Urban Crisis Seminar: Strategising for Improved Social Justice Communication

Описание: Presenter: Dr Rebecca Pointer
Discussant: Koketso Moeti

Achieving social justice requires effective communication to build collectivity and solidarity. However, a common expectation in social justice communication is that presenting audiences with the facts evidence will automatically lead to political solidarity and politcal change. Focussing only on the framing of the message means that social justice organisations often leave out key elements of persuasion in their political communication strategy, so their communications do not adequately engage powerful actors, nor do they empower potential allies to build solidarity. In the world today, arguably the most effective political communication involves marketing and advertising, which persuades audiences by creating desire-as-lack, such that audiences come to orient their subjectivity around individual consumerism, thus undermining collectivity and solidarity. In this seminar, we will examine how desire can be deployed through social justice communication to instead ignite desire for creativity, collectivity and solidarity, by selecting framing, aesthetics, communication tools and an understanding of audiences to bring about new ways of seeing the world and identify new ‘lines of flight’ towards a more just world.

This seminar took place on 19 Feb 2026 in Johannesburg.