TOD #43: Freire and the Perseverance of Hope: Exploring Communication and Social Change

The Brazilian educator Paulo Freire (1921-1997) is one of the most important thinkers of the 21st Century, figuring among the most quoted authors in the fields of Education and Social Sciences all over the world. He is also a core reference to an infinite number of grassroots and activist initiatives globally. This book celebrates his birth centennial with a collection of 19 contributions from both experienced and young media and communication scholars and activists working in 11 countries. They reflect and debate Freire’s principles and ideas, revisiting their origins and interrogating their relevance to current challenges and struggles. The result can be summarized as a claim for affect as the core feature of social change and a tool for yielding resistance.

“I welcome this book as an excellent resource for introducing my students to key Freirean notions such as the reality that activist knowledge has to emerge from the lived experiences of local communities.”
– Clemencia Rodríguez, Temple University

“Freire’s ideas offer directions to redress rampant instrumentalism in and of design, instrumentalism evident in the ways in which design is implicated in the design of digital communication products, services, infrastructures, and institutions.”
– Sharon Prendeville, Loughborough University

“This volume highlights the centrality of Freirean ideas at the core of communications for social change.”
– Pradip Thomas, University of Queensland

“The book is a testament to the potentiality of Freire’s five human-centered ontological principles in guiding pro-social transformation through the iterative process of action and reflection.”
– Lauren Dyll, University of KwaZulu-Natal