Digital Natives with a Cause? Thinkathon
Organized by Hivos and the Centre for Internet and Society on the 6-8 December 2010
The emergence of digital and internet technologies have changed the world as we know it. Processes of interpersonal relationships, social communication, economic expansion, political protocols and governmental mediation are all undergoing a significant translation, across the world, in developed and emerging Information and Knowledge societies. These processes also affect the ways in which social transformation, political participation and interventions for development take place. This Thinkathon aims to reflect on these innovations in social transformation processes and its effects on development.
Battle
There are many opinions and perspectives drawn from research and practice that oscillate between paranoia and euphoria about the role of digital and internet technologies. Battles are fought between the sceptics and the believers, concentrating only on dramatic stories of success or failure from different geo-political contexts, to make their arguments. This battle fails to capture the fact that the change is not merely in the processes but in the very definition of what change means.
The lament that youths are apolitical is – we think - a result of insufficient attention to activities that do not conform to existing notions of political and civil society formation. Young people who are more adapt at the use and interaction with technologies – often also called Digital Natives - are sensitive and thoughtful; it is time to focus on their development as responsible and active citizens rather than on their digital exploits or technologised interests. It is particularly time to bridge the intergenerational gap producing dissonance between people split across the digital line (like in the women’s movement).
Collaborative research inquiry
The Thinkathon is a collaborative research inquiry that aims to consolidate and question existing scholarship and practice and create new insights on social transformation processes. This three day meeting hopes to understand how new processes of social transformation can be supported and sustained, how they can inform our existing practice, and provide avenues of collaboration between Digital Natives and Analogue Activists. Three questions will guide our inquiry:
- What is the role of digital natives in social transformation processes?
- What is the role of more traditional actors in these changing environments?
- How can processes of support and avenues of collaboration be sought and supported? Are there examples and/or lessons learned?
Digital natives
Invitees are influential stake-holders across different sectors from different regions such as digital natives, analogue activists, representatives of support organisations and entrepreneurs. Background reading includes the digitalnatives.in website and a collection of essays which will be sent two weeks before the Thinkathon as well as the full programme.
This meeting builds on experiences from the Knowledge Programme of Hivos (The Netherlands) and the Centre for Internet and Society (India), entitled Digital Natives with a Cause? which engages young people from three emerging regions of South and East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and South America and scholars and researchers in the field of Youth and Media Studies, practitioners and policy makers, and stakeholders like parents and educators. Grounded in the specificities and the contexts of being digital on a global scale, they jointly reflect on the role of digital natives in effecting social change.
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