misleading to focus only to formal institutions. The social locus of negotiation present traditional rules that are somehow changing and reproducing hierarchy and those rules and roles have to be taken into account in the process of communicating for development projects.
Because of their knowledge on the resources and their knowledge on the resources use, Indian women can be a dramatic catalyst of change in the development process. Self-determination about natural resources, community ownership on water and land and political representation for women in the Panchayat are some interlinked issued that have to be discussed in the awakening process.
Indian scenario’s approaches for Communication of Development
In the disappointing progress of Panchayat Raj institutions reforms, we met some reactions among local actors which are trying to avoid the failure of the Indian Parliament approaches in communicating new policies. More specifically, we will mention two approaches seen in the Indian scenario, among those local social actors who are advocating for local communities rights on water resources management and towards women empowerment within the communities.
Our purpose is to draw specific tools, the uses of the media, presence at grassroots level and communication paths they are using, in order to highlight their strategies and goals, emphasising their complementarity.
The first social subject is working to spread information at grassroots level throw local communities empowerment. Following its view, the main task to address is capacity building strategies for women in Panchayat, thus pre- during and post-election workshops are held in rural villages to let male and female villagers be more comfortable with elected women covering critical roles. Interface meetings for women of rural areas are taking place once a year to gather all the eligible female voters and give them an interface with decision makers. The purpose of the meeting is to train women to raise their voice and to achieve a self-confident approach throw information and acknowledgement about their rights. The political arenas are seen as a stage where rationality is the first step to negotiate.
In this way of thinking, development is empowerment at grassroots level which means clustering awareness on citizens rights and duties towards the ecosystem and natural resources they are living with. Public sphere is a dialogical stage in which negotiation throw the actors is a meaning of languages (Habermas 1992; Privitera 2001). The language of norms give the power to negotiate also to the people who is coming from the social space, throw knowledge on norms laws they have the power to raise their voice towards the authority.
A different approach comes from the assumption that advocating on the national stage needs the support of the international social network. The social subject ( or social actor) we are now describing is struggling at national level throw a media campaign at the international level. It is advocating for local communities rights on natural resources by using many languages at different levels (into different arenas). This actor is using a conceptual frame which evokes myths and symbols of the Indian traditional culture to create a conceptual framework (net of meaning) that has the power to capture the most scarce resource of the public sphere: attention (Hilgartner and Bosk 1988). Thanks to social networking and to the rhetoric of myths and symbols (see rituals) they are creating new spaces to negotiate policies at national level. In this frame they are building a strategy which is using three rethorical topics:
· Emotional
· Cognitive
· Prescriptive
The use of symbolic signals leads to changes at an information- knowledge based level, it will further give the assumption of a different concept of development that keep the distance from the mainstreaming perspective on the concepts of development-gender-natural resources management. Throw shaping the ideas on development they are making pressures to the Indian government to change his policies towards development.
Despite the disappointing progress of the Indian reform process on panchayat law, it is not our purpose to state the effectiveness of those strategies described above. They are part of a process under construction and is not possible right now to define future interactions among the actors.
We can find in the social context new patterns to draw as we are concerning Communication of Development. As fields research are showing (Cleaver 2003; Mosse 1997) new perspectives in Communication of Development needs to investigate interactions among concepts like development, participation and communication. Moreover, institutions, agencies and researchers have to look thorough into criss-crossing of different arenas of the communication process (Hilgartner and Bosk 1988).
Conclusion: A conceptual frame for development
We want to frame the discourse on development from an “endogenous” perspective because we are talking about natural resources which local communities depend on. Although many literature talks about development as a strictly endogenous process, this remains a wishful thinking. Development implies that local actors, both institutional and informal, are should be engaged in a negotiation on their positions and rules in social, economic and political arenas. In addition to that, transnational and global flows have an important influence on this process.
If we consider development as the empowerment of marginalized groups, we must consider that the only way to achieve it is by using local knowledge in the strategy building process. Local stakeholders interests and traditions are tools and means to implement so called participatory strategies.
It has been show from the field research that development is becoming an integrated “orchestral” process which embrace social, cultural, human, environmental, economical and political perspective. Despite that and although it has been stressed in many literature on development, that there is a need of local communities to have more focus on their own social production and re-production, a different participatory approaches is hard to handle.
Increasing recognition of grassroots, community-based development in asserting, defining, organizing and acting to build their own realities was a big step in last thirty years in the short history of development studies. But there is still a gap between policies and implementation of these strategies, as we have stated below. It has been notice in the field resource that there is a call for political processes in which participation is not a mere operational goal but a mean to ensure more equity on natural resources conflicts.
We saw two different communicational approaches within the social facilitators that have been analyzed. Those approaches comes from two different areas of the social discourse. One talks about rights of citizenship and the other is inspired by the symbolic and ritual sphere.
The first one uses a grassroots approach, where leads the assumption that changes can arise within the community. Those changes in the political behaviour at grassroots level can lead to develop horizontal networks called “voice” (Hirshman 1970). The focus is not on giving more “voice” to subaltern groups but to re-positioning them into local political arenas, which means that these groups can be perceived as legitimate political interlocutory in development process. This implies that people from these communities are considered “citizens”, instead of “underdeveloped” or just “backwards”. This is possible in the way in which one can assume that natural resources are a right instead of a need: that allows communities to stand for those rights and it legitimate them to ask a position and a role in negotiation process in public and political arenas. This define the participatory process as citizens actions more than as an instrumental process.
The political perspective calls for an “orchestral” and deliberative exchange between actors, so, concerning participatory process it’s not about attaining a consensus between parts, it is about negotiating stakeholders interests and visions. This collective definition ask for different frames as it can happened at institutional or community-based level. It has been stated by Habermas (1992) that decisions are taken throw discussion or “reasoning”: he develops from the idea of public sphere a theory of the communication action, placing an emphasis on the possibilities of attaining consensus through the exercise of rationality in public deliberation, which is pragmatic rather than idealistic. Instead of searching consensual solutions for local problems, the focus of this process is to highlight dissimilar perceptions of reality and different stakes concerning specific and defined issues.
Moreover, in the globalized context of economics and governance, translocal identifications and transnational flows of ideas, people and resources, discourses on participation are gaining space into public arenas, involving even more complex configurations. These growing actors are calling for political spaces within and outside the national-state (Cornwall 2002).
Strictly related with this is a call for spaces of participation, sites for communication, possibilities, and circulation of information, which define, on the one side, the chance of expression of different opinions and interests, and the empowerment through information and communicational interaction on the other side.
The life world of social knowledge distribution can be implemented by socio-cultural relations and clusters of values that are sensitive to local realities, it can further push for social engagement.
It is very clear that media have a significant role to play in national development with the changing communication and media scenario all over the world, it is possible to evolve appropriate communication strategies to meet the development needs of the people. The growth and expansion of satellite communication has opened up several possibilities for exploiting modern communication technologies for development.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
CHALLENGES FOR ENVIRONMENT OF GLOBALIZATION
Although the contemporary debate on globalization has been contentious, it has not always been useful. No one doubts that some very significant global processes—economic, social, cultural, political and environmental—are underway and that they affect (nearly) everyone and (nearly) everything. Yet, there is no agreement on exactly how to define this thing we call “globalization,” nor on exactly which parts of it are good or bad, and for whom. For the most part, a polarized view of globalization, its potential and its pitfalls has taken hold of the public imagination. It has often been
projected either as a panacea for all the ills of the world or as their primary cause. The discussion on the links between environment and globalization has been similarly stuck in a quagmire of many
unjustified expectations and fears about the connections between these two domains.
There are nearly as many definitions of globalization as authors who write on the subject. One review, by Scholte, provides a classification of at least five broad sets of definitions:
Globalization as Internationalization- The “global” in globalization is viewed “as simply another adjective to describe cross-border relations between countries.” It describes the growth in international exchange and interdependence.
Globalization as Liberalization-Removing government imposed restrictions on movements between countries.
Globalization as Universalization - Process of spreading ideas and experiences to people at all corners of the earth so that aspirations and experiences around the world become harmonized.
Globalization as Westernization or Modernization- The social structures of modernity (capitalism, industrialism, etc.) are spread the world over, destroying cultures and local self-determination in the process.
Globalization as Deterritorialization - Process of the “reconfiguration of geography, so that social space is no longer wholly mapped in terms of territorial places, territorial distances and territorial borders.” Although the debates on the definition and importance of globalization have been vigorous over time, we believe that the truly relevant policy questions today are about who benefits and who does not; how the benefits and the costs of these processes can be shared fairly; how the opportunities can be maximized by all; and how the risks can be minimized.
In addressing these questions, one can understand globalization to be a complex set of dynamics offering many opportunities to better the human condition, but also involving significant potential
threats. Contemporary globalization manifests itself in various ways, three of which are of particular relevance to policy-makers. They also comprise significant environmental opportunities and risks.
Globalization of the Economy- The world economy globalizes as national economies integrate into the international economy through trade; foreign direct investment; short-term capital flows; international movement of workers and people in general; and flows of technology. This has created new opportunities for many; but not for all. It has also placed pressures on the global environment and on natural resources, straining the capacity of the environment to sustain itself and exposing human dependence on our environment.6 A globalized economy can also produce globalized externalities and enhance global inequities. Local environmental and economic decisions can contribute to global solutions and prosperity, but the environmental costs, as well as the economic ramifications of our actions, can be externalized to places and people who are so faraway as to seem invisible.
Globalization of Knowledge- As economies open up, more people become involved in the processes of knowledge integration and the deepening of non-market connections, including flows of information, culture, ideology and technology. New technologies can solve old problems, but they can also create new ones. Technologies of environmental care can move across boundaries quicker, but so can technologies of environmental extraction. Information flows can connect workers and citizens across boundaries and oceans (e.g., the rise of global social movements as well as of outsourcing), but they can also threaten social and economic networks at the local level. Environmentalism as a norm has become truly global, but so has mass consumerism.
Globalization of Governance- Globalization places great stress on existing patterns of global governance with the shrinking of both time and space; the expanding role of non-state actors; and the increasingly complex inter-state interactions. The global nature of the environment demands global environmental governance, and indeed a worldwide infrastructure of international agreements and institutions has emerged and continues to grow. But many of today’s global environmental problems have outgrown the governance systems designed to solve them. Many of these institutions, however, struggle as they have to respond to an ever-increasing set of global challenges while remaining constrained by institutional design principles inherited from an earlier, more state-centric world. The relationship between the environment and globalization— although often overlooked—is critical to both domains. The environment itself is inherently global, with life-sustaining ecosystems and watersheds frequently crossing national boundaries; air pollution moving across entire continents and oceans; and a single. Shared atmosphere providing climate protection and shielding us from harsh UV rays. Monitoring and responding to environmental issues frequently provokes a need for coordinated global or regional governance. Moreover, the environment is intrinsically linked to economic development, providing natural resources that fuel growth and ecosystem services that underpin both life and livelihoods. Indeed, at least one author suggests that “the economy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the ecology.” While the importance of the relationship between globalization and the environment is obvious, our understanding of how these twin dynamics interact remains weak. Much of the literature on globalization and the environment is vague (discussing generalities); myopic (focused disproportionately only on trade-related connections); and/or partial (highlighting the impacts of globalization on the environment, but not the other way around). It is important to highlight that not only does globalization impact the environment, but the environment impacts the pace, direction and quality of globalization. At the very least, this happens because environmental resources provide the fuel for economic globalization, but also because our social and policy responses to global environmental challenges constrain and influence the context in which globalization happens. This happens, for example, through the governance structures we establish and through the constellation of stakeholders and stakeholder interests that construct key policy debates. It also happens through the transfer of social norms, aspirations and ideas that criss-cross the globe to formulate extant and emergent social movements, including global environmentalism. In short, not only are the environment and globalization intrinsically linked, they are so deeply welded together that we simply cannot address the global environmental challenges facing us unless we are able to understand and harness the dynamics of globalization that influence them. By the same token, those who wish to capitalize on the potential of globalization will not be able to do so unless they are able to understand and address the great environmental challenges of our time, which are part of the context within which globalization takes place.
The dominant discourse on globalization has tended to highlight the promise of economic opportunity. On the other hand, there is a parallel global discourse on environmental responsibility. A more nuanced understanding needs to be developed—one that seeks to actualize the global opportunities offered by globalization while fulfilling global ecological responsibilities and advancing equity. Such an understanding would, in fact, make sustainable development a goal of globalization, rather than a victim. As a contribution towards this more nuanced understanding of these two dynamics, we will now outline five propositions related to how environment and globalization are linked and how they are likely to interact.
The Five Propositions
By way of exploring the linkages between environment and globalization, let us posit five key propositions on how these two areas are linked, with a special focus on those linkages that are particularly pertinent for policy-making and policy-makers. The purpose of these propositions is to highlight the possible implications of the dominant trends. This is neither an exhaustive list nor a set of predictions. It is rather an identification of the five important trajectories which are of particular importance to policy-makers because (a) these are areas that have a direct bearing on national and international policy and, (b) importantly, they can be influenced by national and international policy.
1: The rapid acceleration in global economic activity and our dramatically increased demands for critical, finite natural resources undermine our pursuit of continued economic prosperity.
2:The linked processes of globalization and environmental degradation pose new security threats to an already insecure world. They impact the vulnerability of ecosystems and societies, and the least resilient ecosystems. The livelihoods of the poorest communities are most at risk.
3: The newly prosperous and the established wealthy will have to come to terms with the limitations of the ecological space in which both must operate, and also with the needs and rights of those who have not been as lucky.
4:Consumption—in both North and South—will define the future of globalization as well as the global environment..
5: Concerns about the global market and global environment will become even more intertwined and each will become increasingly dependent on the other.
Avenues for Action: What Can We Do?
Better global governance is the key to managing both globalization and the global environment. More importantly, it is also the key to managing the relationship between the two. The processes of environment and globalization are sweepingly broad, sometimes overwhelming , but they are not immune to policy influence. Indeed, the processes as we know them have been shaped by the policies that we have—or have not—put in place in the past. Equally, the direction that globalization, the global environment and the interaction of the two will take in the years to come will be shaped by the policy decisions of the future. Governance, therefore, is the key avenue for action by decision-makers today. However, it is also quite clear that both globalization and environment challenge the current architecture of the international system as it now exists. Both dynamics limit a state’s ability to decide on and control key issues affecting it. Globalization does it largely by design as states commit to liberalize trade and embrace new technologies. The environment challenges the system by default as ecosystem boundaries rarely overlap with national boundaries and ecological systems are nearly always supra-state. The role of the state in the management of the international system has to evolve to respond to the evolution of the challenges facing it This evolution is already happening, but often in painful, even contorted, ways. Having outgrown its old structure, the international system is designing a new, more inclusive one.85 Many problems have been identified in the current system of global governance: it is too large; it is chronically short of money and yet also wasteful of the resources it has; it has expanded in an ad hoc fashion; it lacks coordination and a sense of direction; it is often duplicative and sometimes different organizations within the system work at cross purposes to each other, etc. In terms of environment and globalization, we see three important goals for the global governance system as it exists today.
Managing institutional fragmentation: Although there already exist organs within the system to address most problems thrown up by environment and globalization, the efforts of these institutions are fragmented and lack coordination or coherence. The efforts and the instruments for making the “system” work as a whole either do not exist or are under-utilized. The institutional architecture that we have remains focused on precise issues even though the pressing challenges of our times— particularly those related to environment and globalization—relate to the connections between issues (e.g., labour and trade; environment and investment; food and health; etc.). There is a pressing need, therefore, for meaningful global governance reform that creates viable and workable mechanisms for making existing institutions work together more efficiently and effectively than they have so far.
Broadening the base of our state-centric system: Despite some headway over the last two decades, the essential architecture of the international governance system remains state-centric, even though neither the problems nor the solutions are any longer so. In terms of environment and globalization dynamics, one now finds civil society and market actors playing defining roles in establishing the direction and sequence of events. Whether it is companies creating new global norms and standards through their procurement and supply chains, or NGOs establishing voluntary standards in areas such as forestry or organic products, we see that policy in practice is no longer the sole domain of the inter-state system. It should be acknowledged that both civil society and business are beginning to be integrated into global governance mechanisms—for example, through their presence and participation in global negotiations and summits and through closer interactions with environmentally progressive businesses. This process needs to be deepened and accelerated, and meaningful ways need to be found to incorporate them as real partners in the global governance
enterprise.
Establishing sustainable development as a common goal: The post-World War II international organizational architecture was originally designed to avoid another Great War. In terms of what the system does and in terms of the types of goals that it has set for itself (e.g., the Millennium Development Goals; stabilization of atmospheric concentrations of CO2; eradication of diseases such as Malaria; control of HIV/AIDS; etc.), the system has evolved to a broader understanding of what we mean by “security” as well as of what its own role is. Yet, it is not always clear that the entire system of global governance is moving towards a common goal. This creates undue friction between the organizations that make up the system and results in disjointed policies. To the extent that a new common global goal has emerged, it is sustainable development. Not only is sustainable development quintessentially about the linkages between environment and globalization, it is also a goal that has increasingly been adopted by various elements of the global system. For example, it is not only the overarching goal of all environmental organizations and instruments, it is also now a stated goal of the World Trade Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization and many others. Laying out a detailed plan for achieving this shared goal is beyond the scope and mandate of this document. To a more limited extent, an earlier related report, begins doing so for the process of environmental governance only. While recommendations from that work are valid here, the challenge of environment and globalization lays out an even bigger agenda for us to think about. By way of prodding such thinking, a sampling of the types of initiatives that could be considered
is presented here.
• The last few years have seen a number of different initiatives on international institutional reform, and the next few will invariably see more. Many of these have been focused on organizational reform relating to management, operations, financing, etc. Some have been focused more precisely on strengthening key institutions in specific issue areas (e.g., UNEP for global environmental governance). The success of such initiatives is important in making the system efficient and these processes should be supported and strengthened. Bringing more coherence and coordination between sub-systems should also be a major priority: e.g., the global environmental governance system; the global financial governance system; the global economic development support system; etc.
• The challenge, however, is larger than efficiency alone. It is also about making the various components of the system work together and towards a shared vision. As an initial step, one could envisage choosing just one area with which to begin and establishing modalities for deep and permanent links between institutions that are dealing with clearly related issues. The obvious
candidate is the area of trade and environment. Given our earlier discussion and the steps that have already been taken in improving coherence between these intertwined areas, one could envisage an agreement between the two institutions that clearly defines the role of each and the “services” that each can provide to the other and the expertise that can be shared across the two domains. Such coordination at the global level could also serve to instill greater interaction between environmental
and trade decision-making at the domestic level.
• Effectively responding to the challenges of environment and globalization requires a concerted effort to find new and meaningful ways to engage non-state actors from business and civil society. A first generation of attempts towards public-private partnerships is already underway with efforts such as the UN Secretary General’s Global Compact Initiative, the Type 2 partnerships devised during WSSD in 2002, and increasing interaction between state and non-state actors at various global forum. There is a need to elevate this notion of partnerships to a new and higher level. One which seeks to establish not only shared goals and priorities, but to also devise a course of shared responsibility and joint action. Until now, for the most part, partnerships between state and non-state parties have meant seeking synergies in what they are already doing. In order to meet the challenges of environment and globalization, we need to move to deeper—possibly contractual—bargains that bring business and civil society as full partners into the enterprise of global governance. The type of partnerships that was discussed above in terms of e-waste may be one example of what this might look like.
• The existing instruments that do relate to environment and globalization tend to come either from the direction of environmental policy (e.g., the climate convention) or from the direction of economic policy (e.g. WTO rules). As a first step, and as elaborated above, the cross-cutting elements within these instruments need to be better understood, and actors from various domains need to be engaged in these discussions. However, we will soon also need to start creating new instruments that emerge not from one of the two dynamics—environment or globalization —but from the interaction of the two. For example, there is already an advanced body of interesting work done on “green accounting” and various forms of ecological accounting and ecological tax reform. There is both a need and an opportunity to begin thinking of integrating this work into our national and global accounting mechanisms. One option might be to promote systems of payment for ecological services (domestically, internationally and possibly globally). Or, at a minimum, to account for the value of such services in national accounts so that more reasoned and reasonable decision-analysis can be done for and by policy-makers. Another option, at a more extreme end of the spectrum of possibilities, may be to consider new legal instruments: a possible “Global Compact on Poverty
Reduction” or a “Global Treaty on Consumption.” The merits of particular instruments may be debatable, but the point to be made here is that if global opportunities are to be maximized while adhering to principles of global responsibility, then new and innovative mechanisms of
understanding, measuring and managing economic and ecological values will be needed.
• Another area of global governance that needs attention in terms of environment and globalization is that of security—and insecurity. An acknowledgement and appreciation of the importance of human insecurity and of the multiple drivers of societal as well as international conflict has begun to grow. However, our governance mechanisms for discussing security remain fixated on a much narrower conception of security. Institutions responsible for dealing with issues of security are slowly—but, again, too slowly—beginning to accommodate broader notions of the term. The UN Security Council, for example, held a special hearing on conflict diamonds.88 The U.S. military, as another example, has had for a number of years an Assistant Secretary for environmental security, and has been seriously studying the implications of global climate change on U.S. security.
There is a need to even more explicitly broaden the mandate of global security organizations to include non-traditional security mandates, including those related to environmental security.
• Although discussions of environment and globalization may take place at the global level, the implications of these dynamics are invariably national and local. It is evident that the ability to
manage these processes, to benefit from the potential of globalization and to minimize the threats of environmental degradation are all functions of preparedness, information and capacity.
Investments in these areas—and particularly in developing countries—can have immediate as well as long-term benefits vis-à-vis sustainable development. As has been suggested, globalization has great potential to bring economic prosperity to the poor. But this potential cannot be realized without the capacity to do so and a readiness within those communities and societies to actualize these benefits. The role of international assistance in creating such readiness and enhancing such capacities is critical. Addressing domestic capacity constraints—including, for example, in early warning; technology choice and innovation; decision analysis; long-term investment analysis; etc.—should,
therefore, be a key area of international cooperation.
• Finally, we do need better assessments of the full potential as well as the full costs of environment and globalization interactions. If any of the ideas presented here are to be adopted, we will need far more robust information and analysis than we now have. What is the full value of global ecological services? What are the best available instruments for ecological accounting? How are
the costs and benefits of globalization currently distributed? What are the economic costs of various environmental stresses? What are the long-term impacts of alternative technology decisions?
What is the potential for de-materialization and de-linking growth from consumption? These, and many others, are some of the many important questions that we need to think about. It may not be possible to get answers to all of the questions. But it is possible to get answers to many. In other cases, even if exact answers are not available, indicative assessments may be possible. A first step, therefore, would be to conduct a large-scale global assessment of the state of knowledge on environment and globalization. As we found with the global assessments on climate change and, more recently, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, the act of conducting such systematic
studies is important not only for the answers that they bring out but also because they raise new and more important questions, they identify new and otherwise unexplored options, and they
help create the policy space for new discussions.
projected either as a panacea for all the ills of the world or as their primary cause. The discussion on the links between environment and globalization has been similarly stuck in a quagmire of many
unjustified expectations and fears about the connections between these two domains.
There are nearly as many definitions of globalization as authors who write on the subject. One review, by Scholte, provides a classification of at least five broad sets of definitions:
Globalization as Internationalization- The “global” in globalization is viewed “as simply another adjective to describe cross-border relations between countries.” It describes the growth in international exchange and interdependence.
Globalization as Liberalization-Removing government imposed restrictions on movements between countries.
Globalization as Universalization - Process of spreading ideas and experiences to people at all corners of the earth so that aspirations and experiences around the world become harmonized.
Globalization as Westernization or Modernization- The social structures of modernity (capitalism, industrialism, etc.) are spread the world over, destroying cultures and local self-determination in the process.
Globalization as Deterritorialization - Process of the “reconfiguration of geography, so that social space is no longer wholly mapped in terms of territorial places, territorial distances and territorial borders.” Although the debates on the definition and importance of globalization have been vigorous over time, we believe that the truly relevant policy questions today are about who benefits and who does not; how the benefits and the costs of these processes can be shared fairly; how the opportunities can be maximized by all; and how the risks can be minimized.
In addressing these questions, one can understand globalization to be a complex set of dynamics offering many opportunities to better the human condition, but also involving significant potential
threats. Contemporary globalization manifests itself in various ways, three of which are of particular relevance to policy-makers. They also comprise significant environmental opportunities and risks.
Globalization of the Economy- The world economy globalizes as national economies integrate into the international economy through trade; foreign direct investment; short-term capital flows; international movement of workers and people in general; and flows of technology. This has created new opportunities for many; but not for all. It has also placed pressures on the global environment and on natural resources, straining the capacity of the environment to sustain itself and exposing human dependence on our environment.6 A globalized economy can also produce globalized externalities and enhance global inequities. Local environmental and economic decisions can contribute to global solutions and prosperity, but the environmental costs, as well as the economic ramifications of our actions, can be externalized to places and people who are so faraway as to seem invisible.
Globalization of Knowledge- As economies open up, more people become involved in the processes of knowledge integration and the deepening of non-market connections, including flows of information, culture, ideology and technology. New technologies can solve old problems, but they can also create new ones. Technologies of environmental care can move across boundaries quicker, but so can technologies of environmental extraction. Information flows can connect workers and citizens across boundaries and oceans (e.g., the rise of global social movements as well as of outsourcing), but they can also threaten social and economic networks at the local level. Environmentalism as a norm has become truly global, but so has mass consumerism.
Globalization of Governance- Globalization places great stress on existing patterns of global governance with the shrinking of both time and space; the expanding role of non-state actors; and the increasingly complex inter-state interactions. The global nature of the environment demands global environmental governance, and indeed a worldwide infrastructure of international agreements and institutions has emerged and continues to grow. But many of today’s global environmental problems have outgrown the governance systems designed to solve them. Many of these institutions, however, struggle as they have to respond to an ever-increasing set of global challenges while remaining constrained by institutional design principles inherited from an earlier, more state-centric world. The relationship between the environment and globalization— although often overlooked—is critical to both domains. The environment itself is inherently global, with life-sustaining ecosystems and watersheds frequently crossing national boundaries; air pollution moving across entire continents and oceans; and a single. Shared atmosphere providing climate protection and shielding us from harsh UV rays. Monitoring and responding to environmental issues frequently provokes a need for coordinated global or regional governance. Moreover, the environment is intrinsically linked to economic development, providing natural resources that fuel growth and ecosystem services that underpin both life and livelihoods. Indeed, at least one author suggests that “the economy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the ecology.” While the importance of the relationship between globalization and the environment is obvious, our understanding of how these twin dynamics interact remains weak. Much of the literature on globalization and the environment is vague (discussing generalities); myopic (focused disproportionately only on trade-related connections); and/or partial (highlighting the impacts of globalization on the environment, but not the other way around). It is important to highlight that not only does globalization impact the environment, but the environment impacts the pace, direction and quality of globalization. At the very least, this happens because environmental resources provide the fuel for economic globalization, but also because our social and policy responses to global environmental challenges constrain and influence the context in which globalization happens. This happens, for example, through the governance structures we establish and through the constellation of stakeholders and stakeholder interests that construct key policy debates. It also happens through the transfer of social norms, aspirations and ideas that criss-cross the globe to formulate extant and emergent social movements, including global environmentalism. In short, not only are the environment and globalization intrinsically linked, they are so deeply welded together that we simply cannot address the global environmental challenges facing us unless we are able to understand and harness the dynamics of globalization that influence them. By the same token, those who wish to capitalize on the potential of globalization will not be able to do so unless they are able to understand and address the great environmental challenges of our time, which are part of the context within which globalization takes place.
The dominant discourse on globalization has tended to highlight the promise of economic opportunity. On the other hand, there is a parallel global discourse on environmental responsibility. A more nuanced understanding needs to be developed—one that seeks to actualize the global opportunities offered by globalization while fulfilling global ecological responsibilities and advancing equity. Such an understanding would, in fact, make sustainable development a goal of globalization, rather than a victim. As a contribution towards this more nuanced understanding of these two dynamics, we will now outline five propositions related to how environment and globalization are linked and how they are likely to interact.
The Five Propositions
By way of exploring the linkages between environment and globalization, let us posit five key propositions on how these two areas are linked, with a special focus on those linkages that are particularly pertinent for policy-making and policy-makers. The purpose of these propositions is to highlight the possible implications of the dominant trends. This is neither an exhaustive list nor a set of predictions. It is rather an identification of the five important trajectories which are of particular importance to policy-makers because (a) these are areas that have a direct bearing on national and international policy and, (b) importantly, they can be influenced by national and international policy.
1: The rapid acceleration in global economic activity and our dramatically increased demands for critical, finite natural resources undermine our pursuit of continued economic prosperity.
2:The linked processes of globalization and environmental degradation pose new security threats to an already insecure world. They impact the vulnerability of ecosystems and societies, and the least resilient ecosystems. The livelihoods of the poorest communities are most at risk.
3: The newly prosperous and the established wealthy will have to come to terms with the limitations of the ecological space in which both must operate, and also with the needs and rights of those who have not been as lucky.
4:Consumption—in both North and South—will define the future of globalization as well as the global environment..
5: Concerns about the global market and global environment will become even more intertwined and each will become increasingly dependent on the other.
Avenues for Action: What Can We Do?
Better global governance is the key to managing both globalization and the global environment. More importantly, it is also the key to managing the relationship between the two. The processes of environment and globalization are sweepingly broad, sometimes overwhelming , but they are not immune to policy influence. Indeed, the processes as we know them have been shaped by the policies that we have—or have not—put in place in the past. Equally, the direction that globalization, the global environment and the interaction of the two will take in the years to come will be shaped by the policy decisions of the future. Governance, therefore, is the key avenue for action by decision-makers today. However, it is also quite clear that both globalization and environment challenge the current architecture of the international system as it now exists. Both dynamics limit a state’s ability to decide on and control key issues affecting it. Globalization does it largely by design as states commit to liberalize trade and embrace new technologies. The environment challenges the system by default as ecosystem boundaries rarely overlap with national boundaries and ecological systems are nearly always supra-state. The role of the state in the management of the international system has to evolve to respond to the evolution of the challenges facing it This evolution is already happening, but often in painful, even contorted, ways. Having outgrown its old structure, the international system is designing a new, more inclusive one.85 Many problems have been identified in the current system of global governance: it is too large; it is chronically short of money and yet also wasteful of the resources it has; it has expanded in an ad hoc fashion; it lacks coordination and a sense of direction; it is often duplicative and sometimes different organizations within the system work at cross purposes to each other, etc. In terms of environment and globalization, we see three important goals for the global governance system as it exists today.
Managing institutional fragmentation: Although there already exist organs within the system to address most problems thrown up by environment and globalization, the efforts of these institutions are fragmented and lack coordination or coherence. The efforts and the instruments for making the “system” work as a whole either do not exist or are under-utilized. The institutional architecture that we have remains focused on precise issues even though the pressing challenges of our times— particularly those related to environment and globalization—relate to the connections between issues (e.g., labour and trade; environment and investment; food and health; etc.). There is a pressing need, therefore, for meaningful global governance reform that creates viable and workable mechanisms for making existing institutions work together more efficiently and effectively than they have so far.
Broadening the base of our state-centric system: Despite some headway over the last two decades, the essential architecture of the international governance system remains state-centric, even though neither the problems nor the solutions are any longer so. In terms of environment and globalization dynamics, one now finds civil society and market actors playing defining roles in establishing the direction and sequence of events. Whether it is companies creating new global norms and standards through their procurement and supply chains, or NGOs establishing voluntary standards in areas such as forestry or organic products, we see that policy in practice is no longer the sole domain of the inter-state system. It should be acknowledged that both civil society and business are beginning to be integrated into global governance mechanisms—for example, through their presence and participation in global negotiations and summits and through closer interactions with environmentally progressive businesses. This process needs to be deepened and accelerated, and meaningful ways need to be found to incorporate them as real partners in the global governance
enterprise.
Establishing sustainable development as a common goal: The post-World War II international organizational architecture was originally designed to avoid another Great War. In terms of what the system does and in terms of the types of goals that it has set for itself (e.g., the Millennium Development Goals; stabilization of atmospheric concentrations of CO2; eradication of diseases such as Malaria; control of HIV/AIDS; etc.), the system has evolved to a broader understanding of what we mean by “security” as well as of what its own role is. Yet, it is not always clear that the entire system of global governance is moving towards a common goal. This creates undue friction between the organizations that make up the system and results in disjointed policies. To the extent that a new common global goal has emerged, it is sustainable development. Not only is sustainable development quintessentially about the linkages between environment and globalization, it is also a goal that has increasingly been adopted by various elements of the global system. For example, it is not only the overarching goal of all environmental organizations and instruments, it is also now a stated goal of the World Trade Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization and many others. Laying out a detailed plan for achieving this shared goal is beyond the scope and mandate of this document. To a more limited extent, an earlier related report, begins doing so for the process of environmental governance only. While recommendations from that work are valid here, the challenge of environment and globalization lays out an even bigger agenda for us to think about. By way of prodding such thinking, a sampling of the types of initiatives that could be considered
is presented here.
• The last few years have seen a number of different initiatives on international institutional reform, and the next few will invariably see more. Many of these have been focused on organizational reform relating to management, operations, financing, etc. Some have been focused more precisely on strengthening key institutions in specific issue areas (e.g., UNEP for global environmental governance). The success of such initiatives is important in making the system efficient and these processes should be supported and strengthened. Bringing more coherence and coordination between sub-systems should also be a major priority: e.g., the global environmental governance system; the global financial governance system; the global economic development support system; etc.
• The challenge, however, is larger than efficiency alone. It is also about making the various components of the system work together and towards a shared vision. As an initial step, one could envisage choosing just one area with which to begin and establishing modalities for deep and permanent links between institutions that are dealing with clearly related issues. The obvious
candidate is the area of trade and environment. Given our earlier discussion and the steps that have already been taken in improving coherence between these intertwined areas, one could envisage an agreement between the two institutions that clearly defines the role of each and the “services” that each can provide to the other and the expertise that can be shared across the two domains. Such coordination at the global level could also serve to instill greater interaction between environmental
and trade decision-making at the domestic level.
• Effectively responding to the challenges of environment and globalization requires a concerted effort to find new and meaningful ways to engage non-state actors from business and civil society. A first generation of attempts towards public-private partnerships is already underway with efforts such as the UN Secretary General’s Global Compact Initiative, the Type 2 partnerships devised during WSSD in 2002, and increasing interaction between state and non-state actors at various global forum. There is a need to elevate this notion of partnerships to a new and higher level. One which seeks to establish not only shared goals and priorities, but to also devise a course of shared responsibility and joint action. Until now, for the most part, partnerships between state and non-state parties have meant seeking synergies in what they are already doing. In order to meet the challenges of environment and globalization, we need to move to deeper—possibly contractual—bargains that bring business and civil society as full partners into the enterprise of global governance. The type of partnerships that was discussed above in terms of e-waste may be one example of what this might look like.
• The existing instruments that do relate to environment and globalization tend to come either from the direction of environmental policy (e.g., the climate convention) or from the direction of economic policy (e.g. WTO rules). As a first step, and as elaborated above, the cross-cutting elements within these instruments need to be better understood, and actors from various domains need to be engaged in these discussions. However, we will soon also need to start creating new instruments that emerge not from one of the two dynamics—environment or globalization —but from the interaction of the two. For example, there is already an advanced body of interesting work done on “green accounting” and various forms of ecological accounting and ecological tax reform. There is both a need and an opportunity to begin thinking of integrating this work into our national and global accounting mechanisms. One option might be to promote systems of payment for ecological services (domestically, internationally and possibly globally). Or, at a minimum, to account for the value of such services in national accounts so that more reasoned and reasonable decision-analysis can be done for and by policy-makers. Another option, at a more extreme end of the spectrum of possibilities, may be to consider new legal instruments: a possible “Global Compact on Poverty
Reduction” or a “Global Treaty on Consumption.” The merits of particular instruments may be debatable, but the point to be made here is that if global opportunities are to be maximized while adhering to principles of global responsibility, then new and innovative mechanisms of
understanding, measuring and managing economic and ecological values will be needed.
• Another area of global governance that needs attention in terms of environment and globalization is that of security—and insecurity. An acknowledgement and appreciation of the importance of human insecurity and of the multiple drivers of societal as well as international conflict has begun to grow. However, our governance mechanisms for discussing security remain fixated on a much narrower conception of security. Institutions responsible for dealing with issues of security are slowly—but, again, too slowly—beginning to accommodate broader notions of the term. The UN Security Council, for example, held a special hearing on conflict diamonds.88 The U.S. military, as another example, has had for a number of years an Assistant Secretary for environmental security, and has been seriously studying the implications of global climate change on U.S. security.
There is a need to even more explicitly broaden the mandate of global security organizations to include non-traditional security mandates, including those related to environmental security.
• Although discussions of environment and globalization may take place at the global level, the implications of these dynamics are invariably national and local. It is evident that the ability to
manage these processes, to benefit from the potential of globalization and to minimize the threats of environmental degradation are all functions of preparedness, information and capacity.
Investments in these areas—and particularly in developing countries—can have immediate as well as long-term benefits vis-à-vis sustainable development. As has been suggested, globalization has great potential to bring economic prosperity to the poor. But this potential cannot be realized without the capacity to do so and a readiness within those communities and societies to actualize these benefits. The role of international assistance in creating such readiness and enhancing such capacities is critical. Addressing domestic capacity constraints—including, for example, in early warning; technology choice and innovation; decision analysis; long-term investment analysis; etc.—should,
therefore, be a key area of international cooperation.
• Finally, we do need better assessments of the full potential as well as the full costs of environment and globalization interactions. If any of the ideas presented here are to be adopted, we will need far more robust information and analysis than we now have. What is the full value of global ecological services? What are the best available instruments for ecological accounting? How are
the costs and benefits of globalization currently distributed? What are the economic costs of various environmental stresses? What are the long-term impacts of alternative technology decisions?
What is the potential for de-materialization and de-linking growth from consumption? These, and many others, are some of the many important questions that we need to think about. It may not be possible to get answers to all of the questions. But it is possible to get answers to many. In other cases, even if exact answers are not available, indicative assessments may be possible. A first step, therefore, would be to conduct a large-scale global assessment of the state of knowledge on environment and globalization. As we found with the global assessments on climate change and, more recently, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, the act of conducting such systematic
studies is important not only for the answers that they bring out but also because they raise new and more important questions, they identify new and otherwise unexplored options, and they
help create the policy space for new discussions.
Folk Media and Rural Development
The power of media has never been in question. It can influence the key policy makers by swaying the public opinion on various national and international issues. It also has the ability to play a significant role in spreading awareness about various developmental issues. In a country like India, where a host of developmental issues need to be addressed, media can highlight the problems and the challenges faced by the people working at the grass root level. However, do the media really make any significant contribution towards these issues? Does it use this power to influence people in a manner which would lead to social welfare? What is media's contribution towards the uplift of poor and rural people?
The Indian society is a complex social system with different caste classes’ creeds and tribes. The high rate of illiteracy added to the inadequacies of mass media to reach almost 80% of people who resides in village. In spite of the national literacy missions and campaigns, over 350 millions remain illiterate; suspect anything in terms of modernity. Mass media prove too glamorous impersonal and unbelievable in context with the villagers’ could not only see and here but also even touch. The proposed study is an attempt to ensure the use of Traditional media to reach the common people in the process of change and development of the country. Rural development means as overall development of rural areas social, economic, political and cultural - so that the people are to lead a pleasant life. Agriculture plays the most important and decisive role in rural development. Infect, nobody can deny this fact that most of the population in India is still living in villages and their livelihood is depending on agriculture. Therefore, we rightly say that India is an agricultural country. Any development, which does not touch the vast masses, cannot be justified. The goals of rural economic growth in the narrow sense but as balanced social and economic development, with emphasis on the equitable distribution as well as creation of benefits. Therefore, the development strategy should be such through which the development of the rural population and rural areas is directed towards a total development of the people and their environment through concerted action. The contribution in development process is well accepted though its precise nature, extent an mechanism still largely elude proper understanding. The importance of communication in mobilizing people and seeking their willing participation in the development of a country is well recognized. In India, this concern above reaching people, communicating with them and equipping them with new skills has been emphasized over and again in successive five year plans which provide the blue print of the country’s planned development. No one would question the fact that India has made substantial progress since independence. The development and communication infrastructure has been enormously expended. The resultant communication and development processes have been strengthening and supporting each other taking the country forward. At the same time it is also a fact on which not many people would disagree, that both development and communication scholars to study this question in detail and depth and suggest approaches and methods for more equitable and participatory communication and development. Structural Change in Folk Performing Art: The first significant international recognition of the traditional media in the communication and the development strategies of developing countries came in 1972 when the International Planned Parenthood Federation and UNESCO organized in London a series of meetings on the integrated use of the folk and the mass media in family planning communication programmers. The interest generated by these meetings and the continued effort to highlight the fork media as effective forms to convey developmental messages resulted in a number of seminars and workshops around the world. The development of rural India is certainly associated with the dialogue or communication that we are providing them. Tradition plays and important role in a creative artistic process particularly in the field of folk performing arts. Folk art is a functional and spontaneous. Every village has its relevant music, dance or theatre. The folk performing art is changing its structure continuously over centuries modifying itself to the needs of the changing situation making it functionally relevant to the society. Tradition is the process of the transmission of age - values and the contextual manifestation and interpretation of the universal. As Guru Dev Rabinder Nath Tagore, in his famous “Swadeshi Samaj” speech in july’1904 advocated “all traditional structure of art must have sufficient degree of elasticity to allow it to respond to varied impulses of life, delicate or virile, to grow with its growth, to the traditional performing art is an aesthetic object, the concept of belongingness and affinity in cultural context. The folk art forms satisfy our innate need for self expression, for moral instruction combined with entertainment, and for the dramatic and the lyrical. The traditional forms preserving and disseminate in lively manners, the tradition and culture of our forefathers. The Indian society is a complex social system with different caste classes’ creeds and tribes. The high rate of illiteracy added to the inadequacies of mass media to reach almost 80% of people who resides in village. Inspite of the national literacy missions and campaigns, over 350
millions remain illiterate; suspect anything in terms of modernity. To them mass media prove too glamorous impersonal and unbelievable in context with the villagers’ could not only see and here but even touch. Traditional media can be used to reach these people in the process of change and development of the country.
Traditional folk forms potential as rural media
Traditional folk forms in India can be effectively utilized for social developmental communication. The communication potential of India traditional performing art has been proved time and again by many instances of national importance. In fact, as Badal Sirckar, the noted Bengali play writer admits rather candidly, He borrows elements from the folk dreams as a matter of “expediency”. Realizing the importance and powerfulness of this medium, the first five-year plan projected that people in the rural areas should be approached through traditional forms in addition to electronic media for publicity purpose. In later years, the UNESCO picked it up. The traditional forms of communication constitute a potential source for conveying messages for economic and social development. Communities and individuals have utilized a vide range of media local fares, puppet shows, street theatre folk songs and ballads for social purposes and as a support to local development schemes for health and family welfare campaigns, for creating political awareness. The traditional media are close to the hearts and minds of the people, so there appeal is a personal, intimate level, Further familiar format and content, as also the colloquial dialects used. Make the clarity in communication cross-cultural communication hurdles are not encountered here. The numerous groups and different forms available for specific homogenous groups and for specific purposes can be exploited to cater to people of different region. Rapport is immediate and directs the barriers to communication non-existent.
“AHLA”, the popular ballad of Uttar Pradesh and its counter parts like “LAAVANI” of Maharashtra, “GEE-GEE” of Karnataka, “VILLUPAATTU” of Tamil Nadu and “KAVIGAN” of Bengal which changed their content and focus depending on the contemporary needs and were effective in arousing the conscience of the people against the colonial rule of the British. The traditional media became effective in many political and social campaigns launched by Mahatma Gandhi. Like wise, the eminent Tamil poet “Subramanya Bharti” started using folk music to invoke patriotic feelings. Folk tunes were used to popularize songs on glories of spinning wheels need to boycott British goods. After the independence the union government continued to utilize these traditional performing arts to convey the message and to generate awareness of development in the rural areas. In 1940’s, IPTA (Indian People Theatre Association), successfully handled some of the popular regional theatre forms like “Jaatra” of Bengal, “Bhavai” of Gujrat, “Tamasha” of Maharashtra and “Burkatha” of Andhra Pradesh to increase social awareness and political education. Mukunde Das and Utpal Dutt used the medium of Jaatra for inculcating the spirit of patriotism and political awareness among the masses of Bengal. Shahir Sable, P.L. Deshpande, Habib Tanveer, Balwant Gargi, Gurusaran Singh, Rattan Thiyam used it as technique of generating national identity and social awareness among the Indian masses.
Careful Investigation of Folk Media
The Folk media in India seems to be used as supplement to the mass media rather than as the centre of communication efforts to reach 80% of India’s total population who live in the villages. In India, mass media continue to be limited largely to the urban population traditional arts forms have survived for centuries and they will survive in future for their flexibility. They could be the media for the social change in rural India. Traditional performing art being functional, Inter-personal and having a contextual base would be able to carry the message of change, development and growth. We have various folk forms in our country, which are very much alive today. We can see it in our cultural heritage. All these need careful investigation, study and documented after serious investigation; their characteristics have to be studied; creative people should be exposed to the structure of the form and the aesthetics of the content they carry; they should also know the techniques of creative communication. Noted folk media expert Shyam Parmar observes that “The communication needs in India are much greater than the resources we have to meet them today. While the mass media have been constantly expanding , the traditional media have been playing an important role in this field due to our peculiar needs. Apart from these live programs with face-to-face communication the traditional folk forms have been used in programs over the electronic media. India’s role in identifying folk media for communication purposes has been quite positive. The experience can certainly be of comparative use of both the developing and under developed countries if proper results if these efforts became available through scientific surveys”. Unlike in western theatre, folk performance is a composite art in India. It is a total art with fusion elements from music, dance, pantomime, versification, epic ballad recitation, religion and festival peasantry. It imbibes ceremonials, rituals, belief and social system. It has deep religious and ritualistic overtones and the again, it can surely project social life, secular themes and universal values. The outcome of various researchers has established the importance of rural media in development communication. Traditional uses of folk media were primarily for entertainment, social communication and persuasive communication. There have been sporadic efforts to involve folk media for conveying development messages through mass-media agencies. International commission for the study of communication problems, the commission, also popularly known Mac bride Commission, was established by UNESCO to study among issues as increasing importance attached to communication as a social phenomenon and the consequent interest shown in the development communication. One of the important recommendations of the commission regarding the traditional folk forms is: “Even when modern media have penetrated isolated areas, the older forms maintain their validity, particularly when used to influence attitudes, instigate action and promote change. Extensive experience shown that traditional forms of communication can be effective in dispelling the superstitions, archaic perceptions and unscientific that people have inherited as part of traditions and which are difficult to modify if the benefits of change are hard to demonstrate. Practitioners of the traditional
media use a subtle form of persuasion by presenting the required message in locally popular artistic forms. This can not be rivalled by any other means of communication.” (Many voices-one world) It is true that if we want to penetrate the message of development among the rural masses we would have to opt the folk forms of this country in more planned manner. As veteran folk media scholar Balwant Garhgi rightly said “Folk media represents the people in their natural habitat, with all their contradictions and multifarious activities. It gives a glimpse of their style of speech, music, dance, dress and wisdom. It contains of reach store of mythological heroes, medieval romances, chivalric tales, social customs, beliefs, and legends. In order to understand the colourful diversity and unity of India, it’s important to see the folk theatre in its natural settings.
The Indian society is a complex social system with different caste classes’ creeds and tribes. The high rate of illiteracy added to the inadequacies of mass media to reach almost 80% of people who resides in village. In spite of the national literacy missions and campaigns, over 350 millions remain illiterate; suspect anything in terms of modernity. Mass media prove too glamorous impersonal and unbelievable in context with the villagers’ could not only see and here but also even touch. The proposed study is an attempt to ensure the use of Traditional media to reach the common people in the process of change and development of the country. Rural development means as overall development of rural areas social, economic, political and cultural - so that the people are to lead a pleasant life. Agriculture plays the most important and decisive role in rural development. Infect, nobody can deny this fact that most of the population in India is still living in villages and their livelihood is depending on agriculture. Therefore, we rightly say that India is an agricultural country. Any development, which does not touch the vast masses, cannot be justified. The goals of rural economic growth in the narrow sense but as balanced social and economic development, with emphasis on the equitable distribution as well as creation of benefits. Therefore, the development strategy should be such through which the development of the rural population and rural areas is directed towards a total development of the people and their environment through concerted action. The contribution in development process is well accepted though its precise nature, extent an mechanism still largely elude proper understanding. The importance of communication in mobilizing people and seeking their willing participation in the development of a country is well recognized. In India, this concern above reaching people, communicating with them and equipping them with new skills has been emphasized over and again in successive five year plans which provide the blue print of the country’s planned development. No one would question the fact that India has made substantial progress since independence. The development and communication infrastructure has been enormously expended. The resultant communication and development processes have been strengthening and supporting each other taking the country forward. At the same time it is also a fact on which not many people would disagree, that both development and communication scholars to study this question in detail and depth and suggest approaches and methods for more equitable and participatory communication and development. Structural Change in Folk Performing Art: The first significant international recognition of the traditional media in the communication and the development strategies of developing countries came in 1972 when the International Planned Parenthood Federation and UNESCO organized in London a series of meetings on the integrated use of the folk and the mass media in family planning communication programmers. The interest generated by these meetings and the continued effort to highlight the fork media as effective forms to convey developmental messages resulted in a number of seminars and workshops around the world. The development of rural India is certainly associated with the dialogue or communication that we are providing them. Tradition plays and important role in a creative artistic process particularly in the field of folk performing arts. Folk art is a functional and spontaneous. Every village has its relevant music, dance or theatre. The folk performing art is changing its structure continuously over centuries modifying itself to the needs of the changing situation making it functionally relevant to the society. Tradition is the process of the transmission of age - values and the contextual manifestation and interpretation of the universal. As Guru Dev Rabinder Nath Tagore, in his famous “Swadeshi Samaj” speech in july’1904 advocated “all traditional structure of art must have sufficient degree of elasticity to allow it to respond to varied impulses of life, delicate or virile, to grow with its growth, to the traditional performing art is an aesthetic object, the concept of belongingness and affinity in cultural context. The folk art forms satisfy our innate need for self expression, for moral instruction combined with entertainment, and for the dramatic and the lyrical. The traditional forms preserving and disseminate in lively manners, the tradition and culture of our forefathers. The Indian society is a complex social system with different caste classes’ creeds and tribes. The high rate of illiteracy added to the inadequacies of mass media to reach almost 80% of people who resides in village. Inspite of the national literacy missions and campaigns, over 350
millions remain illiterate; suspect anything in terms of modernity. To them mass media prove too glamorous impersonal and unbelievable in context with the villagers’ could not only see and here but even touch. Traditional media can be used to reach these people in the process of change and development of the country.
Traditional folk forms potential as rural media
Traditional folk forms in India can be effectively utilized for social developmental communication. The communication potential of India traditional performing art has been proved time and again by many instances of national importance. In fact, as Badal Sirckar, the noted Bengali play writer admits rather candidly, He borrows elements from the folk dreams as a matter of “expediency”. Realizing the importance and powerfulness of this medium, the first five-year plan projected that people in the rural areas should be approached through traditional forms in addition to electronic media for publicity purpose. In later years, the UNESCO picked it up. The traditional forms of communication constitute a potential source for conveying messages for economic and social development. Communities and individuals have utilized a vide range of media local fares, puppet shows, street theatre folk songs and ballads for social purposes and as a support to local development schemes for health and family welfare campaigns, for creating political awareness. The traditional media are close to the hearts and minds of the people, so there appeal is a personal, intimate level, Further familiar format and content, as also the colloquial dialects used. Make the clarity in communication cross-cultural communication hurdles are not encountered here. The numerous groups and different forms available for specific homogenous groups and for specific purposes can be exploited to cater to people of different region. Rapport is immediate and directs the barriers to communication non-existent.
“AHLA”, the popular ballad of Uttar Pradesh and its counter parts like “LAAVANI” of Maharashtra, “GEE-GEE” of Karnataka, “VILLUPAATTU” of Tamil Nadu and “KAVIGAN” of Bengal which changed their content and focus depending on the contemporary needs and were effective in arousing the conscience of the people against the colonial rule of the British. The traditional media became effective in many political and social campaigns launched by Mahatma Gandhi. Like wise, the eminent Tamil poet “Subramanya Bharti” started using folk music to invoke patriotic feelings. Folk tunes were used to popularize songs on glories of spinning wheels need to boycott British goods. After the independence the union government continued to utilize these traditional performing arts to convey the message and to generate awareness of development in the rural areas. In 1940’s, IPTA (Indian People Theatre Association), successfully handled some of the popular regional theatre forms like “Jaatra” of Bengal, “Bhavai” of Gujrat, “Tamasha” of Maharashtra and “Burkatha” of Andhra Pradesh to increase social awareness and political education. Mukunde Das and Utpal Dutt used the medium of Jaatra for inculcating the spirit of patriotism and political awareness among the masses of Bengal. Shahir Sable, P.L. Deshpande, Habib Tanveer, Balwant Gargi, Gurusaran Singh, Rattan Thiyam used it as technique of generating national identity and social awareness among the Indian masses.
Careful Investigation of Folk Media
The Folk media in India seems to be used as supplement to the mass media rather than as the centre of communication efforts to reach 80% of India’s total population who live in the villages. In India, mass media continue to be limited largely to the urban population traditional arts forms have survived for centuries and they will survive in future for their flexibility. They could be the media for the social change in rural India. Traditional performing art being functional, Inter-personal and having a contextual base would be able to carry the message of change, development and growth. We have various folk forms in our country, which are very much alive today. We can see it in our cultural heritage. All these need careful investigation, study and documented after serious investigation; their characteristics have to be studied; creative people should be exposed to the structure of the form and the aesthetics of the content they carry; they should also know the techniques of creative communication. Noted folk media expert Shyam Parmar observes that “The communication needs in India are much greater than the resources we have to meet them today. While the mass media have been constantly expanding , the traditional media have been playing an important role in this field due to our peculiar needs. Apart from these live programs with face-to-face communication the traditional folk forms have been used in programs over the electronic media. India’s role in identifying folk media for communication purposes has been quite positive. The experience can certainly be of comparative use of both the developing and under developed countries if proper results if these efforts became available through scientific surveys”. Unlike in western theatre, folk performance is a composite art in India. It is a total art with fusion elements from music, dance, pantomime, versification, epic ballad recitation, religion and festival peasantry. It imbibes ceremonials, rituals, belief and social system. It has deep religious and ritualistic overtones and the again, it can surely project social life, secular themes and universal values. The outcome of various researchers has established the importance of rural media in development communication. Traditional uses of folk media were primarily for entertainment, social communication and persuasive communication. There have been sporadic efforts to involve folk media for conveying development messages through mass-media agencies. International commission for the study of communication problems, the commission, also popularly known Mac bride Commission, was established by UNESCO to study among issues as increasing importance attached to communication as a social phenomenon and the consequent interest shown in the development communication. One of the important recommendations of the commission regarding the traditional folk forms is: “Even when modern media have penetrated isolated areas, the older forms maintain their validity, particularly when used to influence attitudes, instigate action and promote change. Extensive experience shown that traditional forms of communication can be effective in dispelling the superstitions, archaic perceptions and unscientific that people have inherited as part of traditions and which are difficult to modify if the benefits of change are hard to demonstrate. Practitioners of the traditional
media use a subtle form of persuasion by presenting the required message in locally popular artistic forms. This can not be rivalled by any other means of communication.” (Many voices-one world) It is true that if we want to penetrate the message of development among the rural masses we would have to opt the folk forms of this country in more planned manner. As veteran folk media scholar Balwant Garhgi rightly said “Folk media represents the people in their natural habitat, with all their contradictions and multifarious activities. It gives a glimpse of their style of speech, music, dance, dress and wisdom. It contains of reach store of mythological heroes, medieval romances, chivalric tales, social customs, beliefs, and legends. In order to understand the colourful diversity and unity of India, it’s important to see the folk theatre in its natural settings.
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