The Palgrave Handbook of International Communication and Sustainable Development

The Palgrave Handbook of International Communication and Sustainable Development is a major resource for stakeholders interested in understanding the role of communication in achieving the UN’S Sustainable Development Goals. Bringing together theoretical and applied contributions from scholars in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and North America, the handbook argues that communication is a key factor in achieving the global goals and suggests a review of the SDGs to consider its importance. Reflecting on the impact of COVID-19, it highlights the need for effective communication infrastructure and critically assesses the 2030 agenda and timeline. Including individual SDG and country case studies as well as integrated analysis, the chapters seek to enrich understanding of communication for development and propose crucial policy interventions. It is critical reading for researchers as well as policy makers and NGOs.   

“Muhammad Jameel Yusha’u and Jan Servaes have edited a most significant collection of essays for scholars and practitioners interested in the intersection of communication, international development, and the sustainable development goals.   Comprehensive in nature and insightful in breadth, depth, and scope, this diverse volume will appeal to both the expert and the layperson.”

 

---Arvind Singhal, Ph.D. is the Samuel Shirley and Edna Holt Marston Professor of Communication, The University of Texas at El Paso, USA

 

“This new book makes an important addition to the field of international communication and sustainable development because of the wide range of salient and topical subjects covered, and the points of views represented. When we thought that interest in the field was ebbing because of deservedly increasing attention on information technology and artificial intelligence, this new collection comes along to show that communication and development are perennially relevant in our society”

                        ---Professor Charles Okigbo, North Dakota State University, USA.

 

 “The scenario suggests a thriller. A global pandemic threatens humanity. Who will tackle it? How will it affect life as we know it? What will its consequences be for the future of humankind? Yet, not for the first time in history, it is real-life and no one knows the full extent of the havoc that has been wreaked. Despite advances in technology and research between the Spanish Flu in 1914-18 and COVID-19 in 2020, the coronavirus still shocked the world. Worse still, the pandemic and its devastating impact has called into question whether the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be achieved by 2030. This book represents a compilation by leading thinkers in the field of communication for development. It recounts the evolution of the SDGs and various well-established approaches to understanding communication for development, providing international perspectives on the SDGs in various countries.

The editors conclude with several key recommendations based on lessons learned. First, that funding the SDGs remains a huge challenge. Second, that journalism for sustainable development must be deepened. Third, that technology plays a crucial role in development. And fourth, that the timeline for the SDGs has to be reconsidered.

The Palgrave Handbook of International Communication and Sustainable Development calls for a profound rethink of how development takes place on the ground, what its true aims should be, and how genuine communication underlies every one of the Sustainable Development Goals.”

 

---Philip Lee, Co-Editor, Expanding Shrinking Communication Spaces (2020).

Muhammad Jameel Yusha’u is the Managing Editor of "Africa Policy Journal" at Harvard Kennedy School, USA. He is a development expert and the author of Regional Parallelism and Corruption Scandals in Nigeria (2018). An ex-BBC journalist, and previously Senior Lecturer in Media and Politics at Northumbria University, UK, he has taught global journalism and mass communications at the University of Sheffield, UK, and Bayero University, Nigeria.

Jan Servaes was UNESCO Chair in Communication for Sustainable Social Change. He has taught International Communication and Communication for Social Change in Australia, Belgium, China, Hong Kong, the United States, the Netherlands, and Thailand, in addition to several teaching stints at about 120 universities in 55 countries. Servaes is Editor-in-Chief of the Elsevier journal “Telematics and Informatics: An Interdisciplinary Journal on the Social Impacts of New Technologies.” He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Handbook of Communication for Development and Social Change (2020).