"How should scholars approach study of the processes that characterize voice production among subaltern groups? The study builds on both Marxist and non-Marxist frameworks as theoretical trajectories for conducting class analyses that define how subaltern groups conceive, produce and consume their o ... wn voices. The discussion, a semiotics analysis in itself, aims to make significant contribution to communication studies, through demonstrating the fragile, slippery and class-based politics that are prevalent when marginalized groups use various art forms, even their bodies, as battlegrounds for contesting oppressive power relationships." (Abstract) more

"This chapter seeks to complicate our understanding of voice in development. It proposes that while it is important to consider not just voice, and the processes of valuing voice, it is also important to understand what voice and agency mean in the complexities of everyday life for populations who a ... re marginalized or disadvantaged. The chapter draws on research in an Indian slum cluster to illustrate how an ethnographic approach can help us to appreciate these complexities and problematize notions of voice. It explores examples of the ways in which people seek to remain unheard and invisible in official and formal terms, and suggests ways that we can rethink what voice might mean in development. While communication for development and social change cannot simplify complexity, it does provide a way of facilitating participation in the design of development. It can highlight the contestations and different perspectives involved, and can draw attention to the relationships of developers and people in development contexts." (Abstract) more