In January 2013, the then-fledgling Centre for Communication and Social Change (CSC) organised a CSC Boutique Conference at the UQ St Lucia campus. One of the recommendations from that conference was to establish a ground-breaking book series – which is exactly what we did. There was a feeling that the theorising of CSC had not moved on from when the participatory turn had become the “dominant paradigm” in the 1990s. So we decided to very explicitly establish a book series that intentionally published books to breach mainstream understandings of CSC, muddy the waters and push the boundaries of both theory and practice. We wanted the series to provide both practical insights and theoretical frameworks on CSC, in a context where old and new technologies were shaping grassroot responses to multiple struggles over cultural identity, political uncertainty, economic chaos and a variety of social upheavals. Palgrave Macmillan warmed to our proposal and the rest is history.
Between 2014 and 2026, we have published 27 books by scholars, leading as well as emerging, from every corner of our world. There are volumes on the relationship of CSC with data activism, women and media, community radio, the media in social movements, evaluation in CSC processes, nationalism and cultural identity, the media and migrants, and journalism, while others explore new theoretical thinking or concepts for practice. The series began with a groundbreaking co-authored volume written by the series co-editors – Interrogating the Theory and Practice of CSC – as a critical reading of CSC theory and practice that identified gaps in the field. It has become a standard reference for CSC scholars and students, and triggered proposals for subsequent volumes to address those gaps.
Earlier this year we decided to take the series a step further, explicitly inviting book proposals that highlight theorising from the Global South within the larger objective of the decolonisation of scholarship and privileging Southern epistemologies related to CSC. Palgrave has already commissioned a two-volume account from Africa and another from Asia, and we are in discussions with prospective authors from Latin America.
The two most recent titles to join the series develop our understandings of community radio: The Cultural Praxis of Community Radio in India, by Aniruddha Jena and Vasuki Belavadi, and Community Radio and Health-Related Social Change Communication in Africa-Beyond Tokenism, by Emmanuel Essel and Eliza Govender.
The Palgrave Studies in Communications for Social Change has become a globally recognised and significant series with publications that are shaping our understandings of CSC in the 21st century. We are grateful for the enthusiasm and insights of the many authors who contributed to the series, and for the support given by the Palgrave Publishing Editors who have been involved over the years, as well as The University of Queensland.
