Modernization Modernization represents the effort to transcend traditional ways of organizing social life that are perceived as obstacles of progress and industrialization Consistent with modernization, communication and information are seen as the tools to extend values, diffuse innovations, and push for reforms Many modernization-as-development programs designed by governments and aid organizations are directed to women and depend upon women’s participation

Modernization Continued Many social marketing projects in the modernization tradition, which apply commercial marketing principles to development goals such as family planning, have been similarly critiqued A central criticism of social marketing addresses its design, which defines people as consumers of products or services, not as citizens Social marketing acts for obedience not empowerment Communication campaigns are designed towards goals of integration, assimilation, or adaptation to the dominant model of development, keeping intact historical structural orders and gender asymmetries

Political Economy of Communication Political economy focuses primarily on the issue of economic class as a site of oppression Political economists interrogate the course of transnational capital that dictates the flow of news, information, and circulation of cultural products, affecting the range of genres, aesthetics, and formats that are produced and consumed globally Analyses by feminist political economists may include issues of labor in media and information environments showing pervasive gender underrepresentation, segregation in news rooms, the high cost for women of doing flexible work at home, the poor work conditions in electronic manufacturing or outsourcing telecommunication jobs

Spirituality as liberation Development scholars have largely underestimated the importance of religion and spirituality Within the modernization mindset religion is equated to tradition and irrationality; seen more as a barrier to change than an asset For many women and men religious affiliations are central to their lives, bringing personal fulfillment as well as an opportunity for collective engagement with social issues

Post-development and post- development feminism Post-development attends to the fundamental enterprise of development: it looks at knowledge, assumptions, narratives, and the symbolic order it reproduces that perpetuate dynamics of inequality Post-development includes post-colonial feminist frameworks and perspectives Post-development feminists specifically examine the contradictions of integrating women into development Post-development feminists argue that development is gendered, that women and men engage and experience the impacts of modernization and globalization in different ways, and that women in their local contexts and social groups deal in diverse and complex ways with poverty and gender inequality

Post-development and post development feminism Continued Under a post-development feminism, therefore, communication is not only about mass media arrangements, social marketing, or information campaigns, but about a broad range of communication opportunities in which the voices of women are expressed Post-development perspectives have certainly been criticized. Some critics assert that this perspective does not offer clear alternatives for social change

Embodiment We recognize that women and men construct their sense of self in connection to their experiences and perceptions of their bodies The embodied experience of women is located and it is political The body is not only a private realm, but a site where multiple social oppressions and liberating experiences converge Embodied experience and development communication are further linked by the gesture that invites expression and participation

Chapter 8 Conclusion Five trends in the scholarship of development communication and feminism were discussed: modernization; political economy; spirituality as liberation; post-development; and embodied experience Post-development and post-colonial thought incorporate elements from political economy and liberation perspectives, recognizing the power and biases of the institutions, agents, and machinery of development, and extending an invitation to imagine a world in which local organizations and social movements redefine in their own terms the very ideas of progress and well-being The embodiment perspective is a reminder that abstract theories too often forget that men and women are living, breathing human beings, whose capacities to act individually or collectively may often be affected by their gendered sensory experiences and constraints