When Communication Goes with Inclusion: A Case Analysis on Participatory Experiences in the Municipality of Bologna

Abstract

This paper looks at a communication campaign brought about by an Italian municipality with the collaboration of other local institutions and associations within the framework of a European plan against social exclusion. This experience argues for a change of perspective in communication, for all!: this is the payoff of the campaign, too. Playing with the key words of the Lisbon Strategy, and while inviting the spectator to take a look at marginal people merely by another having another point of view, participatory-creation choices gave rise to the making of publicity spots using persons who are actually experiencing exclusion. The campaign deliberately avoided any victimization or emotional “pornography of suffering”; instead, it had the objective of awareness prompting,giving a new perspective arising from the possibility of change.

Keywords: social inclusion, communication