World Building Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA): Academic-Community Collaboration and Methodology for Applied Communication Research

• In Event: Responding to Exclusion and Inequality

Abstract

World building is a participatory framework designed to engage a network of stakeholders around a shared vision of the future and foster conversations outside of traditional authority structures. As central actors in their communities, universities—and, more specifically, their communication scholars—are best positioned to catalyze and guide this process. This paper discusses the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of world building, seeing it as a narrative-driven process that values diverse contributions and creates a shared story space from which to build coherent and textured future states. We present a case study of the Downtown Los Angeles Imagination Corridor World Building Project and highlight the methodology that emerged during the project’s three initial workshops. This project took a multi-dimensional approach to communication through both its unique participatory framework and its focus on projecting out a future where diversity and creativity is nurtured through communicative spaces. This project showed the world building is a powerful and constructive way to communicate shared visions and mobilize diverse stakeholders through alternative participatory networks.

Authors

• Nicholas Busalacchi, U of Southern California - Annenberg School for Communication

• Sonia Jawaid Shaikh, U of Southern California - Annenberg School for Communication

• Francois Bar, U of Southern California

• Ann Pendleton-Jullian, Ohio State U/Georgetown U