Thus
far, the communications revolution has been largely limited to the
merely technological feat of converging telecommunications with
personal computing. But does it hold a higher promise – to
transform communication as a human act of sharing meaning about
values, attitudes, and experiences? Or will it allow capitalism to
pursue ever-greater economic efficiencies among the wealthy nations
of the world, while ignoring the persistent and growing gap between
rich and poor?
Will
“empowerment” come to mean the creation of an alternative model
of development communication or will wiring the world continue to
mean sending computers to Africa without providing adequate
training, software and servicing? Worse, will informatics create a
communication flatland, where positive silence, and other ways of
knowing in non-western cultures, and among women, are lost, such
that we travel at the speed of information-light … to nowhere?
The
contributors argue that to create sustainable futures, new ways must
be found to make communication inclusive, participatory, and mindful
of future generations. They present powerful transformative
scenarios of web futures that they argue can lead to a more
communicative future – a "gaia of civilizations". This
new means of communication must also emerge authentically from
humanity’s diverse cultures, be more concerned with the quality of
information shared, and be transformed from its technocratic bias.
This book will be of interest to scholars in a variety of fields
concerned with issues of communication, culture, and globalization.
Comments
on Transforming
Communication
Communication
is a tired imperative
and by now an old academic discipline. Transforming communication is
therefore something
worth doing. This is an
interesting book because whilst it is a critical work it is also
optimistic. The
optimism resides in its rediscovery of that part of communication
often neglected - listening. Listening to voices often neglected in
mainstream academia, the book allows spaces for contributors from
non-western perspectives, from spiritual perspectives and from the
future. The optimism
also flows from the action oriented perspective of many of the
contributors. Although
optimistic the book makes no rash promises... the transforming of
the title suggests a process in progress. In my view it is a process
moving in the right direction.
Greg
Hearn
Associate
Professor of Media and Communication
Faculty
of Creative Industries, Queensland University of Technology
Insightful, compelling,
multi-perspectival, and replete with unconventional wisdom, this
eclectic book, the compilation of a distinguished body of leading
trans-disciplinary scholars, may serve as a bifurcation-point
signalling the under-recognized transformative/transcendent
potential of communication, communication technologies and more
importantly communicativeness, for the betterment of human
interactions, social re-design, and environmental rejuvenation.
David
Lindsay Wright, Futures Researcher
The
Communication Centre, Queensland University of Technology
Table
of Contents
Introduction
·
Transforming
Communication for Future Generations, Sohail Inayatullah
Part
I – Future Generations
·
Future
Generation through Global Conversation¾In
Quest of Collective Wellbeing through Conversation in the Present
Moment, Anthony Judge
·
Seizing
the Moment for Future Generations, Richard Neville
·
Conversations
with the Ghosts of the Future—Some Theoretical Problems and
Practical Opportunities, Darren Schmidt
·
The
Ethics of Future Generations, Jérôme Bindé
Part
II – Communication Futures
·
The
Net and Our Social Futures, Tony Stevenson
·
From
the Information Era to a Gaia of Civilisations, Sohail Inayatullah
·
The
Telephone—Africa’s Future in the Age of Technology, Levi
Obijiofor
·
The
Techno-brahmins and the Futures of Communication, Rakesh Kapoor
·
Magani
Whirlpools: An Indigenous Metaphor and Process to Reconcile the Past
for the Future, by Paul Wildman and Bilyana Blomely
Part
III – Technology, Women and Power
·
Creating
Communication Spaces for Not Yet So Virtual People, by Ivana
Milojevic
·
Rural
Women’s Futures and Cooperative Solutions, by Vuokko Jarva
·
Voices
from Elsewhere: Empowering Electronic Conversations among Women, by
Margaret Grace and June Lennie
·
Landless
Rural Women Creating Sustainable Futures, by Frances Parker and
Rahmi Sofiarini
Part
IV – Sustainability and Future Generations
·
The
Legacy of Technology, by Alan Fricker
·
Global
Food Policy: Like Winning a Game of Poker on the Titanic?, by Mary
Mahoney
·
Permaculture:
Hope and Empowerment for a Sustainable Future, by Caroline Smith
·
Why
Consider Future Generations?—And How to Consider Them More Fully,
by Geoff Holland
·
Index
About
the Editors
SOHAIL INAYATULLAH holds a
number of academic positions. He is Professor, Tamkang University,
Taiwan; University of the Sunshine Coast; and, Queensland University
of Technology. In 1999, he held the Unesco Chair in European
Studies, University of Trier, Germany.
Inayatullah
is fellow of the World Futures Studies Federation and
Fellow
of the World Academy of Art and Science. He is co-editor of the Journal
of Futures Studies and Associate Editor of New
Renaissance.
SUSAN
LEGGETT is a freelance editor and writer. She has a background in
fine arts and art journalism and has co-authored two books on food
and health. Her most recent editorial work was for The
Communication Superhighway: Social and Economic Change in the
Digital Age (Allen & Unwin Sydney, 1998).
To
order:
Transforming
Communication
is available in hard (US$65) or softback (US$ 24) editions.
Distributed
& marketed throughout the world by Praeger Publishers,
Westport
CT, USA (Greenwood
Publishing Group, Inc.) Praeger-Greenwood website
-- http://www.greenwood.com/futurestud.
Or: www.amazon.com,
www.borders.com
