ABSTRACT

One conceptual problem associated with analyzing participatory communication for development is lack of a clear definition of participation. Another problem concerns the matter of scale. The participation literature tends to limit itself to processes at the village level, yet certain kinds of social change require the involvement of large-scale organizations and support from the State. Thepresent chapter addresses these conceptual problemsusing JurgenHabermas’s theory of communicative action with a focus on the concepts of “ideal speech” and the “public sphere.” This theory is applied to a case study of a population program in Nepal, coordinated by Johns Hopkins University’s Population Communication Services, that centered on entertainment-educational radio and communitymedia. The concepts of ideal speech and thepublic sphere are illustrated in relation to this program to explicate a definition of participatory communication that provides analytic leverage in relation to both small and large-scale programs and to extend the range of entertainment-education theorizing.