The Case of the Radio Communication Project in Nepal: A Culture-Centered Rejoinder

Abstract

The authors set out to examine the claim made that the Radio Communication Project in Nepal provided a participatory platform for community members and demonstrated using the culture-centered approach that so-called participatory health education efforts such as the Radio Communication Project are not too different from the top-down models of health education in the realm of opportunities of democratic participation of communities. The culture-centered approach interrogates the logic of success as defined within the realm of effectiveness of health education programs and it suggests that we seek out alternative paradigms for constituting and evaluating health education efforts. The goals of the culture-centered approach are to examine the ways in which health education and promotion efforts respond to the needs of the community and the extent to which community members voices are present within the discursive space; the key element here is the identification of community needs as articulated by the members of the community through the active participation of community members in dialogical platforms where they have opportunities to voice their concerns. (excerpt)