Title: Civic Activism on Urban Environmental Issues with Prof. Thomas Tufte
About the event: There has been increasing consciousness about urban environmental issues in Hyderabad, such as declining rockscapes, water bodies, tree cover, etc. Activist groups have been able to engage in some amount of citizen mobilization and civic activism, many involving young people. These get manifested in online petitions, public rallies, awareness walks, talks, and film screenings. A wide range of communication processes and tools is evident in these movements, including emails, WhatsApp, and Telegram groups, circulation of videos and photographs on social media, and other digital techniques such as geo-tagging threatened natural resources. This interaction is organized to exchange information and share experiences among groups and individuals committed to a healthier, more environmentally conscious city.
ALL URBAN ENVIRONMENT ENTHUSIASTS ARE WELCOME!!!
Prof. Thomas Tufte will be a guest participant at this event. Prof. Tufte is an internationally renowned scholar of communication for social change, with active research interests in social movements, protests, and other modes of civic engagement. He is the Director of the Institute for Media and Creative Industries at Loughborough University, London. Tufte began his work life working 6 years in international development cooperation (first in UNESCO in Paris, then in Danchurchaid, a large Danish NGO, and finally, with the United Nations Development Program’s office in Asuncion, Paraguay. He has worked in and collaborated with researchers and organisations in over 30 countries, including Brazil, South Africa, Kenya, Mozambique, Malawi, Nigeria, Honduras, Nicaragua, Colombia and Chile. He is the author of several books, including Communication & Social Change: A Citizen Perspective, Freire and the Perseverance of Hope, and The Handbook of Development Communication and Social Change. Prof. Tufte is keenly interested in listening to our experiences here in Hyderabad and will try to share experiences from other cities in the Global South that he is familiar with.