The Community of Practice Inclusive Communication has started! On 12 April 2022, the participants met for the first time. It was a remarkable meeting, which revealed an impressive diversity of knowledge and experiences already present in the group. There were many communication professionals from Partos members, board members of the Expertise Centre Humanitarian Communication, international partners and university staff. About 36 organisations are now dedicated to this CoP. We look forward to what we can achieve together as a Community of Practice.
Issues to explore
A broad range of issues has been raised. How do we ensure inclusiveness in the design of this CoP? How do we involve international partners and communities that are difficult for Partos to approach? How do we put inclusive communication into practice and how to bring the conversation beyond communication-centric spaces? How do we deal with power relations, language & translation issues? How broad or specific do we go as a CoP? How do we ensure that history does not repeat itself, looking for different words and images, but not addressing the underlying unequal relationships, racism and ethnocentrism? These are all legitimate questions that we want to work out in the coming period into a CoP format that suits as many participants as possible. We think these questions will also guide us and contribute to the learning process of the CoP.
Next steps
The Expertise Centre Humanitarian Communication is now working on a starting document full of resources which we call the Future brief, as it gives us perspectives based on the past for our future actions. The CoP will come together for the second meeting on May 31st, to discuss the Future brief and elaborate on some topics and on the inclusiveness of the CoP. On the 30th of June, we will organise a broader event to share the knowledge and innovation we are collecting. The topic of this event is “history & power relations in communication practices”. Other topics we will explore in the upcoming months:
- Language and imagery
- Discourse
- Decolonisation of communication practice
- Power relations and representation
- Production of inclusive storytelling & Participatory forms of community-led communication
Contact
If you want to contribute to the work of the Community of Practice, contact Sera Koolmees at sera@partos.nl.