Culture-Centered Communication Approaches in Health and Social Change

Culture-centred communication approaches situate marginalised communities at the heart of health and social change interventions, prioritising their lived experiences, local meanings and collective agency. Rather than imposing externally derived messages, this paradigm co-creates knowledge through ongoing dialogue between researchers, practitioners and community members. By mapping the interplay of cultural values, structural constraints and individual agency, it seeks to uncover and address deep-rooted inequities in access to information, services and decision-making. Practical applications range from designing contextually relevant health education to reshaping policy environments that perpetuate disadvantage. Emphasis on voice infrastructures ensures that the narratives of under-represented groups inform the development of programmes and policies, fostering solidarity and community sovereignty. With global significance, culture-centred efforts have demonstrated resilience in settings as varied as urban migrant enclaves, Indigenous land occupations and pandemic responses, highlighting pathways for sustainable transformation anchored in local knowledge systems.

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Culture-Centered Communication Approaches in Health and Social Change publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in culture-centered communication approaches in health and social change across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Culture-Centred Approach (CCA): A theoretical framework that foregrounds marginalised voices in co-creating health and social change interventions by examining the interrelations of culture, structure and agency.

Voice Infrastructures: The communicative channels, networks and practices through which community members articulate needs, share knowledge and influence decision-making.

Structural Determinants: The social, economic and political systems and policies that shape distribution of resources, power and health outcomes within and across communities.

Agency: The capacity of individuals or groups to act purposefully and effect change within their cultural and structural contexts.

References

1. Migration and Health in the Construction Industry: Culturally Centering Voices of Bangladeshi Workers in Singapore. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (2017).
2. The CODE^SHIFT model: a data justice framework for collective impact and social transformation. Human Communication Research (2023).
3. Preventing Violence in the Raced Margins: Alternate Rationalities, Possibilities, and Imaginaries. Management Communication Quarterly (2024).
4. Cultural Context, Structural Determinants, and Global Health Inequities: The Role of Communication. Frontiers in Communication (2016).
5. Culture-Centered Processes of Community Organizing in COVID-19 Response: Notes From Kerala and Aotearoa New Zealand. Frontiers in Communication (2020).
6. Public health community engagement with Asian populations in British Columbia during COVID-19: towards a culture-centered approach. Canadian Journal of Public Health (2022).
7. Academic-community solidarities in land occupation as an Indigenous claim to health: culturally centered solidarity through voice infrastructures. Frontiers in Communication (2023).