In his post-doctoral work, Dr. Ataharul Chowdhury poses the question of how social media tools, (or lack thereof) leads to the enhancement of innovation systems in the agricultural and rural sector, both within Canada and internationally. With a specific focus on the use of video applications for knowledge dissemination, Dr. Chowdhury strives to understand the roles of virtual and mediated communication platforms (such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs) in the enhancement of agricultural and rural development innovation.
In agriculture and rural development sectors, innovation is increasingly recognized as a process of exchanging information, knowledge, and technology while transposing relations in multiple social networks so that different stakeholders can make use of these for continuous social and economic change. Communication plays important roles in getting contact and re-ordering of relations among various inter-dependent social agents not only in professional ways but also in many informal and personal settings. Social agents in an innovation system are diverse group of stakeholders that voluntarily contributes resources, such as knowledge, technology, land and financial resources, in the hopes of jointly improving a social or economic process or product.
Launched in the spring of 2012, this 2-year long study is supervised by Dr. Helen Hambly Odame, an Associate Professor and Graduate Coordinator of the Capacity Development and Extension program at the University of Guelph. The study will be conducted with the Post-doctoral fellowship support of the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and within the faculty auspices of the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development of the University of Guelph.
For detailed information on the project’s objectives and methods, watch the Prezi above!
