"Multifaceted, uncensored, promoting democracy - that is the internet, many people had long hoped. But from today's perspective, this is not true - or only partially. Because the big digital platforms and the world wide web are both: media of freedom and control. In many places, they support civil s...ociety, but often they also pose a massive threat to it. On the one hand, civil society organisations, activists and bloggers use digital tools to organise their work and make it more efficient: Through them, they disseminate reports and campaigns and exchange information. On the other hand, governments restrict freedom of expression and the press through online censorship: They block access to certain websites or platforms or shut down the internet entirely and monitor activists and journalists with digital technologies, often made in Europe. Policymakers, platforms and civil society face major challenges: They have to negotiate and decide how to deal with hate on the web and in social media without compromising freedom of expression. How more people, especially in the Global South, can get better access to the internet. And, how the data collection frenzy of the big tech companies and the dangers posed to democracy by Facebook & Co can be contained. Civil society voices call for more human rights based regulation and containment of digital capitalism." (Summary, p.6)
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"Digital infrastructure increasingly enables the extraction, exploitation, processing and analysis of personal and behavioural data. Data analytics have not just become the core of the digital economy but also constitute a growing feature of the public sector. Wide areas of public administration are... now based on, or at least informed by, the aggregation of data for the purpose of profiling, categorising, sorting, rating, ranking and segmenting populations, and then treating them distinctly. Scoring systems and other forms of predictive analytics are prime means to assess citizens yet these systems are applied mostly without the knowledge of those being analysed and the exact mechanisms of data analytics remain obscure. Citizens are classified according to criteria that are not transparent, with consequences they do not know about, and without an open way of redress. As citizens are continuously profiled and evaluated, there is a power shift from citizens to the state. All this raises fundamental questions regarding the quality of democracy in a context of datafied administration and governance. Whereas a democracy requires that the people adopt the role of the sovereign, in a datafied society this sovereign does not have much knowledge, understanding, or say in how it is treated. Key questions arise: What are avenues for people to participate in decisions about the use of predictive analytics by public institutions? How can they intervene into an increasingly automated state? How can the datafied society be democratised? To investigate these questions, this report addresses six themes: 1. Institutional dynamics; 2. Initiatives of civic engagement; 3. Oversight and advisory bodies; 4. Civil society strategies; 5. Alternative Imaginaries and Infrastructures; 6. Data literacy." (Executive summary)
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"Die Ausbeutung natürlicher Ressourcen und Infrastrukturprojekte bedrohen die Lebensgrundlagen indigener Bevölkerungen in vielen Staaten Lateinamerikas. Wie der Konflikt um das Territorio Indígena Parque Nacional Isiboro Sécure (TIPNIS) zeigt, stellte Bolivien während der Amtszeiten des ersten ...indigenen Präsidenten des Landes Evo Morales (2006-2019) keine Ausnahme dar. Bei diesem Konflikt stieß ein staatliches Straßenbauprojekt, das mitten durch das Schutzgebiet im bolivianischen Amazonas-Tiefland führen sollte, auf großen Widerstand. Unterschiedliche Akteur*innen aus Indigenenorganisationen, Zivilgesellschaft und der katholischen Kirche formierten sich in der sozialen TIPNIS-Bewegung und mobilisierten gegen das Projekt und dessen Auswirkungen. Diese Arbeit erklärt den Widerstand aus Sicht der selbstbezeichneten Verteidiger*innen des Territoriums. Dazu stützt sie sich auf den theoretischen Framing-Ansatz, der den Blick auf die Bedeutungskonstruktionen (Framings) der Akteur*innen lenkt. In einer qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse wurden die Daten von 52 semistrukturierten Interviews ausgewertet und zentrale übergreifende Deutungsmuster (Masterframes) der heterogenen Akteursgruppe identifiziert, die sich aus Diagnosen, Prognosen und Motivationen zusammensetzen. Dadurch ist es möglich, den Widerstand der sozialen TIPNIS-Bewegung, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Konfliktphase von 2017 bis 2019, in seinen komplexen Erscheinungsformen zu verstehen: Als Kampf um Legitimität in einer Situation der Fragmentierung und Spaltung der Indigenenorganisationen, als Versicherheitlichung (securitization) des Konflikts angesichts sozio-ökologischer Bedrohungen, als Anfechtung des staatlichen neoextraktiven Entwicklungsmodells sowie als Forderung nach einer Umsetzung der Menschenrechte, indigenen Kollektivrechte und der Rechte der Natur." (Abstract)
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"En los artículos se destaca el papel del periodismo comunitario en la construcción de la ciudadanía y la democracia, la importancia del periodismo cívico en la experiencia de Radio Quillabamba, se averigua sobre las implicancias de la relación entre periodismo y medio ambiente. También se ana...liza el sensacionalismo en la construcción mediática de la mujer, el discurso de las imágenes en relación con los indígenas amazónicos en el caso Bagua y los paradigmas sobre los sujetos y efectos de la comunicación. Los temas de estos artículos convergen en la cultura colectiva como escenarios y expresión de sujetos sociales que buscan dar a conocer sus culturas y necesidades sociales, también la importancia del periodismo social comprometido con las agendas ciudadanas; por otro lado, se presentan el sensacionalismo y los discursos estereotipados, como problemas de representación de las mujeres y los indígenas limitándolos a representaciones banalizadas y secundarias en las agendas mediáticas y los imaginarios sociales." (Presentación, p.6)
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"This Working Paper from DFID’s Evaluation Department offers a menu of Voice & Accountability (V&A) indicators, and suggests steps for building monitoring and evaluation frameworks for V&A interventions. It provides a check list of management issues, and some ideas for data collection. It does not... attempt to make any judgement about the indicators identified, as this work will be further developed under DFID’s ‘Suggested Indicators for Governance’ work, due in 2010. The paper is intended for DFID advisers and managers working on V&A initiatives at the country level. It will also be of use to people outside DFID who are interested in understanding how V&A work contributes to development outcomes; or who want more information about data collection methods for V&A measurement. V&A interventions range from work with governments on policy and reform processes, to activities at community level on civic education and rights awareness. DFID supports a significant amount of V&A work through government and non-state actors, in sector programmes and in work with civil society organisations including the media. We now need to establish the evidence base to show what change has resulted." (Executive summary)
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