[Commons-Law] Digital AlterNatives with a Cause?

[Prasad Krishna]

Dear commons-law, 

 DIGITAL ALTERNATIVES WITH A CAUSE?

	 Hivos (The Hague) and The Centre for Internet and Society
(Bangalore) consolidate their 3 year knowledge inquiry into the field
of youth, technology and change in the 4 book collective "Digital
AlterNatives with a cause?". This collaboratively produced collective,
edited by Nishant Shah and Fieke Jansen,asks critical and pertinent
questions about theory and practice around 'digital
revolutions' in a post MENA (Middle East - North Africa) world. It
works with multiple vocabularies and frameworks and produces dialogues
and conversations between digital natives, academic and research
scholars, practitioners, development agencies and corporate structures
to examine the nature and practice of digital natives in emerging
contexts from the Global South. The books are available for a free
download in a .pdf format. 

	 INTRODUCTION 

	 In the 21st Century, we have witnessed the simultaneous growth of
internet and digital technologies on the one hand, and political
protests and mobilisation on the other. Processes of interpersonal
relationships, social communication, economic expansion, political
protocols and governmental mediation are undergoing a significant
transition, across in the world, in developed and emerging Information
and Knowledge societies. 

	 The young are often seen as forerunners of these changes because of
the pervasive and persistent presence of digital and online
technologies in their lives. The " Digital Natives with a Cause?" is a
research inquiry that uncovers the ways in which young people in
emerging ICT contexts make strategic use of technologies to bring
about change in their immediate environments. Ranging from personal
stories of transformation to efforts at collective change, it aims to
identify knowledge gaps that existing scholarship, practice and
popular discourse around an increasing usage, adoption and integration
of digital technologies in processes of social and political change. 

	 METHODOLOGY 

	 In 2010-11, three workshops in Taiwan, South Africa and Chile,
brought together around 80 people who identified themselves as Digital
Natives from Asia, Africa and Latin America, to explore certain key
questions that could provide new insight into Digital Natives
research, policy and practice. The workshops were accompanied by a
'Thinkathon' - a multi-stakeholder summit that initiated conversations
between Digital Natives, academic researchers, scholars,
practitioners, educators, policy makers and corporate representatives
to share learnings on new questions: Is one born digital or does one
become a Digital Native? How do we understand our relationship with
the idea of a Digital Native? How do Digital Natives redefine 'change'
and how do they see themselves implementing it? What is the role that
technologies play in defining civic action and social movements? What
are the relationships that these technology based identities and
practices have with existing social movements and political legacies?
How do we build new frameworks of sustainable citizen action outside
of institutionalisation? 

	 RATIONALE 

	 One of the knowledge gaps that this book tries to address is the
lack of digital natives' voices in the discourse around them. In the
occasions that they are a part of the discourse, they are generally
represented by other actors who define the frameworks and decide the
issues which are important. Hence, more often than not, most books
around digital natives concentrate on similar sounding areas and
topics, which might not always resonate with the concerns that digital
natives and other stake-holders might be engaged with in their
material and discursive practice. The methodology of the workshops was
designed keeping this in mind. Instead of asking the digital natives
to give their opinion or recount a story about what we felt was
important, we began by listening to their articulations about what was
at stake for them as e-agents of change. As a result, the usual topics
like piracy, privacy, cyber-bullying, sexting etc. which automatically
map digital natives discourse, are conspicuously absent from this
book. Their absence is not deliberate, but more symptomatic of how
these themes that we presumed as important were not of immediate
concerns to most of the participants in the workshop who are
contributing to the book. 

	 STRUCTURE 

	 The conversations, research inquiries, reflections, discussions,
interviews, and art practices are consolidated in this four part book
which deviates from the mainstream imagination of the young people
involved in processes of change. The alternative positions, defined by
geo-politics, gender, sexuality, class, education, language, etc. find
articulations from people who have been engaged in the practice and
discourse of technology mediated change. Each part concentrates on one
particular theme that helps bring coherence to a wide spectrum of
style and content. 

	 BOOK 1: TO BE: DIGITAL ALTERNATIVES WITH A CAUSE? DOWNLOAD HERE [1]


	 The first part, _To Be_, looks at the questions of digital native
identities. Are digital natives the same everywhere? What does it mean
to call a certain population 'Digital Natives"? Can we also look at
people who are on the fringes - Digital Outcasts, for example? Is it
possible to imagine technology-change relationships not only through
questions of access and usage but also through personal investments
and transformations? The contributions help chart the history, explain
the contemporary and give ideas about what the future of technology
mediated identities is going to be. 

	 BOOK 2: TO THINK: DIGITAL ALTERNATIVES WITH A CAUSE? DOWNLOAD HERE
[2]  

	 In the second section, _To Think,_ the contributors engage with new
frameworks of understanding the processes, logistics, politics and
mechanics of digital natives and causes. Giving fresh perspectives
which draw from digital aesthetics, digital natives' everyday
practices, and their own research into the design and mechanics of
technology mediated change, the contributors help us re-think the
concepts, processes and structures that we have taken for granted.
They also nuance the ways in which new frameworks to think about
youth, technology and change can be evolved and how they provide new
ways of sustaining digital natives and their causes. 

	 BOOK 3: TO ACT: DIGITAL ALTERNATIVES WITH A CAUSE? DOWNLOAD HERE
[3] 

	 _To Act_ is the third part that concentrates on stories from the
ground. While it is important to conceptually engage with digital
natives, it is also, necessary to connect it with the real life
practices that are reshaping the world. Case-studies, reflections and
experiences of people engaged in processes of change, provide a rich
empirical data set which is further analysed to look at what it means
to be a digital native in emerging information and technology
contexts. 

	 BOOK 4: TO CONNECT : DIGITAL ALTERNATIVES WITH A CAUSE? DOWNLOAD
HERE [4] 

	 The last section, _To Connect_, recognises the fact that digital
natives do not operate in vacuum. It might be valuable to maintain the
distinction between digital natives and immigrants, but this
distinction does not mean that there are no relationships between them
as actors of change. The section focuses on the digital native
ecosystem to look at the complex assemblage of relationships that
support and are amplified by these new processes of technologised
change. 

	 We see this book as entering into a dialogue with the growing
discourse and practice in the field of youth, technology and change.
The ambition is to look at the digital (alter)natives as located in
the Global South and the potentials for social change and political
participation that is embedded in their interactions through and with
digital and internet technologies. We hope that the book furthers the
idea of a context-based digital native identity and practice, which
challenges the otherwise universalist understanding that seems to be
the popular operative right now. We see this as the beginning of a
knowledge inquiry, rather than an end, and hope that the contributions
in the book will incite new discussions, invoke cross-sectorial and
disciplinary debates, and consolidate knowledges about digital
(alter)natives and how they work in the present to change our futures.


	 CONTACT US: NISHANT at CIS-INDIA.ORG AND FJANSEN at HIVOS.NL IF YOU WANT
MORE INFORMATION, RESOURCES, OR DIALOGUES 

	 Nishant Shah 

	 Fieke Jansen 

	 Thank you 

	 Prasad Krishna
 Publication Manager
 Centre for Internet and Society

Links:
------
[1]
http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=652&qid=91215
[2]
http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=653&qid=91215
[3]
http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=654&qid=91215
[4]
http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=655&qid=91215
[5] http://crm.cis-india.org/http://crm.cis-india.org/index.php?option=com_civicrm&task=civicrm/mailing/optout&reset=1&jid=209&qid=91215&h=668562122a5045a0
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