Strategic Participatory Communication and Development Engagement and Empowerment

1. Introduction

2. Development communication

3. Context of the study

4. How the research was undertaken

5. Discovering community communication preferences and needs.

6. Developing a new strategic participatory communication framework: A blueprint for empowerment.

7. Applying the participatory model in other contexts

8. Final thoughts

Biography

Anne Gregory, Emeritus Professor of Corporate Communication at the University of Huddersfield, is the author of over 100 books, book chapters and academic and popular journal articles. Professor Gregory is an Adjunct Professor at LSPR Communication and Business Institute, Jakarta, Indonesia, and at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.

Professor Gregory is a Board member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and serves on its International Committee and AIinPR Panel. She is also a former Chair of the Global Alliance and directed the worldwide work on developing the Global Capability Framework for the public relations and communication management profession. She is the Director of Practix Limited, a research and training consultancy.

Dr. Gregory holds the CIPR Sir Stephen Tallents Medal for her outstanding contribution to the profession, the US Institute for Public Relations Distinguished Pathfinder award for research, the Public Relations Society of America’s Atlas Award for her international work, the Canadian Public Relations Society’s Outstanding Achievement Award, the European Public Relations Research and Education Association’s (EUPRERA) Distinguished Scholar Award for her contribution to the European body of knowledge and the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication’s (AMEC) Dom Bartholomew Award in recognition of outstanding service to the communication measurement and evaluation industry.

Gregoria Arum Yudarwati is Professor of Communications, at Universitas Atma Jaya Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Her research interests are on public relations, community engagement and sustainability communication. Most of her research projects have been recognised and supported by international funders, including the Australian Government (1999, 2005 and 2015), British Council, UK (2014 and 2016), Arthur W. Page Center, USA (2015, 2021 and 2022) and the Pulitzer Center, USA (2022).

Professor Yudarwati is a senior expert on communication at Kiroyan Partners, a research-based public affairs and strategic communications consulting firm in Indonesia. She has also been appointed as a member of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) International Development Peer Review College, which has enriched her insights on the international development agenda.

This book is a major and innovative contribution to strategic communication research and practice. With solid empirical foundations in local communities in the Global South and particularly Indonesia, the authors demonstrate the value of participatory communication when planning and implementing development projects. At the communicative core lies a mission to empower local communities by giving them a significant voice in decision-making, which in the long run also increases success for those funding developments.

- Dr. Jesper Falkheimer, Professor of Strategic Communication (Lund University, Sweden), President (European Public Relations Education and Research Association, 2024 and 2025)

Strategic Participatory Communication and Development: Engagement and Empowerment” combines insight based on “mainstream” engagement models predominantly developed in the Northern Hemisphere with findings and analyses from the Global South, particularly research done in Indonesia, where empowerment needs to be at the core of engagement to achieve meaningful outcomes. This vast archipelago of currently 280 million ethnically diverse people inhabiting a chain of islands stretching the same distance as London – Baghdad in one political entity, has for years been under-represented in academic treatises on community issues. This book by two outstanding academics, professors Anne Gregory and Gregoria Yudarwati is an essential contribution to fill this gap.

- Noke Kiroyan, Chairman (Kiroyan Partners and Kreab Indonesia), member of Global Strategic Communications Advisory, Kreab Worldwide