Smart Villages/LCEDN webinar series For more information, please go to e4sv.org https://e4sv.org/events/webinar-education-and-young-people One of the most powerful benefits of energy access in rural communities in the developing world is the potential impact on education. Whether a simple solar lantern permits an extra hour of homework and study after dark, or whether a more sophisticated community energy and ICT project permits remote education and training to take place. And one of the most important, but often under-represented, groups of community stakeholders are young people. This LCEDN/Smart Villages webinar aims to create a wide-ranging discussion on these issues, with experts presenting their experiences and work on diverse aspects of the energy/youth/education equation. Our presenters this month include Dr Jiska de Groot and the team at the Energy Research Centre at the University of Cape Town, Craig Gibbs from JET Education Services in South Africa, Prof Jo Tacchi and Dr Amalia Sabiescu from Loughborough University, and Rachita Misra and Huda Jaffer from the SELCO Foundation. In addition to presentations on their experiences, the webinar included an opportunity for Q&A with all webinar participants.

1. Communication and Social Change
Prof Jo Tacchi, Dr Amalia Sabiescu
Loughborough University London
Webinar: Energy Access, Education and Young People
6 April 2018

2. Communication and social change
• Integral part of international development practice & research
• Evolution from top-down diffusion models to bottom-up
participatory approaches
• Shifts towards process focus: communication not as tool for
behaviour change and persuasion but as a process of
empowerment and democratisation (voice)
• Communication processes entrenched in other landmark
development practices – democratisation, access to education,
health, etc.

3. http://ear.findingavoice.org/

4. Ethnographic action research
• Developed and shaped through
several communication and
development projects funded by
DFID, UNESCO and others since 2002
• It combines ethnography,
participatory and action research;
and research and project
development
• It has been used since in
development projects that seek to
involve users/local communities;
and that are open and flexibly
adapted in response to on-going
findings & local people’s choices
The incorporated action research cycle
http://ear.findingavoice.org/

5. Key aspects
• Sequence of broad and targeted
research
• Researcher as socio-cultural
animator & why community
participation is crucial
• The importance of creating a
research culture
• Principles can be infused in
monitoring and evaluation
(noteworthy difference: changing
indicators)
• Key tools: participant observation,
field notes, in-depth interviews,
participatory techniques, but also
diaries, surveys
EAR integrates communicative ecologies mapping


6. Communicative ecologies
A conceptual and methodological tool to understand information access,
communication practices, use of and interaction with ICT (information and
communication technologies) in the context of people’s lives and social and
cultural structures (Lennie and Tacchi, 2013)
Both a concept (aligned to certain theoretical tradition) and a method
(embedded in an ethnographic, holistic methodological approach)
Assemblages of information and communication practices and processes
• The whole structure of communication and information flows in the
people’s ways of life
• The complete ensemble of (symbolic and material) resources for
communication in a locality, and the social networks which organize and
mediate them
(Slater, 2013)

7. Communication for development embedding
• Important to acknowledge the history and evolution of the concept in
communication for development
• Gradual refinement through a series of communication for development
(C4D) projects
Kothmale Community Radio and Internet Project: monitoring and evaluation study to
understand the role of ICT in C4D, Sri Lanka (2002)
ICTs for poverty reduction: comparative study on the role of ICT for development and
poverty reduction in five countries (2003-2004)
Finding a voice: participation in local content creation in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and
Indonesia (2005-2007)
• Analytical focus on holism, emergence, process, relations and connectedness
• Towards actionable knowledge: understanding change (as it happens) and
making space for intervention and action towards positive social change

8. Studying communicative ecologies
Key questions to understand a local communicative ecology
• What kinds of communication and information activities do local people carry
out or wish to carry out?
• What communications resources are available to them - media content,
technologies, and skills?
• How do they understand the way these resources can be used?
• Who do they communicate with, and why?
• How does a particular medium - like radio or Internet - fit into existing social
networks? Does it expand those networks?
(Tacchi, Slater & Hearn 2003)

9. Project Finding a Voice (2005-07)
India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia

10. Communicative ecologies of individuals

11. Communicative ecologies of individuals

12. Communicative ecologies
of collectivities (villages, ..)

13. Adult education as a means to active
participatory citizenship (EduMAP, 2016-19)
Research goal: map and examine the
varied CEs in the field of adult
education among the providers of
educational initiatives as well as
vulnerable groups in order to:
• Shed light on interconnections and
mismatches between the supply and
use side of adult education
• Generate an in-depth view of the
information and communication
context of vulnerable groups
• Map communicative practices of 40
adult education programmes in 19
EU countries and Turkey (providers
& youth)
• Map communicative practices of
youth in vulnerable contexts (9
vulnerable youth groups in 9
countries)
• Information used in ideation of new
forums for dialogue between adult
education stakeholders (policy
makers, educators, education
initiatives designers, and users)
• Information to support
improvement of adult education
design, outreach and policy planning

14. Potential applications in rural development,
energy access, education and youth
Ethnographic action research
• Flexible, inclusive research and project development methodology that involves
local people & adapts to emerging interests and needs
• Example: use of EAR in Mankosi Community Network, South Africa (Rey-Moreno,
2015)
Communicative ecologies maps show
• Communicative styles, array and uses of communication means
• Factors and attributes that influence communicative practices and access to
education, including social, cultural and economic factors; geographical location;
social status/background for exclusion such as minority status
• Who is included/excluded from what types of information and communication
flows
• Identification of difference based on attributes such as gender and exclusionary
basis
• Matches and mismatches between supply & use side in education and where
is/could be dialogue