What does this research mean for the field?

Effective communication for social change requires moving beyond traditional organizational structures to cultivate spaces of emotional closeness and co-created dialogic engagement, a shift that is currently recognized in theory but lacking in practice. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.SYNTHESIS. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.NEUTRAL.

What question did this study set out to answer?

Synthesize multidisciplinary literature on communication as community engagement to identify key mechanisms and framework categories driving social change.

August 29, 2026Qualitative Research JournalOpen Access

Communication as engaging community for social change: a multidisciplinary integrative literature review

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Authors

JTJill Fenton TaylorCharles Sturt University VEVictoria ErskineCharles Sturt University

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Implication

Integrative literature review identifies five core dimensions of community-engaged communication, indicating that conventional organizational models fail to support dialogic social progress.

Key Points

Synthesize multidisciplinary literature on communication as community engagement to identify key mechanisms and framework categories driving social change.
Conducted a two-stage integrative literature review comprising multidisciplinary data collection followed by critical analysis and creative synthesis.
Evaluated literature using an organization–public engagement framework emphasizing co-created discourse, relational dialogue, and network structures.
Identified five overarching conceptual categories: actioning, change capability, interrelating, involvement infrastructure, and becoming together.
Observed that while awareness of using social media for dialogic engagement has grown, practical implementation remains sparse, with emotion being the least visible dimension.
Found that conventional organizational hierarchies fail to accommodate complex change contexts that require cultural engagement and relational individual-to-collective alignment.

Cite This Study

Taylor et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a9299bb8e5d7d1fc0c11e26 https://doi.org/10.1108/qrj-10-2025-0380

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Implication

Integrative literature review identifies five core dimensions of community-engaged communication, indicating that conventional organizational models fail to support dialogic social progress.

Communication as engaging community for social change: a multidisciplinary integrative literature review

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

Communication as engaging community for social change: a multidisciplinary integrative literature review

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

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