promoting indigenous visual communication
DESCRIPTION
Andrea Berardi presents the results of Project COBRA at the 13th International Public Communication of Science and Technology Conference in Brazil on the theme of “science communication for social inclusion and political engagement”. Andrea Berardi is in Salvador, Brazil to present the results of Project COBRA at the 13th International Public Communication of Science and Technology Conference (http://www.pcst-2014.org/index.php/en/). The theme of the conference is “science communication for social inclusion and political engagement”, and it is a great opportunity to promote indigenous ‘visual science’ within academia, development practitioners and policy makers. The session Andrea is presenting in is appropriately titled “Local community knowledge and global context” and Andrea will make a strong case for the need for policy makers, academia and practitioners to engage with ‘indigenous science’. In the conclusion to the presentation’s paper, the COBRA team argue that COBRA’s participatory, visual and systemic approach has enabled wider stakeholder groups, including policy makers, to recognise the contextual, subjective and non-material dimensions of indigenous life. For more the presentation, see SciDev's article: http://www.scidev.net/global/indigenous/scidev-net-at-large/the-indigenous-knowledge-video-roadshow.htmlTRANSCRIPT
The COBRA Project: A Community-Based Approach to Public Engagement in Science
Andrea Berardi
The Open University, UK
“Explore, record and share
‘community-owned solutions’
for environmental and social
challenges using Information
and Communication
Technologies’
Project COBRA aims
Project COBRA partners
Project COBRA communities
North Rupununi Guyana
Tumucumaque Brazil
Kwamalasamutu
Suriname
Galibi
Suriname
Raposa do Sol Brazil
Kavanayén / Kamarata VenezuelaKanuku
Mountains
Guyana
Indigenous communities are frequently portraid as ‘undeveloped’
and in need of external assistance in health, education,
employment, agriculture.....
Perception of indigenous communities
The Deficit Model proposes that communities lack appropriate
knowledge for managing their problems, and need to be
informed and educated by professional experts.
Models of Science Communication: Deficit
Communitiies have the expertise and local knowledge to resolve problems.
The problems is not lack of expertise and knowledge, but the mode of communication within the scientific community: written, numerical, linear, abstract, theoretical, generalised.....
Models of Science Communication: Lay Expertise
What is a ‘community owned solution’?
• local demand.
• locally executed
• local beneficiaries.
• positive long-term impact on the socio-ecological environment.
Project COBRA approach
A visual approach to communication
• Visual immagery
promotes more relaxed
and active participation.
• Visual imagery is more
accessible than the
written and spoken word.
‘Rich Pictures’
Storyboarding
Photostories
Participatory Video
Sharing Community Owned
Solutions
Community ‘MediaGate’
The need for a Paradigm Shift in Science Communication
”There is a clear conflict between the principles
behind COBRA's participatory, visual and systemic
approach, and the demands of policymakers for
‘scientifically’ validated communications, which
require an imposition on the type and process of data
collection, analysis and positioning in the public
sphere.”
Models of Science Communication
Deficit Lay Expertise
Onto-epistemology
Reductionist, positivist, mechanistic
Holistic, constructivist, ecological
Environment perceived to be...
Stable, predictable, controllable,
Complex, dynamic, unpredictable
Decision-making control
Top-down,
international conventions
Participative, local
Organizational principles
Hierarchical
Competitive
Consensual
Cooperative
Solutions Technocentric
Binary and unimodal
Behavioural
Experimental and adaptive
