Welcome to a K3 seminar with Veera Virmasalo, PhD student\nin Media and Communication Studies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The title of the talk is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Practices of framing middle class civic ideals in Namibia. How to be a\ngood privileged citizen in a deeply unequal society<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n It will take place on Wednesday,\nSeptember 25 at 10.15-12.00 in The K3 Open Studio, NIC 0541,\nNiagara.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This will be Veera\u2019s 50 percent PhD seminar. Florencia Enghel, Senior Researcher in Communication for Development, K3, will function as discussant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Below\nyou will find an abstract for the talk. If you would like the complete text,\nplease mail Veera (veera.virmasalo@mau.se<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the 50% seminar for my PhD research in Media and Communication\nStudies. The research is situated in Namibia, a deeply unequal southern African\npost-apartheid society, which has been my home for much of the time since 2007.\nMy discussant in the seminar is Florencia Enghel, senior lecturer in\nCommunication for Development. With her help, I will try to understand what \u2013\nout of all the things described in the long abstract below \u2013 might reasonably\nfit in one PhD thesis and what else might have to be included. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The research aims to add to the understanding of cross-class societal\nsolidarity as an area of interest in the fields of media and communication\nstudies and development communication. Solidarity across class lines within a\nsociety has for long been a largely neglected topic in media and communication\nstudies, as in many other academic disciplines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In particular, I am interested in how middle classes see their roles\nvis-\u00e0-vis socioeconomic inequalities, how communication work done by a variety\nof societal actors interacts with their understandings, what else influences\nthat communication work, and how the communication work perhaps influences the\nmiddle class understandings and potentials for the kind of societal solidarity\nthat could contribute to equitable social change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In societies throughout the world, there exists a range of societal\nactors who try to speak about socioeconomic inequalities to the middle classes.\nThey preach different civic ideals, urging the middle classes to engage in a\nvariety of very different activities in the name of equality, solidarity,\nsocial justice, poverty reduction or charity. For example, the middle classes\nare encouraged to protest, vote, donate, volunteer or consume in particular\nways. In the recent years, the activities towards the end of the list \u2013 such as donating money and volunteering \u2013\nhave probably become more pronounced than earlier as various social projects,\nfaced by cuts to the role of the state, now need to attract private funding and\nother private resources for their operations. The research is interested in the\ncontradiction inherent in this arrangement: On the one hand, the support is\nsorely needed. On the other hand, the communication work that aims to attract\nsupport may enforce stereotypes and practices, which in fact obstruct the kind\nof societal solidarity that could contribute to equitable social change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Theoretically, the research looks at communication work and the \u2018doing\nof middle class societal solidarity\u2019 by individuals as a set of social\npractices, which lead to particular framings of issues and solutions with\nclassed underpinnings. In line with practice theory, the research suggests that\ncivic ideals are fluid and constantly emerging, their framings depending on\nwhat is available in terms of material, what people consider important to do in\ntheir sociocultural context, what they know, and what they can do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To explore how societal solidarity is understood and communicated in\nNamibia, I have conducted a year of practice-based research in and around a\ntechnology innovation hub project in the Namibian capital of Windhoek. My role\nin the tech innovation hub is to help the hub in the communication work they do\nto attract the local private sector and middle class individuals to support\ninclusive innovation \u2013 a variety of technology innovation processes, which are\naimed at empowering people from marginalised backgrounds through\ntechno-entrepreneurialism. Part of this work is formed by rather mundane\ncommunication work of organising events, writing press releases and posting on\nsocial media. Another part is a more unusual undertaking, which uses a series\nof co-design activities and exhibitions to try understand what the powerful\nthink, what the relatively powerless want to say to them and how to communicate\nthis. These workshops have resulted in an installation, which is a room built\nof two walls and uses augmented reality technology to communicate things that\ncannot be seen in the physical room itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Parallel with my communication practice in the tech innovation hub, I\nhave conducted interviews and observations of other societal actors who\ncommunicate towards the same target audiences, also seeking for their support\nin various social issues. This work suggests that the middle class civic ideals\nthe tech hub is appealing to are not that different from those referred to by\norganisations that are seemingly very different from the hub. All construct\ntheir ideals from a mix of \u2018African\u2019 and \u2018foreign\u2019 elements, in a way that in\nmany respects resembles the appropriation of feminist ideas and politics for\nneoliberal purposes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I also keep an autoethnographic journal to reflect on personal\nexperiences that are relevant for societal solidarity in the context of\ncommunication work, and especially in the context of development communication.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Firstly, my experiences shed light on the role of outside people and\nideas in development communication. Development communication often is, in a\nvariety of ways, connected to the international development industry. Its\npolicies and funding decisions are regularly made by people who come from\nsettings that are very different from the settings where they are implemented.\nThe implementers, too, are often foreigners to the local setting where they\nwork. I am an example of such an implementer. I live and work between Nordic\nsocieties (Sweden and my native Finland, where I grew up in the heyday of the\nFinnish welfare state) and Namibia (and before Namibia, Zambia). Even after all\nthese years, I cannot but look at Namibia with my Nordic glasses and with my\nNordic expectations of what societal solidarity should look like. Dynamics like\nthis are an important factor in the practice of development communication. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Secondly, my experiences shed light on different traditions within the\nfield of development communication. In\nthe past twenty years, I have worked a variety of jobs that could all be\ndescribed as development communication. This is the first time that I am\ninvolved in something that focuses on entrepreneurialism, private sector, and\ntechnology \u2013 all the latest buzzwords in international development policy. Does\nthis work differ \u2013 and how \u2013 from working in contexts that have been\njournalistic or where the main goal has been to get the government(s),\ninternational organisations, or civil society organisations to do something or\nto ensure public support for their work? \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thirdly, my experiences also shed some light \u2013 although distorted by my\nbeing outsider \u2013 on what it is like to be a middle class Namibian. In many\nways, I am a Namibian middle class person in-the-making, and even more so is\nthe Namibian\u2013Finnish daughter I am raising. \n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Welcome to a K3 seminar with Veera Virmasalo, PhD student in Media and Communication Studies. The title of the talk is: Practices of framing middle class civic ideals in Namibia. How to be a good privileged citizen in a deeply … Continue reading