Home⇛PCS Review⇛vol. 15 no. 1 (2023)

(Re/Co)Constructing the Filipino praxis in development work for agriculture and rural development in a grounded theory

Ernesto C Collo Jr | Benjamina Paula G. Flor

Discipline: media studies

 

Abstract:

The COVID-19 phenomenon presents new challenges, including uncharted territories and opportunities, in which development work may be understood, planned, and practiced. As a Filipino-centric inquiry, this study attempts to challenge current assumptions on development work. Centering on civil society organizations in Luzon, Philippines where 12 trailblazing development workers within the agriculture and rural development sector co-participated in intensive sequential e-dialogues, this study serves as a (re)discovery of their roles as sites of emergent agency during a public health crisis. These preliminary findings established the foundations in the (re/co) construction of a substantive theory called (Post-)pandemic Resilient and Inclusive Community Engagement and Communication for Development (RICE C4D) through the rigors of the sociocultural and critical traditions of communication theory, interwoven into Kathy Charmaz’s constructivist grounded theory. RICE C4D proposes four emergent critical components: sociocultural leadership (component 1) that acknowledges a new breed of community actors; multi-stakeholder coaction (component 2) that recognizes the complementary roles of emergent communication and (in)formal coalitions; strategic rural participation (component 3) that encourages the genuine engagement of rural and urban communities in the planned and judicious practice of development work through granular community immersion as legacy spaces and virtual communication as digital spaces leading to the creation of an online village; and emergent solidarities (component 4) that fosters the power of agency toward the (re)creation of physical and social spaces for development and the purposive pivot to digital spaces for communication. As a reflexive journey and with the goal to be of eventual practical utility during and beyond the pandemic, this grounded theory welcomes dialogical dialectic encounters, collaborative (re/co)construction, and continuing reimagination of our common future.



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