Strategic Participatory Communication and Development: Engagement and Empowerment

There has been a recent shift in the nature of public engagement from a culture of paternalism and control towards a public-centred approach involving collaboration and co-creation. This book draws on public relations and development communication insights to build a new community engagement model for public sector organisations who wish to engage with rural communities in developing countries. This theoretical model also offers a practical framework for Government in particular to engage with and empower rural communities as they adopt and exploit infrastructure developments. The outcome is mutual benefit.

By examining in detail how Government communicates with rural communities on renewable energy infrastructure projects in Indonesia, and underpinned by empirical research with those communities, this new participatory framework has been developed. It envisages progressive empowerment of rural communities as Government encourages active engagement on the installation and exploitation of renewable energy. This entails encouraging communities to determine for themselves their uses of sustainable energy sources and to take ownership of a co-determined future. In so doing, the Government itself is more likely to achieve its own renewable energy commitments.

Research-based and combining theory with practice, this thought-provoking book will be welcomed by strategic communication and public relations scholars and practitioners alike.

Anne Gregory, Emeritus Professor of Corporate Communication at the University of Huddersfield, is the author of over 100 books, book chapters and academic and popular journal articles. Professor Gregory is an Adjunct Professor at LSPR Communication and Business Institute, Jakarta, Indonesia, and at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.

Professor Gregory is a Board member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and serves on its International Committee and AIinPR Panel. She is also a former Chair of the Global Alliance and directed the worldwide work on developing the Global Capability Framework for the public relations and communication management profession. She is the Director of Practix Limited, a research and training consultancy.

Dr. Gregory holds the CIPR Sir Stephen Tallents Medal for her outstanding contribution to the profession, the US Institute for Public Relations Distinguished Pathfinder award for research, the Public Relations Society of America’s Atlas Award for her international work, the Canadian Public Relations Society’s Outstanding Achievement Award, the European Public Relations Research and Education Association’s (EUPRERA) Distinguished Scholar Award for her contribution to the European body of knowledge and the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication’s (AMEC) Dom Bartholomew Award in recognition of outstanding service to the communication measurement and evaluation industry.

Gregoria Arum Yudarwati is Professor of Communications, at Universitas Atma Jaya Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Her research interests are on public relations, community engagement and sustainability communication. Most of her research projects have been recognised and supported by international funders, including the Australian Government (1999, 2005 and 2015), British Council, UK (2014 and 2016), Arthur W. Page Center, USA (2015, 2021 and 2022) and the Pulitzer Center, USA (2022).

Professor Yudarwati is a senior expert on communication at Kiroyan Partners, a research-based public affairs and strategic communications consulting firm in Indonesia. She has also been appointed as a member of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) International Development Peer Review College, which has enriched her insights on the international development agenda.