Development support communication (DSC): a change-agent in support of popular participation or a double-agent of deception?

ABSTRACT

Scholars are claiming that development support communication (DSC) is the missing link guaranteed to achieve popular participation in Third World development. This article questions the ability of DSC to achieve popular participation and argues that DSC is another made-in-America attempt at gaining compliance with the objectives of development initiated by the powerful Western development industry. It is suggested that the DSC theoretical position is naive and misrepresents the complex processes of development and communication and it is proposed that what is needed for achieving popular participatory development is a radically different understanding of development and communication.