At a time when COVID-19, racial reckoning, and fiscal austerity settle into and weaken the bones of the public university, when public questions multiply about whose university and science is viewed as an elitist instrument of control, George Villanueva offers up engaged communication as a praxis toward just scholarship for the collective good. Villanueva takes seriously the obligation of the academy to place based justice. As an activist scholar who builds with, struggles alongside, and yearns to be of use to communities under siege, in this text he chronicles the delicate, collaborative, and careful moves of solidarity. At precisely the moment when neoliberal logics threaten to hollow, commodify, and white-out all things public and critical, this volume re-visions the reparative university: a necessary gift toward the radical reimagination of higher education in revolting times.
Michelle Fine,Distinguished Professor of Critical Psychology, American Studies, Gender/Womens Studies and Urban Education, The Graduate Center, CUNY
As an organizing tool, information is not merely descriptive. It captures peoples daily realities, supports a grand narrative of their aspirations, and guides neighborhood struggle for a just future. Effective communication and messaging are part craft, part art. The practice is impactful when inclusive of diverse actors, technicians, and audiences. George Villanueva has done a remarkable job to enlighten the readers through his careful and insightful case studies of South Los Angeles. The book documents the robustness of social and political organizing within a highly marginalized community, and argues rightfully that scholars can and should be a partner contributor in fighting for social justice.
Paul Ong,Director, UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge
Promoting Urban Social Justice is a major contribution to the growing literature on collaborative universitycommunity research and activism. George Villanueva is a prominent young scholar in this field who provides additional building blocks that can be used in shaping a research model that brings together both university-based knowledge and community-based knowledge.
Phil Nyden,Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Founding Director of the Center for Urban Research and Learning, Loyola University Chicago
Straddling the fields of urban planning and communication practice, this book is a pioneering contribution toward placemaking and social change. Much of this effort is based on Professor Villanuevas personal commitment to achieve social justice through engaged community activism, drawing from his personal experiences of living, learning, and practicing in inner city Los Angeles. A must read, the book offers compelling ideas for theory, practice, and pedagogy.
Tridib Banerjee,Professor Emeritus of Public Policy, Sol Price School of Public Policy, University of Southern California
Promoting Urban Social Justice through Engaged Communication Scholarship
On the basis of the authors scholar-activist interventions to promote social justice in cities, this book highlights the role engaged communication scholarship can play in fostering a more equitable future.
Through three innovative case studies situated in South Los Angeles, the book illustrates engaged communication scholarship projects grounded in design criteria that are social justice-oriented, place-based, collaborative, and public. It models universitycommunity partnerships that promote positive social change in marginalized communities that stand to benefit the most from university resources, guiding readers on how these partnerships can be incorporated into social justice-oriented curriculum and engaged learning projects. It provides strategic recommendations for how in community communication research and media practices can be used to build local power in marginalized urban neighborhoods, and calls for communications research, pedagogy, epistemologies, practices, ethics, politics, and community engagement to purposefully serve the concerns of marginalized groups in society.
The book will be of interest to researchers and social change practitioners interested in solution-oriented work in cities within the fields of research methods, organizational communication, urban planning, public policy, sociology, and social work.
George Villanueva is Assistant Professor of Advocacy and Social Change in the School of Communication at Loyola University Chicago. In addition to his academic background, George has over 15 years of practitioner experience in electoral politics, urban planning & development, community organizing, and community program evaluation.
Routledge Social Justice Communication Activism Series
Lawrence R. Frey and Patricia S. Parker, Series Editors
Quantitative Research Methods in Communication: The Power of Numbers for Social Justice
Erica Scharrer and Srividya Ramasubramanian
Promoting Urban Social Justice through Engaged Communication Scholarship
Reimagining Place
George Villanueva
For additional information on this series please visit https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Social-Justice-Communication-Activism-Series/book-series/RSJCAS, and for information on other Routledge titles visit www.routledge.com.
First published 2022
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2022 George Villanueva
The right of George Villanueva to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-032-01517-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-01695-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-17964-1 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003179641
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For my oldest brother, Joselito Onas Villanueva, Sergeant First Class in the U.S. Army,
K.I.A. 2004 in Iraq. Your loving spirit in our family will never be forgotten.
War is not the answer.
