Citizen spaces as communicative arenas for environmental justice in climate change governance: the case of the Ngoyla-Mintom projects in Cameroon
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Abstract
This paper examines the nature and role of organic citizen-led spaces as communicative spaces of change in climate-change related natural resource management; specifically the Ngoyla-Mintom sustainable forest management projects in the East of Cameroon. It examines how deliberative communicative practices stemming from organic spaces created by local communities and NGOs enabled policy advocacy through “the mobilization of dissent” in the projects. The paper highlights a growing trend in communication for social change in which ordinary citizens are becoming more adept at articulating their preferences from within self-organized spaces both offline and online. The evidence indicates that “invited spaces” implicit in the participation paradigm in development communication no longer seem to be the arenas where social change trajectories are crafted through “dialogue” and “consensus” as has been hitherto implied. Rather, social change trajectories are increasingly influenced and shaped, sometimes vigorously, by mobilized citizens from within created/organic spaces outside the traditional invited spaces. Such conclusions are significant for how we conceptualize the role of spaces in communication for social change.
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