L'évolution des approches paradigmatiques et théoriques en Communication internationale et Communication pour le développement/changement social : la comparaison des écoles anglo-saxonne et francophone

In this theoretical essay, we discuss the evolution of paradigms and theoretical approaches in International Communication and in Communication for development/social change, comparing respectively the Anglo-Saxon and the Francophone schools. We first give a picture of the close relationship between the two research areas (Aubin & Agbobli, 2014) within the institutional and organizational communication, noting the definitions and the redefinitions of their respective borders in the last decades. Then, we present a brief overview of the paradigms and the approaches evolution in the international and the development communication, respectively within the Anglo-Saxon and the Francophone schools. We will describe more particularly the role given to the development communication with regard to the international communication within these schools, and its evolution in time. Finally, we discuss the points of convergence and divergence of these approaches. Basing on these analyses, we provide our support to the idea of the convergence of such approaches (Wilkins, 2008) within one interdisciplinary and multi-methodological framework (Loum, 2014). More precisely, we propose a grid of analysis, that integrates the two communication modes, namely "persuasive" (push communication, the public offer logic) and "participatory" (pull communication, the social demand logic), crossed with two levels of analysis that are "macro" (structures) and "micro" (actors).