Research Seminar - Strategising communication and collective action towards sustainable nomadic livelihoods (Mongolia)

Date: 7 April
Time: 3pm-4pm
Location: Room 601, Michie Building (#9)
Abstract
The concept of Rural Communication Services has gained prominence over the past few years as the embodiment and institutionalisation of communication for development in support of family farming (e.g. FAO, 2017). Effective models for Rural Communication Services (RCS) are characterised by a delicate balance between information provision, facilitation of dialogue and co-creation of new knowledge within the given cultural and institutional context. The UQ Centre for Communication and Social Change led a three-year collaborative project (2014-16) funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) to design and establish RCS that would facilitate information exchange and collective action in nomadic herder communities involved in the Green Gold Program. This is an innovative rangeland management program that aims at restoring degraded rangelands while improving herder family livelihoods in the seven most western provinces in Mongolia through the establishment and facilitation of a large network of Pasture User Groups and Herder Cooperatives. In this presentation we will share the principles of RCS design and establishment in a nomadic livelihood context and discuss the practices and lessons learned from the Green Gold RCS project in Mongolia.
Presenter’s Bio
Elske van de Fliert is an Associate Professor at the School of Communication and Arts and Director of the Centre for Communication and Social Change, The University of Queensland. Her research focuses on the theory and practice of participatory communication in development and social change, and frameworks for and facilitation of transdisciplinary research for development. Her work finds application across several disciplinary fields, including agriculture, rural development and energy poverty.
About Research Seminar and Workshop Series
School of Communication and Arts Research Seminar Series
The research seminar and workshop series occur each semester, each with a different topic and guest speaker from UQ or otherwise.
Friday, 4 August Hybrid: Online via Zoom and in person at the | After the Future: Heat, Collapse, and Exhausting the “Future of Work” | Dr Luke Munn |
Friday, 25 August Hybrid: Online via Zoom and in person at the | Promoting children’s environmental responsibility in the EFL classroom | Dr Valentina Adami |
Friday, 1 September Hybrid: Online via Zoom and in person at the | Portraying Asian-diasporic identity beyond the limits of the literary label Asian-Australian | Catriona Arthy and Olivia De Zilva |
Friday, 8 September Hybrid: Online via Zoom and in person at the | Exploring Digital Humanities through the Lens of Journalism: A Case Study of Reader Comment Analysis | Dr Lujain Shafeeq |
Friday, 15 September Hybrid: Online via Zoom and in person at the | Carly-Jay Metcalfe and Bianca Millroy | |
Friday, 22 September Hybrid: Online via Zoom and in person at the | Coping with eco-anxiety: A guided journal trial | Dr Ans Vercammen and Dr Skye Doherty |