Relocating Development Communication: Social Entrepreneurship, International Networking, and South-South Cooperation in the Viva Rio NGO

Authors

  • Stuart Davis Texas A&M-International University/ Universidade Estadual de São Paulo (UNESP)

Keywords:

Communication for Development and Social Change, Social Entrepreneurship, Grassroots Development, South-South Cooperation

Abstract

This piece addresses how the oft-invoked but rarely interrogated discourse on social entrepreneurship presents new opportunities and issues for community activists. While its champions argue that this practice has the potential to radically reconfigure the geopolitics of international development by privileging local innovations over outside intervention,  specific case examinations of this practice are as of yet rare. Drawing on the projects developed by Viva Rio, the first non-governmental organization working in the favelas (or unincorporated urban slums) of Rio de Janeiro, this piece investigates integral elements and larger implications of this practice including  how local actors working in marginalized communities design and implement interventions, how they market projects to international support networks, and larger possibilities for developing south-south collaborative relationships.

Author Biography

Stuart Davis, Texas A&M-International University/ Universidade Estadual de São Paulo (UNESP)

Stuart Davis is an Assistant Professor of Communication and Director of the Graduate Program in Border Communication and Media Studies, Texas A&M-International University. In 2015 he also holds the position of Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Faculty in Architecture, Communication, and Arts, State University of São Paulo, Brazil. 

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Published

2016-01-04

Issue

Section

Features