Social Progress in the Dimension of "Fluid" Public Communication

• In Event: Global Interventions in Communication Policy, Rights, and Justice: Reflections on the International Panel on Social Progress

Abstract

Societal development is still today ‘measured’ in broad technological access figures. These figures define other sets of metrics, such as digital divides and affordances. However, we need to move from technoloigcal ‘access’ towards communicative dimensions, emerging today as cross national ‘axes’ of civic communication across all society types. The role of public discourse in the process of transnationally linked deliberative practices and the implications on civic identity needs to be embedded in the conception of social progress. We require such a broader angle for social progress which moves beyond the nation and - instead - conceptualizes social progress in a world society. Such a shift is needed given the complexity of globalized ‘risks’ which can no longer be sufficiently addressed in national frames.

Author

• Ingrid Volkmer, U of Melbourne