"In Making Democracy Fun, Josh Lerner offers a novel solution for the sad state of our deliberative democracy: the power of good game design. What if public meetings featured competition and collaboration (such as team challenges), clear rules (presented and modeled in multiple ways), measurable pro
...
gress (such as scores and levels), and engaging sounds and visuals? These game mechanics would make meetings more effective and more enjoyable -- even fun. Lerner reports that institutions as diverse as the United Nations, the U.S. Army and grassroots community groups are already using games and game-like processes to encourage participation. Drawing on more than a decade of practical experience and extensive research, he explains how games have been integrated into a variety of public programs in North and South America. He offers rich stories of game techniques in action, in children's councils, social service programs and participatory budgeting and planning. With these real-world examples in mind, Lerner describes five kinds of games and 26 game mechanics that are especially relevant for democracy. He finds that when governments and organizations use games and design their programs to be more like games, public participation becomes more attractive, effective and transparent." (Publisher description)
more
"Liberation and the Media takes a look at the development of the South African daily newspaper market since the end of apartheid. It covers the country's most important political, social and economical developments since 1990 and explains correlations between South Africa's general development and i
...
ts newspaper's market between 1990 and 2006. By looking at changes of ownership and new ideas of publishing for a society as divided as South Africa, Liberation and the Media explains what the factors for successful publishing in South Africa are since the end of apartheid, and asks to what extent the market is still influenced by apartheid." (Publisher description)
more
"This study documents a crucial dimension of the resistance of Nigerian civil society to a repressive and monumentally corrupt military state in the late 1980s and 1990s in Nigeria. Employing a neo-Gramscian theoretical framework, the study relates how a section of the media defied censorship laws,
...
outright bans, incarceration and the assassination of opposition figures, to prosecute the struggle for democracy. It captures the tensions and contradictions between a pliant section of the media, which sought to legitimise the state and a critical section of the same media, which in alliance with radical civil society, invented rebellious outlets to carry on the struggle against dictatorship.The study seeks to make fresh departures by documenting not only the role of the national media in the throes of democratic struggle, but that of the international media whose role was influential in the years studied.Finally the report offers empirical proof of the mechanisms by which a vibrant civil society can curb the ravages of a predatory state in an African country." (Abstract)
more
"The contribution in this book cast a spotlight into dark, often neglected, corners of the "information society" as articulated in the World Summit on the Information Society. Several very different layers are illuminated, from the philosophical underpinnings of the role of information in society, t
...
o the context and manner in which the concept has recently emerged into global consciousness, to how it can be deployed in practice to maximize benefits to society. An edited volume is well suited to covering these diverse ways of thinking about the topic as it offers the opportunity to bring together authors with different backgrounds and approaches." (Publisher description)
more
"Serbian media assistance programs reflect two approaches to media development. Though they occasionally created friction, the differing approaches produced positive results. The goal of USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives (USAID/OTI) was to fund programs and media outlets that could dissemin
...
ate messages pushing immediate political change. USAID/OTI characterized its activities as “pushing the reform agenda.” This approach contrasted with but complemented that of USAID’s Bureau for Europe and Eurasia (USAID/E&E), which supported long-term, sustainable media development projects. While USAID/E&E’s projects contributed to the short-term goal of regime change in Serbia, they were also designed to aid the democratic transition that followed. Despite—or perhaps because of—this dynamic tension, the overall USAID program was very successful. Democratic elements in Serbia received— and still have—the media tools to effect democratic change. NGOs, media outlets, and democratic activists also received the topical programs and emergency infusions funded by USAID/OTI and USAID/E&E. Two years after the fall of Milosevic, personnel and basic media infrastructure remain in place to serve the ongoing democratic transition and broaden coverage of issues in public discourse." (Executive summary, page xi-xii)
more
"Much research on urban development is supply-led - generated by the interests of donors and researchers in the North rather than the needs of poor households in the growing cities of the South, Communicating for Development focuses attention on the most fundamental of questions about development: h
...
ow can the lessons of good practice and innovation and the results of research benefit the poor? The book offers in-depth discussion about how the communication process works - or doesn't work. It questions and challenges: who are the stakeholders; what are the best vehicles for transferring knowledge; why are local networks and intermediaries so important; what can hinder the communication process; and how may these gaps and barriers be overcome? Moreover, the book challenges traditional participatory methods of relating to the needs of poor urban communities and proposes instead the application of new communication and knowledge management methods currently used in business management." (Publisher description)
more