Mythology, narrative, and discourse in Javanese wayang: towards cross-level theories for the new development paradigm.

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

The field of development communication has been experiencing a paradigm shift toward an emphasis upon pluralistic, localized, and more participatory communication within the larger political and cultural environments. The emerging paradigm implicitly rejects both the ahistorical and individual-level biases of modernization theory as well as the reductionist social structural biases of dependency theory, and instead focuses upon human action within sociocultural, political, and economic contexts. There has been, however, little academic movement in the form of new theoretical formulations suited to this shift toward a new paradigm of development. This paper discusses the need for and the difficulties of cross-level theorizing in development communication which can help explain the actions of individuals within their larger sociocultural and political contexts; proposes a cross-level approach to communication and development based upon theories of mythology, discourse, and narrative; and illustrates the approach with an examination of indigenous media and the social roles of the shadow puppet (wayang) mythology in Central Java, Indonesia. Implications for applied work in development are discussed.