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Understanding Transition VII Conference: Voices of the voiceless – New challenges of mobilization and citizen engagement (Bucharest, Romania)

The “Voices of the voiceless: New challenges of mobilization and citizen engagement” international conference is the 7th edition of the Understanding Transition conferences held byFJSC (University of Bucharest) and the Lumière University Lyon 2.

Participating, sharing, mobilizing and interactivity have become essential strategies to shaping citizen engagement and a collaborative construction of knowledge. Digital platforms allow citizens to turn into the new power-holders through online empowerment, thus becoming active prosumers of knowledge production. Sharing knowledge is important in digital citizenship and the various forms of transmitting knowledge depend on the affordances of online channels. Organizations have been trying to reduce the communication and/or democratic deficit by using e-platforms as communicative spaces where a dialogue-based public engagement prevail by involving citizens in the process of decision-making of social, cultural, economic, or political issues (Phillips, Carvalho, Doyle, 2012).

Besides this co-production of meaning where a collaborative perspective is dominant, people use organizational and civil society online outlets as sites of cyber-activism. The “netizens” (Franklin, 2010) have become important members of a civic engagement community by having a collective identity, a common bond, and the same grievances concerning a political, social, educational or cultural issue.

This international conference is an ideal opportunity for experienced researchers, young researchers and PhD students to share their scientific work in an interdisciplinary context and to take part in the debates over various approaches and case studies related to dialogic turn, participatory democracy, and the latest forms of citizen engagement and mobilization.

Click here for further information.

Visualising Conflict Conference – Photojournalism and the Politics of Participation (Copenhagen, Denmark)

The conference is organised by IMS (International Media Support) and the research group Images of Conflict, Conflicting Images at University of Copenhagen, Department of Media, Cognition and Communication.

Overview: Photojournalists used to hold a privileged position in conflict reporting. Today, they are joined by activists, citizens and others who also produce and disseminate images. Cell phone videos of police officers shooting unarmed, black teenagers in USA are captured by accidental bystanders and shared by the Black Lives Matter movement. The destruction and horror of the war in Syria are documented by activists, who after years of war have developed networks and acquired professional photo equipment – and skills. These practices change the role images play in conflicts, raising pressing issues about the production and veracity of images as well as safety, ethics and the politics of participation:

• Why and how does it matter that conflicts are documented and made visible to the outside world?
• How are images from conflicts created and shared in today’s connective media environment?
• How can the authenticity of images be established?

This conference aims to generate a conversation between scholars, NGO workers, photo editors and activists about the role performed by images in contemporary conflicts.

Attendance is free, but please do register.

isaScience 2018 Conference: ‘Participatory Approaches to Music & Democracy’ (Vienna, Austria)

The conference isaSience is part of isa, the summer academy of mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria, and has offered a platform for interdisciplinary research on music and performing arts on diverse themes since 2013.

Over the last few decades, a rich body of literature has explored how individuals and groups use music as a resource to achieve social, cultural and political participation and to bring about social change in society. Studies have also investigated music’s use by political groups and parties in the past and present that impose authoritarian, neoliberal or even fascist political ideas. Finally, research is concerned with the promise and myth of democratization through technology in regard to music production, distribution and reception/appropriation.

The  isaScience Conference will consider music and democracy from a wide range of disciplines (e.g. musicology, ethnomusicology, music sociology, cultural studies, queer studies, postcolonial studies, arts and cultural management).

Gender and ICTs – Mainstreaming gender in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for agriculture and rural development (FAO, 2018)

While the digital revolution is reaching rural areas in many developing countries, the rural digital divide continues to present considerable challenges. The problem is even more acute for women, who face a triple divide: digital, rural and gender.

This publication looks at the benefits of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) when placed in the hands of men and women working in agriculture and in rural areas. It examines the challenges to be overcome and makes recommendations so that rural communities can take full and equal advantage of the technologies. FAO’s E-agriculture 10 Year Review Report concludes that while substantial progress has been made in making ICTs available and accessible for rural communities, challenges remain with respect to the following seven critical factors for success: content, capacity development, gender and diversity, access and participation, partnerships, technologies, and finally, economic, social, and environmental sustainability.

This publication analyses with the gender lens the seven factors of success, followed by an overview of the general existing barriers to women’s access to, control and use of ICTs. Finally, it offers a series of recommendations for better integration of gender in ICT initiatives, based on gender mainstreaming throughout the seven critical factors of success, illustrated with concrete examples.

Click here for full report.

Turn up the volume: empowering women through media (BBC Media Action Practice briefing 2016)

This practice briefing sets out what BBC Media Action has learned about how media can provide a platform for both men and women to hold their leaders to account, while empowering them to participate in their own communities. After setting out the global picture for gender and governance, the paper outlines BBC Media Action’s approach to supporting women to participate in their communities and hold their leaders to account.  It then unpacks the challenges of creating gender-sensitive governance programmes and weighs up how successful BBC Media Action has been in reaching and impacting women. The paper concludes with some recommendations to inform future programming.

Click here for full briefing.

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