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From Taboo to Beautiful - Menstrupedia
http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/menstrupedia-taboo-beautiful
<b>On this post, we take a look at 'menstrual activism' -a movement that despite its trajectory in feminism, remains unnoticed in most accounts of traditional and digital activism. We interview Tuhin Paul, the artist and storyteller behind Menstrupedia, an India-based social venture creating comics to shatter the myths and misunderstandings surrounding menstruation around the world. </b>
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<pre><strong>CHANGE-MAKER:</strong> Tuhin Paul, Aditi Gupta<em> </em>and Rajat Mittal<em>
</em><strong>ORGANIZATION:</strong> Menstrupedia
<strong>METHOD OF CHANGE:</strong> Storytelling and comics
<strong>STRATEGY OF CHANGE:</strong> To shatter the myths and misunderstandings surrounding
menstruation, by delivering accessible, informative and entertaining
content about menstruation through different media.</pre>
<p align="justify">Most of us think we know what menstruation is; except...we don’t. Many of my male friends still cringe at the mention of the phrase “I’m on my period”, or use it as a derogatory justification for my occasional cranky mood at the office: “It’s that time of the month, isn’t it?” Poor menstruation has been the culprit of femininity; always bashful, tiptoeing for five days straight, trying its best to remain incognito. The social venture Menstrupedia is committed to change this. Aditi, Tuhin and Rajat want to shift how we look at menstruation and remove the stigma that haunts the natural, self-regulation process women undergo to keep their bodies healthy and strong to sustain life in the future.</p>
<p align="justify">Now, if you are already wondering what menstruation has to do with internet and society, just wait for it. This post manages to bring art, punk, menstruation <em>and</em> technology together, all within the scope of the <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/whose-change-is-it-anyway.pdf">Making Change</a> project! Before though, we shall start with some definitions. Let us first lay conceptual grounds about menstruation and Menstrupedia, to then locate and unpack their theory of change.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>What is menstruation?</h2>
<p>It can be defined as:</p>
<blockquote><strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menstruation">Menstruation</a></strong> is the periodic discharge of blood and mucosal tissue (the endometrium) from the uterus and vagina. It starts at menarche at or before sexual maturity (maturation), in females of certain mammalian species, and ceases at or near menopause (commonly considered the end of a female's reproductive life).</blockquote>
<p>And it looks something like this:</p>
<p align="center"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/physiologymenstruation.jpg/image_preview" title="Cycle" height="243" width="292" alt="Cycle" class="image-inline image-inline" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p>But, I believe, most women will agree the following are much more accurate depictions of the spectrum of thoughts, emotions and sensations that menstruation spurs:</p>
<h3>The Beauty of RED</h3>
<p><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/qf4TulXdNXY" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe></p>
<h3>My Periods: A Blessing or a Curse</h3>
<p><strong>By Naina Jha</strong></p>
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<td>My periods<br /> Are a dreadful experience<br /> Because of all the pain.<br /> Myths and secrets make it a mystery<br /> What worsens it most though, are members of my family<br /> Especially my mother, who always make it a big deal<br /> They never try to understand what I truly feel<br /> I face all those cramps and cry the whole night long<br /> None of which is seen or heard or felt by anyone.</td>
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<p>Instead of telling me, what it is,<br /> They ask me to behave maturely instead.<br /> Can somebody tell me how I am supposed to<br /> Naturally accept it?<br /> My mother asks me to stay away from men<br /> And a few days later, she asks me to marry one!<br /> When I ask her to furnish<br /> the reason behind her haste<br /> She told me that now that I was menstruating,<br /> I was grown up and ready to give birth to another.</p>
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<p>I don’t know whether to feel blessed about it<br /> Or consider it to be my curse.<br /> For these periods are the only reason for me to be disposed.<br /> Since my childhood, I felt rather blessed to be born as a girl<br /> But after getting my periods now,<br /> I’m convinced that it’s a curse...</p>
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<p>Find it in <a href="http://menstrupedia.com/blog/my-periods-a-blessing-or-a-curse/">Menstrupedia's blog</a>.</p>
<p align="justify">Despite all this, it is still perceived as a social stigma in society. There is clearly a dissonance between the definition, experience and perceptions around menstruation, that calls for a reconfiguration of the information we are using to define it.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Stigma as a Crisis</h2>
<p align="justify">However, re-defining 'menstruation' is no popular or easy task. The word belongs to a group of contested terminology around womanhood and is the protagonist of its own breed of feminist activism: <strong>menstrual activism</strong>. <a name="fr1" href="#fn1">[1]</a> Although I would consider many of the stigmas surrounding menstruation to be quite self-explanatory (we've all experienced and perpetuated them in one way or another -and if they are not, then you are the product of an obscenely progressive upbringing for which I congratulate your parents, teachers and all parties involved), I will still outline the main reasons why menstruation is a source of social stigma for women, and refer to scholarly authority on the subject to legitimize my rant.</p>
<p align="justify">Ingrid Johnston-Robledo and Joan Chrisler use Goffman's definition of stigma <a name="fr2" href="#fn2">[2]</a> on their paper: <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-011-0052-z#page-1">The Menstrual Mark: Menstruation as a Social Stigma</a> to explain the misadventures of menstruation:</p>
<pre><strong>Stigma: </strong>
stain or mark setting people apart from others. it conveys the information
that those people have a defect of body or of character that spoils their
appearance or identity</pre>
<p align="justify">Among the various negative social constructs deeming menstruation a dirty and repulsive state, this one made a particular echo:<em> “[menstruation is] a tribal identity of femaleness”.</em> Menstruation is the equivalent of a <em>rite of passage</em> marking the lives of girls with a 'before' and an 'after' on how the world sees them and how they see themselves. From the dreaded stain on the skirt and the 5-day mission to keep its poignant color and smell on the down low, to having to justify mood and body swings to the overly inquisitive; menstruation is imagined as inconvenient, unpleasant and unwelcome. As Johnston-Robledo and Chrisler point out: the menstrual cycle, coupled with stigmas, pushes women to adopt the role of the<em> “physically or mentally disordered”</em> and reinforce it through their communication, secrecy, embarrassment and silence (Kissling, 1996).</p>
<p><em> </em></p>
<h2 dir="ltr">Why does it matter?</h2>
<p align="justify">Besides from strengthening attitudes that underpin gender discrimination and attempting against girls' self-identity and sense of worth, there are other tangible consequences for their development and education. I'm going to throw some facts and figures at you, to back this up with the case of India.</p>
<p align="justify">An <a href="http://www.wsscc.org/resources/resource-news-archive/menstruation-taboo-puts-300-mln-women-india-risk-experts-0">article</a> published by the WSSCC, the Geneva based Water supply and Sanitation Council, shows the Menstruation taboo, consequence of a<em> “patriarchal, hierarchical society”</em>, puts 300 million women at risk in India. They do not have access to menstrual hygiene products, which has an effect on their health, education (23% of girls in India leave school when they start menstruating and the remaining 77% miss 5 days of school a month) and their livelihoods.</p>
<p align="justify">In terms of awareness and information about the issue, WSSCC found that 90% didn't know what a menstrual period was until they got it. Aru Bhartiya's research on <a href="http://www.ijssh.org/papers/296-B00016.pdf">Menstruation, Religion and Society</a>, shows the main sources of information about menstruation come from beliefs and norms grounded on culture and religion. Some of the related restrictions (that stem from Hinduism, among others) include isolation, exclusion from religious activities, and restraint from intercourse. She coupled this with a survey where she found: 63% of her sample turned to online sites over their mothers for information, 62% did not feel comfortable talking about the subject with males and 70% giggled upon reading the topic of the survey. All in all, a pretty gruesome scenario</p>
<h2>Here's where Menstrupedia comes in</h2>
<p align="justify">The research ground work attempted above was done in depth by Menstrupedia back in 2009 when the project started taking shape. They conducted research for one year while in NID and did not only find that awareness about menstruation was very low, but that parents and teachers did not know how to talk about the subject.</p>
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<td>Facts about menstruation awareness in India. Video courtesy of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/menstrupedia">Menstru pedia</a> Youtube channel.</td>
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<p align="justify">Their proposed intervention: distribute an education visual guide and a comic to explain the topic. They tested out the prototype among 500 girls in 5 different states in Northern India and the results were astonishing.</p>
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<td style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/194053_426937890752368_1403341955_o.jpg/image_preview" title="workshop 1" height="267" width="177" alt="workshop 1" class="image-inline image-inline" /></td>
<td><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/1102736_426937754085715_534486559_o.jpg/image_preview" title="workshop 2" height="266" width="402" alt="workshop 1" class="image-inline image-inline" /></td>
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<p><span id="fbPhotoSnowliftCaption" class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption"><span class="hasCaption">A workshop conducted by MJB smriti sansthan to spread awareness about mensuration. <br />Find full album of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.538044002975089.1073741837.277577839021708&type=3">Menstrupedia Comic being used around India</a> on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Menstrupedia">Menstrupedia's Facebook page.</a><br /></span></span></p>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote"><em>"To my surprise, they [the nuns] all agreed that until they read the information given in the Menstrupedia comic,</em><em> even they were of the opinion that Menstruation was a ‘dirty’ and 'abominable' thing and they wondered 'why</em><em> women suffered from it in the first place'?</em><em> But after reading the comic book, their view had changed…now they felt that this was a 'vital' part of</em><em> womanhood and there's nothing to feel ashamed about it!</em><em> The best part was while this exercise clarified their ideas, beliefs, concepts about menstruation, it also</em><em> helped me to get over my innate hesitancy to approach such a sensitive issue in ‘public’ and boosted</em><em> my confidence for taking this up as a 'mission' to reach out to the maximum possible girls across the</em><em> country." </em><br />
<div align="right"><strong>Ina Mondkar,</strong><br /> on her experience of educating young nuns about menstruation.</div>
</blockquote>
<p align="center">Testimonial after a workshop held in two Buddhist monasteries in Ladakh.</p>
<p align="justify">Their mandate today reads:<strong> ‘Menstrupedia is a guide to explain menstruation and all issues surrounding it in the most friendly manner.’ </strong>They currently host a <a href="http://menstrupedia.com/">website</a> with information about puberty, menstruation, hygiene and myths, along with illustrations that turn explaining the process of growing up into a much friendlier endeavour than its stigma-ladden alternatives.</p>
<p align="center"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/Comic.jpg/image_preview" alt="Comic" class="image-inline image-inline" title="Comic" /></p>
<p align="center">Snipbit of the first chapter. Read it for free <a href="http://menstrupedia.com/comic/">here</a>.</p>
<p align="justify">Through the comic and the interactions around it, Menstrupedia strives to create a) <strong>content </strong>that frame menstruation as a natural process that is inconvenient, yes; but that should have no negative effects on their self-esteem and development; and b) <strong>an environment</strong> where girls can talk about it openly and clarify their doubts.</p>
<h3>Technology's role in the mix</h3>
<div class="pullquote"><strong>"</strong>We want to reach out to as many girls as possible”. Tuhin, Menstrupedia</div>
<p align="justify">The role of digital technologies basically comes down to <strong>scalability</strong>. Opposite to <a href="https://soundcloud.com/user742107957/scalingup">The Kahani Project's views</a> on scaling up, Menstrupedia makes emphasis on using technology<strong> to reach a larger audience</strong>. Currently they have a series of communication channels enabled by technology that include: a visual <a href="http://menstrupedia.com/quickguide">quick guide</a>, a <a href="http://questions.menstrupedia.com/">Q&A forum</a> (for both men and women), a <a href="http://menstrupedia.com/blog">blog</a> (a platform of self-expression on menstruation), a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/menstrupedia">you tube channel</a> (where they provide updates on their progress) and the upcoming comic.</p>
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<p align="justify">Upon the question of the digital divide and whether this expands the divide between have and have nots, Tuhin was very set on the idea of producing the same content in both its digital and print form. <em>“parents or schools should be able to buy the comic and give it to their daughters, so whenever they feel like it, they can refer to it”</em>. The focus is on making this material as readily available as possible, in order to overcome the tension between new and old information: <em>“workshops are conducted but the moment they go back home, their mothers impose certain restrictions. It becomes a dilemma. But if you provide [The girl] with a comic book, she has something she can take home and educate her mother with”</em></p>
<h2>And here's why it works</h2>
<p align="justify">More than the comic book itself, what is truly remarkable about Menstrupedia is Tuhin, Rajat and Aditi’s guts to pick up such a problematic theme in the Indian social imaginary and challenge the entrenched, stubborn beliefs surrounding the issue. The comic book, asides from being appealing to the eye and an accessible format of storytelling (a method we have unpacked in <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/@@search?SearchableText=storytelling">previous posts</a>), fits right into the movement of menstrual activism and what it stands for.</p>
<div align="justify" class="pullquote">“We thought of creating something: a tool that can help girls understand menstruation without having to rely on anybody else”. Tuhin, Menstrupedia</div>
<p align="justify">First, it is a <strong>self-reliant resource.</strong> Once the comic book leaves Menstrupedia's hands and lands on those of kids and adults, it takes its own journey. The format of the comic is accessible enough for someone to pick it up and learn about menstruation without the intervention or the support of a third party. This makes Menstrupedia's comic <strong>highly flexible and mobile</strong>. It can be shared from teacher to child, from mom to daughter, from peer to peer: “[it should teach] <em>how to help your friends when they get their period”</em> (Tuhin) However, it has the autonomy to also take roads less travelled: from mom to dad, from child to teacher, from boy to girl. The goal at the end of the day: a self-reliant, solidarity-based community where information circulating about menstruation highlights its capacity to give life and overshadows its traditional stigmatized identity.</p>
<p align="justify">This self-reliance is characteristic of previous manifestations of menstrual activism. Back in the 80s, the feminist movement, tightly linked to punk culture, embraced the<strong> do it yourself movement,</strong><a name="fr3" href="#fn3">[3]</a> that enabled women to materialize personalized forms of resistance. They published <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org.advanc.io/wiki/Zine">zines</a> promoting<em> “dirty self-awareness, body and menstrual consciousness and unlearning shame” t</em>hrough <em>“raw stories and personal narratives” </em>(Bobel, 2006). According to Bobel using the<strong> self as an example</strong> is a core element in the “history of self-help” within the DIY movement. The role of the Menstrupedia blog is then crucial to sustain the exposure and production of “raw narratives”. Tuhin adds: <em>“We don't write articles on the blog. It is a platform where people from different backgrounds write about their experiences with menstruation and bring in a different perspective”:</em> For example,<em><br /></em></p>
<p><strong>Red is my colour</strong> by Umang Saigal</p>
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<p>Red is my colour,<br /> To make you understand, I endeavour,<br /> Try to analyse and try to favour.<br /> It is not just a thought, but an attempt,<br /> To treat ill minds that are curable.</p>
<p>When I was born, I was put in a red cradle,<br /> I grew up watching the red faces for a girl-children in anger,<br /> Red became my favourite,<br /> But I never knew,<br /> That someday I would be cadged in my own red world.</p>
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<td>Red lover I was,<br /> All Love I lost,<br /> When I got my first red spots,<br /> What pain it caused only I know,<br /> When I realized, Red determined my ‘class’
<p>I grew up then, ignoring red,<br /> At night when I found my bedsheet wet,<br /> All day it ached,<br /> All day it stained,<br /> And in agony I would, turn insane.</p>
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<p>At times I would think,<br /> Does red symbolize beauty or pain?<br /> But when I got tied, in the sacred knot,<br /> I found transposition of my whole process of thought,<br /> When from dirty to gold, Red crowned my bridal course.</p>
<p>As I grew old,<br /> All my desires vanished and got cold,<br /> My mind still in a dilemma,<br /> What more than colour in itself could it unfold?<br /> What was the secret behind its truth untold?</p>
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<p>Is Red for beauty, or is it for beast?<br /> It interests me now to know the least,<br /> All I know is that Red is a Transition,<br /> From anguish to pride<br /> Red is a sensation.</p>
<p>Red is my colour, as it is meant to be,<br /> No matter what the world thinks it to be,<br /> No love lost, one Love found,<br /> Red symbolizes life and also our wounds,<br /> I speak it aloud with life profound,<br /> That red is my colour, and this is what I’ve found.</p>
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<p align="center">Submission to the <a href="http://menstrupedia.com/blog/red-is-my-colour/">Menstrupedia blog</a></p>
<p align="justify">'Self-expression' is not a concept we usually find side by side with 'menstruation'; however, if we look at what has been done in the past, we find that Menstrupedia is actually contributing to a much larger tradition of resistance. For instance, <a href="http://menstrala.blogspot.in/">Menstrala</a>, by the American artist Vanessa Tiegs. Menstrala is the name of a collection of 88 paintings <em>“affirming the hidden forbidden bright red cycle of renewal”.</em></p>
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<p align="justify">Another interesting example is American feminist Gloria Steinem's<a name="fr4" href="#fn4">[4]</a> text <a href="http://www.mylittleredbook.net/imcm_orig.pdf">If Men Could Menstruate</a>.</p>
<blockquote>“What would happen, for instance, if suddenly, magically, men could menstruate and women could not? <br />The answer is clear:<br /> Menstruation would become an enviable, boast worthy, masculine event: <br />Men would brag about how long and how much. <br />Boys would mark the onset of menses, that longed- for proof of manhood,with religious and stag parties.”<br />
<div align="right"><strong>Gloria Steinem</strong><br />[excerpt]</div>
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<p align="justify">Opportunities like these, enable Menstrupedia's community to actively participate in the reconfiguration of 'menstruation' as a concept and as an experience. By exposing new narratives and perspectives on the issue and by disseminating menstrual health information, the community is able to crowd source resistance and dismantle the stigma together.</p>
<h2>Making Change through Menstrupedia</h2>
<p align="justify">The case of Menstrupedia reminds us of <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/blank-noise-citizenship">Blank Noise</a> because of its approach to change. Both locate their crises at<strong> the discursive level</strong> and seek to resolve them by creating new forms of meaning-making. They advocate for a reconsideration of 'givens', for a self-reflection on our role perpetuating these notions and for resistance against conceptual status quos: be it socially accepted culprits like 'eve-teasing', or more discrete rejects like 'menstruation'. Both seek to dismantle power structures that give one discourse preference over others, and both count with a strong gender dynamic dominating the context where these narratives unfold. They are producing a revolution in our system of meaning making, yet only producing resistance in the larger societal context they inhabit.</p>
<p align="justify">On the question of where is Menstrupedia's action located, Tuhin replied by pinning it at the<strong> individual level</strong><em><strong>: </strong>“if a person is aware of menstruation and they know the facts, they are more likely to resist restrictions and spread awareness”. </em>However, they still acknowledge the historicity behind menstrual awareness (as knowledge passed down from generation to generation) that precedes the project. While the introduction of Menstrupedia, to an extent, does shake up household dynamics in terms of content, it also provides tools and resources to sustain the traditional model of oral tradition and knowledge sharing within the community.</p>
<p align="justify">In terms of their role as change-makers ,Tuhin stated that the possibility to intervene was a result of their socio-economic status and the resources they had at hand as “<em>educated members of the middle class with access to information and communication technologies”</em>. Is this the role the middle class should play? I asked. To which he gave a two fold answer: First, in terms of <strong>responsibility of action</strong>:<em> “it is a role that anyone can play depending on what kind of expertise they have. It comes to a point where [intents of change] cannot be sustained by activism if you want to achieve long term impact” </em>And second, in terms of setting up a <strong>resilient infrastructure: </strong><em>“I believe we can create an infrastructure people can use and create models that can help low income groups overcome their challenges and become self-sustainable.” </em>Both answers highlight the need for sustainability in social impact projects, hinting a retreat from wishful thinking upon the presence of technology and a more strategic allocation of skills and resources by middle class and for-profit interventions.</p>
<p align="justify">As far the relationship between art, punk, menstruation and technology goes; that was just a hook to get you through the unreasonable length of my blog post, but if anything, it represents an effort to portray the importance of <strong>contextuality and interdisciplinary</strong> we have been exploring throughout the series. Identifying the use of various mediums and language systems, such as different art forms and modes of self-expression, as well the acknowledgement of the theoretical and social contexts preceding and framing the project, as is feminist activism and the cultural and religious backdrop in India, contribute immensely to fill gaps in the stories of how we imagine change making today; especially at the nascence of new narratives, as we hope is the case for menstruation in a post-Menstrupedia era.</p>
<h2 align="JUSTIFY">Sources:</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Bhartiya, Aru: “<em>Menstruation</em>, <em>Religion and Society”</em> IJSSH: International Journal of Social Science and Humanity. Volume: Vol.3, No.6.</p>
<div id="gs_cit2" style="text-align: justify;" class="gs_citr">Bobel, Chris. "“Our Revolution Has Style”: Contemporary Menstrual Product Activists “Doing Feminism” in the Third Wave." <em>Sex Roles</em> 54, no. 5-6 (2006): 331-345.<br /><br />Johnston-Robledo, Ingrid, and Joan C. Chrisler. "The menstrual mark: Menstruation as social stigma." <em>Sex roles</em> 68, no. 1-2 (2013): 9-18.</div>
<h2>Footnotes</h2>
<p>[<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/menstrupedia-taboo-beautiful#fr1" name="fn1">1</a>] Refer to Chris Bobel's work including New Blood: Third-Wave Feminism and the Politics of Menstruation. Access it <a href="http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu/product/New-Blood,113.aspx">here</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">[<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/menstrupedia-taboo-beautiful#fr2" name="fn2">2</a>] Johnston Robledo and Chrisler made reference to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org.advanc.io/wiki/Erving_Goffman">Erving Goffman</a>'s 1963 work:<strong> Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity<em>. </em></strong><em>"According to Goffman (1963), the word stigma refers to any stain or mark that sets some people apart from others; it conveys the information that those people have a defect of body or of character that spoils their appearance or identity Goffman (1963, p. 4) categorized stigmas into three types: "abominations of the body” (e.g., burns, scars, deformities), “ blemishes of individual character” (e.g., criminality, addictions), and “tribal” identities or social markers associated with marginalized groups (e.g., gender,race, sexual orientation, nationality)".</em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">[<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/menstrupedia-taboo-beautiful#fr3" name="fn3">3</a>] For a short run through on DIY as part of the Punk Subculture, refer to Ian P. Moran's paper: Punk - The Do-it-Yourself culture."Punk as a subculture goes much further than rebellion and fashion as punks generally seek an alternative lifestyle divergent from the norms of society. The do-it-yourself, or D.I.Y. aspect of punk is one of the most important factors fueling the subculture." Access it <a href="http://repository.wcsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1074&context=ssj">here</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">[<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/menstrupedia-taboo-beautiful#fr4" name="fn4">4</a>] Gloria Steimen is a journalist, and social and political activist who became nationally recognized as a leader of, and media spokeswoman for, the women's liberation movement in the late 1960s and 1970. Visit her official website <a href="http://www.gloriasteinem.com/">here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/menstrupedia-taboo-beautiful'>http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/menstrupedia-taboo-beautiful</a>
</p>
No publisherdenisseMaking ChangeNet CulturesResearchFeaturedResearchers at Work2015-10-24T14:25:59ZBlog EntryProduction Sprint — A Public Exhibition at CIS
http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/events/production-sprint-public-exhibition-at-cis
<b>The Making Change project invites you for a public exhibition of stories of change from all over Asia, where the first of its Production Sprints will take place. The exhibition will be held at the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) office in Bangalore on June 7, 2014 between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.</b>
<hr />
<p><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/mc-flyer.pdf" class="internal-link">Download the event flier</a> [PDF, 402 Kb]</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify;">What does 'Making Change' mean to you? What are the processes of change? The infrastructure of change? The actors of change? A round-table discussion and exhibition by 23 change makers from 15 countries in Asia, at the Centre for Internet & Society, Saturday, 7th June, 5 - 7 p.m. Please do come.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The Making Change project questions traditional understandings of change –where change is employed in the name of power, reduced to a ‘spectacle’ by global media and goes largely unquestioned in the public discourse- and aims to build more adequate frameworks to address the idea of change in the context of common knowledge, networked media and information societies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Making Change is hosting focused, intensive, and production-oriented workshops called <strong>Production Sprints</strong> to facilitate the convergence of actors and ideas.These will be spaces of knowledge exchange between change-makers around processes, narratives and experiences of change and of experimentation with multi-modal forms and formats of knowledge production (text, image, sound, etc). Participants will be asked to group around four topics: concepts, crises ecologies and networks of change. These visions and practices, we hope will produce new ways of thinking about change.</p>
<p>During the Bangalore production sprint, we will document the various knowledges acquired through the pre-production stage and the 5 day intensive sessions on formats, storytelling and visual presentation modes; and we will close with an exhibition of the resulting narratives of change. We invite you to come and participate in the exhibition.</p>
<p>Date: June 7th, 2014<br /> Time: 5pm- 7pm<br /> Location: The Center for Internet and Society</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/events/production-sprint-public-exhibition-at-cis'>http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/events/production-sprint-public-exhibition-at-cis</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaRAW EventsMaking ChangeNet CulturesResearchers at WorkEvent2015-10-24T14:23:30ZEventMethods for Social Change
http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/methods-for-social-change
<b>On this brief introduction, I outline the main targets of my research project for CIS and the HIVOS Knowledge Program. As a response to the thought piece ‘Whose Change is it Anyway’ I will explore civic engagement among middle class youth over the course of the next 9 months by interviewing change makers and collectives that are part of multi-stakeholder projects in Bangalore.</b>
<h3>Why look at the civic engagement of digital natives?</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Some of the main knowledge gaps in the literature revolve around understanding the type and extent of political motivation and engagement of citizens (Fowler and Biekart, 2011) and how these motivations translate into sustainable and meaningful participation (Cornwall and Coelho, 2007) in the public space. Having the digital platforms as a space of participation, expression and experience (Cornwall and Coelho 2007, Pleyers, 2012) is necessary but insufficient infrastructure for civic engagement. It is the equivalent of building highways to improve the mobility and communication transactions of a community, disregarding the extent to which it connects the interests, knowledges and identities of those who transit these roads. Through the ‘Methods for Social Change’ project I want to explore the different factors behind building a strong sense of citizenship and sustained civic engagement through technology-mediated change practices.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="normal">The project seeks to respond to the questions around change-making raised in the thought piece '<em>Whose Change is it Anyway?', </em>as part of the Making Change project.<em> </em>One of the main challenges today is how to move beyond the ‘spectacle’ created around digitally mediated change. The third axis of the piece specifically refers to what Shah calls the ‘spectacle imperative’, and suggests us to take a look at the less visible, undocumented narratives that are currently shaping change. Maro Pantazidou also makes the distinction between mass events and every-day practices of change; an interesting complement to Shah’s critique. Both frame ‘spectacle’ events that signal change in the public space as frequently short-lived instances of change, that lack a strong foundation to carry the “revolution” forward through every-day behaviour and practices.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="normal">This is not to say I am discrediting the impact of visibility of mass event citizen action. Change must be tackled from different fronts; whether it is by occupying the social imaginary through highly visible displays of civil disobedience or by tackling smaller community battles. However, according to John Gaventa and Gregory Barrett and their findings on mapping the outcomes of citizen engagement, there must be two elements to sustain activism culture: a) the presence of informed active citizens in the movement and b) practicing prefigurative activism, which is establishing horizontal democratic values in the internal organization of this movement. In other words, one of the ways to move beyond the ‘spectacle’ paradigm in citizen action, is through embedding civicness and solidarity networks in its citizens. Hence, my research will be based on the hypothesis that in order to make a transition from spectacle to quotidian activism, change practices must be infused with citizenship-building methods and the negotiation of the citizen identity in public and private spaces.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;" class="normal">Who, Where and How</h3>
<p>From this proposition, there are three areas to be explored:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="normal">First, the profile of our <strong>change agents. </strong>The population interacting with political and social issues through digital technologies is a very specific and privileged demographic. This group, assuming motivation and disposition, must count with the corresponding access and resources to act. As brought up in the Mapping Digital Media: India Report, recently published by the Open Society Foundation, middle class activism is not only on the rise but is currently experiencing the highest visibility when compared to political and social activism. This is the case not only for India but also for emerging economies in the Global South where the internet penetration rate is very much related to socio-economic status as well as to the urban-rural divide. Shah refers to this as the gentrification of contemporary politics and it is one of the core poignant critiques of his piece.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="normal">However, it also leads to the question of how to channel the resources and privileged accessibility of this group for the 'greater good'. Instead of focusing on the problematic behind this power inequality, I would like to look at how this group is using these resources to create partnerships that allows them to disseminate knowledge, awareness and confidence to other citizens; the formula behind strong citizenship and willingness to act according to Gaventa. This underscores the need for a mapping exercise that looks at the Indian political and social context in Bangalore and India, and identify the main challenges and opportunities to build citizenship and engagement among the middle class.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="normal">Second, <strong>the spaces </strong>where responsible citizenry must be instilled. As mentioned above, one of the main questions is how to translate the horizontal values of pre-figurative activism proposed by Gaventa into the horizontal forms of organization at the community level proposed by Pantazidou. The latter claims that establishing solidarity networks fights citizen alienation by providing a sense of belonging and adds that in order to strengthen these communal relations, citizens must be fully active, present and available in the social arena. In this respect, the possibilities for collaboration through online tools are grand for activism. Online tools and net-ability as pointed out by Fowler and Biekart in their exploration of post-2010 trends in activism, increase connected solidarity and collective consciousness, which are paramount for engaging the populace with its civic duties both in the community as in the larger public space.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="normal">Nevertheless, digital tools remain neutral in the question of how to translate it into sustainable every-day practices for change. In order for online engagement to be truly sustained it must be backed up by a solid offline community that carries this lifestyle forward; a question at the backbone of this research. I will be looking at individuals and collectives from different fields that build partnerships to create positive and sustainable change in Bangalore and India. The objective is to see how further collaboration between change agents translates to the ground level by bringing new groups of people, with different skill sets, lenses and networks into the field of social change. Another interesting possibility is exploring whether these new amalgams of change practices prove to be more enticing and provoking for the 21st century citizen.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="normal">Along these lines, the <strong>methods </strong>utilized to engage this group will be the third area of research. Although the prevalence of the ‘spectacle’ blurs the lines between engaging in meaningful civicness and succumbing into the fad of ready-made activism, it would be interesting to look at what makes the ‘spectacle’ appealing and borrow some of those elements to improve advocacy practices. As outlined in the piece, events of change now seem to demand three characteristics to be effective: legibility, intelligibility and accessibility. Creating an image following these criteria provides the message a degree of visibility and clarity that enables its recognition and further amplification through digital technologies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="normal">Therefore, the final research goal is to explore multi-stakeholderism and its potential to enhance visibility for social change. Identify artists, graphic designers, start-ups, entrepreneurs and collectives who are remixing their skills with technology to revisit the question of impact and influence on their audience. I would like to test whether Pleyers’ thesis on the cross-fertilization of activisms also applies to strategie and analyse whether this approach helps overcome the limitations of each tactic, foster ownership by different stakeholders and ultimately empower citizens. Furthermore, as part of a generation that is highly stimulated by the 'visual', I am curious to see how the role of aesthetics and inter-disciplinary collaboration behind middle class activism unfolds. Particularly in Bangalore, a crossroads of technology, activism and creativity, innovation is becoming a praxis norm among change makers. What is left to explore is the extent to which this creative ecosystem can produce and attract the apathetic citizen into the camp of sustainable civic action.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="normal">All interviews and change-makers profiles will be published regularly on the <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/" class="external-link">Making Change</a> page on the CIS Website.</p>
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: justify;" class="normal">Sources</h2>
<ol>
<li>Biekart, Kees, and Alan Fowler. "Transforming Activisms 2010+: Exploring Ways and Waves." <em>Development and Change</em> 44, no. 3 (2013): 527-546</li>
<li>Cornwall, Andrea, and Vera Schatten Coelho, eds. <em>Spaces for change?: the politics of citizen participation in new democratic arenas</em>. Vol. 4. Zed Books, 2007.</li>
<li>Gaventa, John, and Gregory Barrett. "So what difference does it make? Mapping the outcomes of citizen engagement." <em>IDS Working Papers</em> 2010, no. 347 (2010): 01-72.</li>
<li>Open Society Foundations “Mapping Digital Media: India, 2012. Retrieved from: <a href="http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/mapping-digital-media-india-20130326.pdf">http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/mapping-digital-media-india-20130326.pdf</a></li>
<li>Shah, Nishant “Whose Change is it Anyways? <em>Hivos Knowledge Program. </em>April 30, 2013.</li>
<li>Pantazidou, Maro. "Treading New Ground: A Changing Moment for Citizen Action in Greece.</li>
<li>Pleyers, Geoffrey. "Beyond Occupy: Progressive Activists in Europe." <em>Open Democracy: free thinking for the world</em> 2012 (2012): 5pages-8.</li></ol>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/methods-for-social-change'>http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/methods-for-social-change</a>
</p>
No publisherdenisseResearchers at WorkWeb PoliticsMaking ChangeDigital Natives2015-04-17T10:42:11ZBlog EntryDigital Design: Human Behavior vs. Technology - Vita Beans
http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/digital-storytelling-human-behavior-vs-technology
<b>What comes first? Understanding human behavior and communication patterns to design digital technologies? Or should our technologies have the innate capacity to adapt to the profiles of all its potential users? This post will look at accessibility challenges for digital immigrants and the importance of behavioral science for the design of digital technologies. We interview Amruth Bagali Ravindranath from Vita Beans. </b>
<pre><strong>CHANGE-MAKER:</strong> Amruth B R
<strong>
PRODUCT</strong>:
Vita Beans and Guru G
<strong><strong>
METHOD OF CHANGE</strong>:
</strong>Borrow elements from behavioral science and social marketing to make technology more intuitive.
<strong>
STRATEGY OF CHANGE:
</strong>Make technology easy to use, fun and effective.</pre>
<div align="center"><embed align="middle" width="400" height="200" src="http://chirptoons.vitabeans.com/chirplet.swf?chirpfile=60" quality="high" name="chirptoons" allowscriptaccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" base="http://chirptoons.vitabeans.com/" wmode="transparent"></embed></div>
<div align="center"><strong>Chirptoons: </strong>Create Cartoons in a Jiffy. Designed by <a href="http://www.vitabeans.com/">Vita Beans</a><br />(The animation seems to be skipping a few lines. Check box below for a transcript)<br />Design your own here: <a href="http://chirptoons.vitabeans.com/createchirplet.php">http://bit.ly/1dOEpPo</a>
<br /><br /></div>
<blockquote style="float: right;">
<div align="center"><strong>Transcript of animation:</strong></div>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>Ajoy</strong>: Hi!<br /><strong>Usha</strong>: Hi! What will we talk about today?<br /><strong>Ajoy:</strong> We will learn to design digital stories!<br class="kix-line-break" /><strong>Usha:</strong> What do you mean by digital stories?<br /><strong>Ajoy: </strong>What we are doing right now!.<br /> Telling a story through a digital medium.<br /><strong>Usha: </strong>Oh! But what is so complicated about that?<br />You write a story and then you post it online What’s<br />the big deal?<br /><strong>Ajoy:</strong> This is true. But you want everyone to access <br />your story right?<br /><strong>Usha:</strong> Yes! Of course!<br /><strong>Ajoy:</strong> Then you need to think about your audience! <br />Are you sure they all know how to use this technology?<br class="kix-line-break" /><strong>Usha:</strong> Well...no, not really.<br /><strong>Ajoy:</strong> Do you know what makes it challenging for them? <br />Or how to adapt technology to make it easier?<br /><strong>Usha:</strong> Eh, no...no clue :(<br /><strong>Ajoy: </strong>Then read on.Today we will take a step back.<br />We must think about human behaviour first!<br class="kix-line-break" />and then design our technology accordingly.<br /><strong>Usha: </strong>Sounds good! Let's do it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p align="justify">First off, apologies for such a feeble and sad animation. When I was given access to Chirptoons, I was quite confident I would be able to produce a somewhat interesting introduction to this post and get you excited about our next interview. However, between first-time user friction and a couple of glitches in the program, I found myself -a semi-savvy digital native who has been using technology, almost every day of her life, for the last 15 years- struggling to create the cartoon and clearly failing at it. The biggest challenge was translating what I had in mind into a digital format (The demo was very straightforward. I was just particularly inept), and it was frustrating to the point I decided to drop it, leave it as is, publish my unfinished cartoon and turn this post into a reflection on 'design challenges behind digital storytelling', so I could move on with my life.</p>
<p align="justify">What I experienced with Chirptoons is what many users: both digital natives and immigrants constantly face due to the pace at which new digital technologies are emerging. While the privileged demographic who has physical access to technology has a decent knowledge of basic web browsing and document processing features, there is still a very large gap in accessibility in terms of how to navigate more complex formats. At the end of the day, producers retain the creative power and determine the functions and flexibility of the technologies we use in the day to day. Just think of Facebook and its constant interface updates. We have all felt the wrenching need for that 'dislike' button to make our interactions a tad more honest, yet we have no power to create it or change Facebook's format to one that enables our needs better.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">So far, we have explored information from different angles: as activism, as visual design, as stories; and how digital technologies have been used strategically to disseminate it. However, our analysis is lacking a better understanding of the <em>digital</em>. We have been focusing on citizens as technology 'consumers', and we have not looked at whether digital infrastructures are accessible enough for users to become 'producers'. The question is<em>: how</em> do we do this: how do we engage different users with different digital literacy levels, skills and aptitudes in the production of digital content? With this post we bring a new topic into our series: accessibility and Information infrastructures. This one will focus on design and the role of behavioural science. Our interview with Amruth Bagali Ravindranath, brought a very unique perspective into the conversation, from
which I would like to highlight three points:</p>
<p align="justify">a) The importance of <strong>behavioral science</strong> for
design. Amruth stressed why we need a thorough understanding of
behavioral and cognitive science in the design of digital technologies
and how crucial it is to investigate the decision processes and
communication strategies of humans to make technologies user-friendly
and context appropriate.</p>
<p align="justify">b) How<strong> public relations and social marketing</strong>
concepts can also provide insight on how to target and engage potential
users more effectively. This point starts to answer some of the
questions we raised on the <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/tactical-technology-design-activism-1">Information Design post</a>: thinking about the citizen as a consumer. This point also works as
an alternative take on how to target civic engagement through
technology.</p>
c) How to engage<strong> different type of users: </strong>not
only the digital native, but also digital immigrants<a style="text-align: justify;" href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/storytelling-performance-2#fn1" name="fr1">[1]</a>
<p> who
still play crucial roles as information gatekeepers in fields such as
education or urban governance.</p>
<p> </p>
<h2 align="justify">Vita Beans<br /></h2>
<h3></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">We interviewed <strong>Amruth Bagali Ravindranath</strong>,<strong> </strong>Founder of <a href="http://www.vitabeans.com/">Vita Beans</a> to answer some of these questions. Vita Beans’ mandate is to create inspiring, easy-to-use applications in areas of education and human resources, to share knowledge in innovative, fun an effective ways.
The logic behind their technological framework is trying to mimic the profile of the human brain linked to decision making -including economic, evolutionary, emotional, and psychological elements- and design their applications based on these patterns. Some of the products they offer are cognitive skill development applications, game based learning applications, educational technology research, among others, and their latest educational product: <strong>Guru G</strong> was chosen by the <a href="http://unreasonableatsea.com/overview/">Unreasonable at Sea</a> program (by Unreasonable institute & co-founder of Stanford d.school) as one of the <a href="http://unreasonableatsea.com/companies22/">11 companies changing the world</a>.</p>
<div align="right" style="text-align: left;" class="pullquote" dir="ltr"><strong>"We are trying to adapt to how the user wants to use something, rather than expecting the user to learn. This is essential in the education space to make things work".</strong></div>
<p align="justify"><a href="http://unreasonableatsea.com/vita-beans/">Guru G</a> is a "gamified teaching, teacher training & open certification platform", that aims to democratize access to technology for quality teachers. Rather than focusing on the student as most education technologies do, Guru G believes that teachers are the most important element of the education system. Enabling teachers, means quality education will reach the lives of hundreds of students during their professional life time, and with this in mind, Vita Beans designed a platform that is engaging, easy to use and intuitive, designed specifically with teachers, schools and governments in mind.</p>
<div align="center"><iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/65920949" frameborder="0" height="281" width="500"></iframe></div>
<p align="center"><a href="http://vimeo.com/65920949">Unreasonable Barcelona: Anand Joshi, Guru-G</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/unreasonable">Unreasonable Media</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
<h3 align="left">Inspiration <br /></h3>
<div align="right" class="pullquote"><em>"Teachers don't use and don't like to use technology" </em></div>
<p align="justify">The idea came from the products Vita Beans had already developed for the education space, such as their text2animation & text2game prototypes. They had produced over 80 collaborative games teachers were using in the classroom. Students play together in teams and learn about different topics through the process of gaming. However, suddenly they realized teachers had great ideas they didn't know how to translate into a<em> </em>digital form because they did not have the knowledge or the skills to create digital content. This is, according to Amruth, the crisis they are trying to solve in the education space: the quality of teachers, access to good teachers and the difficulty for teachers to adopt new technologies were the biggest challenges.<em> "</em></p>
<h3 align="left">The design challenge<br /></h3>
<p align="justify">Their initial prototypes were designed with assumptions based on their gamification experiments with students. <em>"We miserably failed with teachers and we discovered what a good gamification system for teachers looks like by prototyping with teachers and looking at the small things. It was an interesting learning experience." </em> They identified two common reasons why they hesitated to adopt anything new in the classroom.</p>
<ul><li>Teachers don't want to feel like they can't use something a student can.</li><li>Teachers can't visualize themselves using that tool, this there is an element of uncertainty and lack of confidence. </li></ul>
<p align="justify">It was imperative for Vita Beans to switch focus:<em> "Any tool you design, you expect to train the user to understand your tool, and if they refuse to do that; you blame them." </em>They used their behavioural science background to come up with infrastructural solutions that solve the limitations from the outset. </p>
<h3>The solutions</h3>
<p align="justify">They started prototyping with <strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_language_processing">natural language processing</a></strong> for their text2animation & text2game projects. NLP is a branch of computer science concerned with the interactions between computers and human languages. Teachers articulated their ideas in simple English and the program used NLP to take what they said, try to understand what they were trying to visualize and convert into programming language to build an animated movie out of it (like what we used to open this article -but with hopefully better results). Amruth was very confident about the potential of this prototype and shared with us that UNICEF might take it up and implement it as an open source animated video and game creation tool in Africa.</p>
They also developed an <strong>adaptive navigation engine</strong> for one of their game based learning platforms; a tool that adapts to what you are trying to do: <em>"There is no fixed way to navigate from one task to another. It tries to learn the closest action that each teacher is trying to do and it executes that. It tries to learn how the teacher wants to use it."' </em>This was a success. They incorporated touch screens to make the product more intuitive and the teachers picked it up quickly.<em> </em>
<p>Amruth claims they are the first in the world to develop a gamification platform specifically for teachers and the reason was their solution to the navigation issue. This experience also indirectly helped in designing Guru-G.</p>
<p> </p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/bf_rwl6JTMc" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe></div>
<p style="text-align: center;">"Amruth Bagali Ravindranath talks about text2animation & text2game prototypes"<br />Amruth B R, at TedxMcGill. Courtesy of YouTube</p>
<p align="justify">These design solutions and the learnings from each project inspired the team to come up with products which have been adopted commercially across 10 states in India, reached 4000+ schools & over 3 million kids internationally through partners in India & North America. They have helped education companies build their primary and secondary school education products, (including one of India's top classroom technologies), have been covered by the media and won several entrepreneurship awards. More information <a href="http://unreasonableatsea.com/vita-beans/">here</a> and on <a href="http://www.guru-g.com/">their website.</a> Our question is: what is it about behavioral science that helped Amruth's team arrive to this epiphany in tech design? </p>
<h2 align="justify">Behavioral Science and Social Marketing<br /></h2>
<p align="justify">Comparing marketing to advocacy is bound to be met by resistance and perhaps controversy. I raised this question when we interviewed Maya Ganesh for the <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/tactical-technology-design-activism-1">Information Design post</a>, and stated the following in our conclusion: "<em>Our consumption habits in the market are shaping how we process and interact with information in the public space. The possibility of
'consumer behavior' permeating modalities of activism, reinforces the need
to explore more interesting strategies for information
dissemination</em>." Now that we are starting to look closely at the infrastructure supporting information, I will stubbornly return to the same question: to what extent should we borrow tactics for advocacy from marketing? and add: how much of it should permeate the design of digital technologies?</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY">Amruth made a casual reference during our interview that triggered this thought. We were discussing the importance of understanding behavior patterns, when he brought up <strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays">Edward Bernays</a>. </strong>This man used psychoanalysis, psychology and social science to design public
persuasion campaigns and could get masses to choose what he wanted them to without them realizing it. While this sounds awfully dangerous and manipulative, I would like to rescue the idea of understanding human behavior well enough to design technology around it and I will entertain this thought in the context of
social change -please, don't judge.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY">Pillip Kotler, S. C. Johnson Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, wrote a paper bringing marketing and social change together: <em>“Can social
causes be advanced more successfully through applying principles,
concepts and techniques of marketing?”. </em>He defines marketing as:</p>
<blockquote>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">"a sophisticated technology, that draws heavily on behavioral science for clues to solve communication and persuasion related to influencing accessibility. [...] Most of the effort is spent on discovering the wants of a target audience and creating goods and services to satisfy them" (Kotler, 1971)</h3>
</blockquote>
<div> </div>
<p align="justify">This definition is a useful bridge to link marketing with accessibility of digital technologies. G.D. Wiebe wrote an influential paper on social marketing, that coined the question: "<em>Why can't you sell brotherhood and rational thinking like you can sell soap?</em>", that later influenced public information campaigns by USAID, the WHO, and the World Bank <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/storytelling-performance-2#fn1" name="fr1">[2]</a> . While he recognized how these models can to an extent <em>commodify </em>human behavior and social principles, he stressed that knowledge of behavioral science is a useful framework for product planning, that must be given a socially useful implementation. He developed the following criteria of considerations:</p>
<table class="plain">
<thead>
<tr>
<th align="center">Criteria<br /></th>
<th align="center">Description<br /></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td> <strong>Force</strong></td>
<td>The intensity of the person's motivation toward the goal -a combination of his predisposition prior to the message and the stimulation of the message<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Direction</strong></td>
<td>Knowledge of how or where the person might go to consummate his motivation.<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Mechanism</strong></td>
<td>The existence of an agency that enables the person to translate his motivation into action.<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Adequacy</strong></td>
<td>The ability and effectiveness of the agency in performing its task.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>Distance</strong></td>
<td>Estimate of the energy and cost required (by the user) to consummate the motivation in relation to the reward<br /></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p align="justify">Considering this framework is part of recognizing how knowledge circulating market networks affects our behavior. Nishant Shah addressed two ideas along these lines in the thought piece. First, he suggests us to recognize the negotiations that take place in the state-citizen-market ecosystem, and how they affect our rights, demands and responsibilities in society. Second, how this leads to a different understanding of the citizen as an "embodiment of these state-market negotiations". Keeping consumer behavior, and the forces shaping, enabling and constraining it in mind, is an interesting framework when we think of ourselves as information consumers -and as Yochai Benkler posits in The Wealth of Networks- in an ongoing transition to information producers. This also depends on how we think of information. We usually define content as information, but the structure and infrastructure are also pieces of 'information' we continuously shape through our interaction with technology. Hence, when we talk about making information accessible, we are also talking about producing legible and intelligible infrastructures. </p>
<h3>Linking it back to digital technology</h3>
<p align="justify">I am aware that the relationship we are trying to draw seems little far-fetched, but Amruth and the Vita Bean's team experience shows this behavioral-science approach, not only has a lot of potential, but is seldom explored in the education technology market. He told us about his success story with a <strong>behavior simulation engine.</strong> They used neuroscience as a base to build computer based activities and games to predict the behavior of its users on specific situations. They had an accuracy of 86%, which according to Amruth, is larger than every known psychological framework, and according to their <a href="http://www.vitabeans.com/case-studies.php">testimonial</a>, above most behavioral tests in the market (which only yield 20-40% of accuracy). Amruth said: <em>"That
was the first behavior research connection that brought us into the
start-up space. Exploring games, exploring human behavior."</em></p>
<blockquote style="float: left;">
<div style="text-align: center;"><strong>Design challenges in<br /></strong><strong><strong>mobile applications**</strong></strong></div>
<li>Make it noticeable </li><li>Make it useless if not shared </li><li>Manufacture peer pressure</li><li>Easy to personalize </li><li>Must evolve constantly </li>(static stories die)</blockquote>
<p align="justify">We can also link these ideas back to storytelling. Amruth and I discussed what is the best way to use technology to engage users with digital stories. He made a good point at pairing up both processes:<em> "What makes a storytelling session effective is how you contextualize a story for the person you are sitting with. As kids we are used to a one way process. As adults, stories are more interactive, so you may bring a new dimension, and the story might go in a very different direction. The technology must enable and reflect that." </em>Compelling narratives must motivate the audience to interact with the stories, and digital devices must perform the same function. The infrastructure and interface of technologies must be intuitive, familiar and persuasive enough to sway users into interacting with it. </p>
<p align="justify">A way to do this is by pairing up technologies with the criterion above. In terms of functionality: provide them with a <strong>mechanism</strong> that translates the users ideas into action, that is <strong>efficient</strong> at enabling them, and that reduces the '<strong>distance </strong>(the<strong> </strong>cost or amount of energy needed) to perform a task -as has been accomplished with Guru G in India. As for the <strong>force </strong>and<strong> direction</strong> of motivation, Amruth brought up some design challenges when discussing adoption of mobile applications [**"<em>by analysing what increases the probability of a solution / campaign
growing organically by word of mouth, going viral, and specifically what make something fashionable</em>". See box on the left]. These challenges may vary from one application to the other but, at the end of day, the analysis and conceptualization of the product must be persuasive and empathetic with its users.</p>
<h3>Making Change</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">To close our interview, Amruth and I talked about what it means to 'make change' through digital design. He believes 'making change' is composed of three elements:</p>
<ul><li><strong>Empathy: </strong>Your attempt to make change will depend on the amount of empathy you feel towards the people you are trying to create change for.<em> "We spend time interacting with teachers, classrooms, just to get an idea of how the teacher thinks, empathize with prospective users".</em></li><li><strong>Imagination:</strong> How you translate this empathy into solutions. <em>"Imagination helps you think of as many solutions as you can to solve the design and adoption challenges"</em></li><li><strong>Action: </strong>The most challenging stage according to Amruth: <em>"If your technology is too hard to use, you will lose audience. If it's not impactful enough, it is trivialized. How do you reach a balance in making it effortless and yet, impactful?"</em></li></ul>
<p align="justify"><br />This post took a step back in our analysis of citizen action, to uncover a less visible space where change is also taking place: the intersection of the user with the machine. We seldom look at the relationship: producer-machine-consumer (and its multiple combinations) and how our behavior is being reconfigured by new digital technologies (in this project). The pace at which we need to upgrade our own operation systems, requires a degree of digital literacy that is not being facilitated by the state, the market or even civil society. Vita Beans, is one of the few examples of market actors working towards cutting the middle-man between users and digital technologies. If widely adopted, this model has the potential of re-organizing the state-citizen-market dynamic: from how citizens interact with the technology market to how new ways of producing and using technology might shape citizens' negotiation with the state.</p>
<div>This was also a set of explorations. It is a fairly new area in our research that will lead to more conversations with people who understand technology as an infrastructure and as material, as opposed to us- who often understand it as a practice, a space or an actor. Our goal is to bring content and infrastructure closer together, and make a stronger emphasis on inter-disciplinarity and multi-stakeholderism as a strategy to leverage change.
<div>
<div> </div>
<h2><strong>Footnotes:</strong></h2>
<p><span style="text-align: justify;">[</span><a style="text-align: justify;" href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/storytelling-performance-2#fr1" name="fn1">1</a><span style="text-align: justify;">] Refer to Marc Prensky's Digital Native, Digital Immigrant, for more on the limitations of digital immigrants in the education space; "</span>It‟s very serious, because the single biggest problem facing <span style="text-align: justify;">education today is that our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated </span><span style="text-align: justify;">language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks </span><span style="text-align: justify;">an entirely new language". Access it here: </span><a href="http://bit.ly/IMBu0j">http://bit.ly/IMBu0j</a> <br /><br />The CIS book : Digital Alternatives with a Cause, is also an interesting and comprehensive read of what comprises a digital native or digital immigrant today: <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/dnbook">http://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/dnbook</a><br /><br /><span style="text-align: justify;">[</span><a style="text-align: justify;" href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/storytelling-performance-2#fr1" name="fn1">2</a><span style="text-align: justify;">] </span>The World Bank makes reference to G.D. Wiebe's thinking on their blog: <a href="http://bit.ly/1jNZVZA">http://bit.ly/1jNZVZA</a>. Also refer to: Baker, Michael (2012). The Marketing Book. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. p. 696 and <span class="mw-cite-backlink"><span class="reference-text"><span class="citation book">Lefebvre, R. Craig. Social Marketing and Social Change: Strategies and Tools to Improve Health, Well-Being and the Environment\year=2013. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. p. 4. for examples of these interventions. Finally, the Wikipedia page on Social Marketing explains the role of G.D. Wiebe in the field: <a href="http://bit.ly/1lw4jPV">http://bit.ly/1lw4jPV</a></span></span></span></p>
<h2><strong>Sources:</strong></h2>
<div id="gs_cit1" class="gs_citr">Kotler, P., & Zaltman, G. (1971). Social marketing: an approach to planned social change. Journal of marketing, 35(3).</div>
<p><span class="reference-text"><span class="citation journal"><br />Shah, Nishant “Whose Change is it Anyways? Hivos Knowledge Program. April 30, 2013.</span></span></p>
<p><span class="reference-text"><span class="citation journal">Wiebe, G.D. (1951-1952). "Merchandising Commodities and Citizenship on Television". Public Opinion Quarterly <strong>15</strong> (Winter): 679.</span></span></p>
</div>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/digital-storytelling-human-behavior-vs-technology'>http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/digital-storytelling-human-behavior-vs-technology</a>
</p>
No publisherdenisseMaking ChangeNet CulturesResearchFeaturedResearchers at Work2015-10-24T14:29:23ZBlog EntryInformation Design - Visualizing Action (TTC)
http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/tactical-technology-design-activism-1
<b>This is the second part of the Making Change analysis on information activism. It explores the role of the presentation and design of information to translate information into action.</b>
<pre style="text-align: justify;"><strong>CHANGE-MAKER:</strong> Maya Ganesh
<strong>
PROJECT</strong>:
Visualizing Information for Advocacy
<strong><strong>
METHOD OF CHANGE</strong>:
</strong>Redesign the production, presentation and representation of data to stimulate citizen action.<strong>
STRATEGY OF CHANGE: </strong>
- Demystify the technology, strategy and tactics behind information design
- Train people on how to use them for their projects.
- Empower people and increase political participation at the grassroots</pre>
<h2>Part 2: Information Design</h2>
<p align="justify">Tactical Technology aims to demystify strategies that stimulate citizen participation through the production, presentation and representation of data. Their 2010 program:<a href="https://tacticaltech.org/visualising-information-advocacy"> Visualizing Information for Advocacy</a> focuses on finding "the right combination of information, design, technology and networks" (2010) to communicate issues and stimulate action. As explored in the last post, campaigns must not only inform citizens, but must persuade them into acting. The way information is presented: the symbols, shapes and sequences plays a big part in creating deeper connections between the consumer and information. Using more visual advocacy examples, I will list three elements that underpin this connection: symbols, design and consumption culture.</p>
<h3>I. Symbols</h3>
<p><strong>Marks or characters representing an object, function or abstract process</strong></p>
<p>Lance Bennett’s work on civic engagement (2008), identified two features in information that motivate citizens to act:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">a) Familiar values and activities<br /> b) Action options that facilitate decision-making and the participation process</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">By personalizing data and finding symbols that embody these values and action options, the citizen is more likely to engage with the information. Throughout this post we will look at some examples, outside of Tactical Tech, that are applying these principles.</p>
<pre style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Example 1:<br />Dislike Poverty Campaign- Un Techo para mi Pais (TECHO) Latin America<br /></pre>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">First example is this is the <a href="http://vimeo.com/15656801">campaign</a> by the Chilean NGO<a href="http://www.techo.org/en/"> Un Techo para mi Pais</a>. The organization’s main objectives are to a) to eradicate poverty and b) build a strong body of volunteers that epitomize a new way of understanding citizenship in the region. They are very popular among youth, in part due to their communication strategies and their use of social media. Recently, the ‘No Me Gusta’ (Dislike) campaign was featured in Spanish graphic design activism blog:<a href="http://www.grafous.com/no-me-gusta/"> Grafous</a>, and the non-profit marketing website<a href="http://osocio.org/message/no_me_gusta_i_dislike_this/"> Osocio</a> for its creative use of 'slacktivism' to mirror the young citizen's attitude towards poverty.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="callout"><strong>Slacktivism</strong>: "actions performed via the Internet in support of a political or social cause but regarded as requiring little time or involvement, e.g. liking or joining a campaign group on a social networking website"</p>
<p align="center"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/TECHO1.jpg/image_preview" alt="Techo 1" class="image-inline image-inline" title="Techo 1" /></p>
<p align="center"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/TECHO2.jpg/image_preview" alt="Techo 2" class="image-inline image-inline" title="Techo 2" /><br /><span id="docs-internal-guid-3c3e8713-307f-8c4d-a5bf-1b5269c5701e">No Me Gusta campaign, Un Techo para mi Pais. Photo courtesy of Grafous: <a class="external-link" href="http://www.grafous.com/no-me-gusta/">http://www.grafous.com/no-me-gusta/</a>.</span></p>
<p align="justify">The images juxtapose pictures of slums and an adaptation of the Facebook Like button - a familiar symbol of affirmation and approval among youth- into a Dislike button: enabling expression of discontent. This is coupled with the phrase: “<em>if you dislike this, you can help by logging onto (...)</em>”, channeling this disapproval into a plan of action. The campaign shows a thorough understanding of its target audience: including the visual culture of social media users, their digital habits and their satisfaction driven behavior (embodied by the like button). It ridicules the user by facing him with two realities: the ineludible situation of poverty versus his redeemable slacktivist idleness. This strategy proved to be effective and attracted the attention of potential volunteers; asserting the middle class, tech-savvy identity of the TECHO volunteer throughout Latin America.</p>
<blockquote style="float: left;">
<p align="center"><strong>Nonviolent methods and <br />Civic Participation</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Capture attention.</li>
<li>Increase visibility of activism.</li>
<li>Reduce the stake of participation <br />for citizens</li>
<li>Attracts 'risk-averse' citizens and<br />creates 'safety in numbers'.</li>
<li>Success of campaign is more likely<br />(if 3.5% of population participates)</li></ul>
</blockquote>
<p align="justify">The use of familiar symbols is one of the <a href="http://www.starhawk.org/activism/trainer-resources/198ways.html">198 strategies</a> listed by Gene Sharp in Part Two of <a href="http://www.aeinstein.org/books/the-politics-of-nonviolent-action-part-2/">The Politics of Nonviolent Action</a> (explored in a<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/digitally-enhanced-civil-resistance"> past post</a>). In the same spirit, Tactical Technology’s project <a href="https://archive.informationactivism.org/">10 tactics</a> provides “original and artful” wide communication non-violent methods to capture attention and disseminate information. This includes slogans, caricatures, symbols, posters and media presence, which besides from grabbing attention also reduces the stake of participation for citizens. According to Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan, these methods increase the visibility of activist efforts, because they create a sense of ‘safety in numbers” and hence draw the “risk-averse” into the movements. Furthermore, their study shows that if a campaign manages to capture the active and sustained participation of only 3.5% of the total population, it is likely to succeed (2008).</p>
<p align="justify">While this statistic shows that enhancing the visibility of social change campaigns is an extremely resource-efficient strategy, on the other hand, it confirms information is in the hands of a privileged minority. The information-poor activist is completely reliant on the values and symbols the middle class chooses to downstream, unless information is designed by grassroots organizations who can localize it -one of the main objectives of Tactical Technology. The flow of ideas and conversations among the middle class, though not inclusive, is already stimulating the spirit of information dissemination. However, representations of data are not enough to trigger cognitive associations between the citizen and the issues. We must also consider the design and aesthetic features of these representations and how they inspire civic engagement.</p>
<h3>II. (Graphic) Design</h3>
<p><strong>Communication, stylizing and problem-solving through the use of type, space and image. </strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p id="docs-internal-guid-3c3e8713-3345-6c35-9147-f1533da6a2fe" style="text-align: justify;" class="callout" dir="ltr"><strong>MG</strong>: Presentation continues to be a problem. We have focused a lot on this, but it continues to be an issue when people have and are using information. You can’t assume people will get it and you need to think about what kind of information you have and what kind of audiences you want to see it, etc.</p>
</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Liz Mcquiston, author of the 1995 and the 2004 editions of Graphic Agitation explored how art and design brings political and social issues to the fore. She argues that the increasing ubiquity of digital technology since the 90s, plus a popular ‘do-it-yourself’ culture, is creating a new environment of political protest that empowers individuals to take ownership of the creation and consumption of information. This is in line with Richard Wurman’s argument on the rise of the <strong>prosumer: </strong>digital users who are not only consuming but are also producing an unprecedented amount of information, which states that larger volumes of information, coupled with the expressive potential of art and design, makes personalized relationships with data possible, having it cater to our interests, needs and contexts (2001).</p>
<pre style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Example 2:<br />Design for Protest by Hector Serrano (University Cardenal Herrera)<br /></pre>
<div style="text-align: justify;" class="pull quote" dir="ltr">Information design is creating ready-made avenues for civic engagement by breaking data down and providing step by step guides for implementation. For instance, students from the University Cardenal Herrera in Spain collaborated together in the project: “<a href="http://designforprotest.wordpress.com/proyectos/">Design for Protest”</a>, led by <a href="http://www.hectorserrano.com/">Hector Serrano</a>, graphic designer and activist. The concept was to design “effective and functional” tools of demonstration, rooted in the rising number of protests around the world during the economic crisis. The students created communication tools: from foldable banners to protest umbrellas that allow protesters in Spain (and around the world) to convey their messages in creative, quick and affordable ways. This is the perfect conflation between consuming information proposals and producing new information from the grassroots to intervene in the public space.</div>
<p align="center" style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><br /><img src="http://designforprotest.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/10.jpg?w=920" alt="" height="450" width="665" align="middle" /></p>
<p align="center">Paraguas (Umbrella). Photo courtesy and How-to: <a href="http://designforprotest.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/paraguas/">Design For Protest: Paraguas<br /></a></p>
<p align="center"><img src="http://designforprotest.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/4_01.jpg?w=920" alt="" height="450" width="665" align="middle" /><br /> Light Banner. Photo courtesy and How-to: <a href="http://designforprotest.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/light-banner/">Design For Protest: Light Banner</a></p>
<p align="center"><a href="http://designforprotest.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/paraguas/"><br /></a></p>
<div align="center"><img src="http://designforprotest.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/2_05.jpg?w=920" alt="" height="558" width="397" align="middle" /></div>
<p align="center" style="text-align: center;" dir="ltr">Pocket Protest. Photo courtesy and How-to: <a href="http://designforprotest.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/protesta-de-bolsillo/">Design for Protest: Protesta de Bolsillo</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The field of information design is creating ready-made avenues for civic engagement. It is breaking down data and providing step-by-step guides for implementation. Although the Design for Protest project is not creating a permanent source of information, it is providing feasible alternatives to display information both in short-lived protests as much as in long-term campaigns, facilitating action-taking and abiding to the second feature of Bennett's hypothesis: providing action options to aid decision-making. Ganesh commented how these tool kits are also a mean Tactical Tech uses to secure sustainability and continuity:</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="callout"><span id="docs-internal-guid-4b925b2a-3424-bea4-cc67-94b3cb5dc47a"><strong>MG:</strong> We have many available resources: from tools and guides (mobile in a box, security in a box, etc.), to the website. It is very focused on the digital tools that support what you want to do with your campaigning. You have a plethora of websites telling you what tools to use but not how to use it or how to think about how you want to use them for campaigning. As a result you have campaigns that are not well thought or that don’t use the appropriate type of technology, or driven by the technology first than what they want to do. This is one of the ways in which it continues.</span></p>
</blockquote>
<h3></h3>
<h3>III. (Culture) Design</h3>
<p><strong>Localizing information design</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The <strong>‘prosumer’ model </strong>aligns with an active model of citizenship we describe in a <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/blank-noise-active-citizen-dissonance">previous post.</a> It fits citizens who are active and willing to find resources, and create and disseminate information that resonates within their context. Yochai Benkler’s work on information production (2006) Also touches on how cultural production enhances democratic practices in network societies. He argues that creating cultural meaning of the world has two important effects:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">a) Sustains values of individual freedom of expression.<br />b) Provides opportunities of participation and cultural reassertion.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Ganesh’s account of the experience of Tactical Technology in the Middle East also highlights how cultural remix is a form political and creative empowerment:</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="callout" dir="ltr"><strong>MG:</strong> It is interesting how the Arab version has evolved. We had support to extend Ten Tactics in the Arabic region, but we didn’t want to do translations and tell people what to do. We wanted to see how people are thinking about information activism in their region, what kind of products would be useful to them. We’ve already printed 2000 copies and we are left only with 140. It is really popular because people really want to do this. We’ve met with 5-7 groups in the Arab region we’ve known for a long time. We said: here’s money (originally meant for translations) take our resources, anything you’ve found that we’ve published and: customize it, remix it, break it up and put it back together again; turn it into a resource that you can feel you can use with your communities. Partnering up, you must keep in mind their mandates and their communities.</p>
</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Localizing design and aesthetics is essential to keep the connections between data-citizen relevant. This is explored from the perspective of post-colonial computing by Irani et. al; a project that aims to understand how ‘good design’ must be consistent with cultural identities and the transformative nature of cultural formation between the context and the individual (2010).</p>
<pre style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>Example 3:</strong><br />Proudly African and Transgender by Gabrielle Le Roux (In collaboration with Amnesty International and IGLHRC)</pre>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">An interesting example of this is the work done by Gabrielle Le Roux, in collaboration with African trans and intersex activists (<a href="http://www.iglhrc.org">IGLHRC</a>). A showcase of portraits and uncovered narratives of transgendered Africans in East and Southern Africa: that reasserts interesex and transgender identity in a society were these issues remain taboo and hence under the radar.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><img style="float: left;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/f1HV0NnuLqLOP-N36QGFbr-eXSILqtz0vFXA6OrSTqPuqiniOe89xiyxhJqnlD2wRLgcOtPQYZf3po7biJGQZ9gCAwROMbywL9xyjO6OkyzcK3jNzIqWwT8J4Q" alt="" height="427px;" width="303px;" /> <img style="float: right;" dir="ltr" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/vCK1YHfG-_rOjr8VS8dRv4GVGE7AmrsalUMhIgMNP4Io6Th8IVHg4h5syGa0-NRrEMKhRjtpFPB877ssMJwtncjtM_w8YTt-gCiDpEgh64kbZlAuunQ-hvwrvw" alt="" height="431" width="303" /></p>
<p align="center" style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></p>
<p align="center" style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"> </p>
<p align="center" style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">These visuals were exhibited in Europe by Amnesty International, and showcased in the <a href="http://www.blacklooks.org">Black Looks </a>community (who participated in Tactical Tech’s 2009 <a href="http://camp2013.tacticaltech.org">InfoCamp</a>) as well as in the WITS Centre for Diversity Studies research on <a href="http://incudisa.wordpress.com/">Politics of Engagement:</a> an interactive collaboration on social change through art-activism and research.</p>
<pre><strong>Example 4:</strong>
Camp Acra et Adoquin Delmas 33 - Haiti</pre>
<p align="justify">An example less inclined on aesthetics but focused on visual documentation is the <a href="http://chanjemleson.wordpress.com/">Camp Acra et Adoquin Delmas 33</a> blog, from Haiti. A site in which Camp Acra members are documenting their settlement and growth after the 2010 earthquake through essential information and images, fostering community building and communal identity reassertion.</p>
<p align="center"><img id="docs-internal-guid-4b925b2a-33b7-4c5f-4371-534d21958e0f" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/JaZwKtfIODw6LQuJOdRlEofLtr9tEZox9mw9WMTDJJxLnlJaX6RCmxjGbNggtgF2pD0B706J1kShumAImBWJ7X0Po44ktKjs5SmMh402BmjjNB4whfLowh1ixw" alt="" height="377px;" width="486px;" /></p>
<div align="right" class="pullquote">“visual representations of information gives context to numbers, uncovers relationships and engages the viewers in ways that raw information could never do”<br /> David McCandless</div>
<p align="justify">As <a href="http://www.davidmccandless.com/">David McCandless</a>,data journalist, information designer and author of <a href="http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2009/the-visual-miscellaneum/">The Visual Miscellaneum</a> points out: “visual representations of information gives context to numbers, uncovers relationships and engages the viewers in ways that raw information could never do” (2009). Having these representations mingle with culturally specific undertones provides opportunities to create solidarity ties between the citizen and its culture, as well as the add of “individual glosses” through action, critical reflection and participation (Benkler, 2006). However is this need for an aesthetic approach to information and culture representation a result of our consumer behaviour? Is it problematic that activism is catering to a model of promotion and presentation of information to incite participation? The next section will look shortly at the consumption culture in information activism.</p>
<h3 align="justify">IV. Consumption (Culture)</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Is information design catering to consumption habits instead of citizen needs?</strong><br />As seen, information design is grounded on the premise that the representation of data must create deep connections with its audience in order to incite a reaction. However, is this the result of a culture of consumption? Let’s not forget the citizens targeted by visual campaigns are also consumers in constant interaction with the market. Kozinet’s study of virtual communities of consumption (1999), is in line with Wurman's description of the behavior of a prosumer:</p>
<h3 align="center" style="text-align: center;" dir="ltr"><strong>Behaviour of consumer vs. information prosumer</strong></h3>
<table class="plain" align="center">
<thead>
<tr>
<th><strong>Kozinet - Virtual communities of consumption</strong></th>
<th align="center"><strong>Wurman - The prosumer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Discerning consumer</td>
<td>Displays curiosity in information</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Less accessible for one-to-one processes</td>
<td>Suspicion over information gate-keepers</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Producers of large amounts of cultural information</td>
<td>“New-found hunger” to find information related to its interests</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Moreover, the Kozinet suggests a few strategies of how to interact with the consumer that also fit the strategies presented by Bennett at the beginning of this analysis:</p>
<h3 align="center">How to connect with the consumer vs. citizen</h3>
<table class="plain">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Kozinet - Virtual communities of consumption</th>
<th align="center">Bennett - Features of information for civic engagement</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Segmentation of consumers<br id="docs-internal-guid-4b925b2a-3456-5d05-0f33-04a2bd0b87b2" /></td>
<td>Tailor information to values and activities familiar to the citizen</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>More interaction with consumer</td>
<td>Suggest action options to facilitate decision-making and participation</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Create loyal networks of consumption</td>
<td><br /></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>With this parallel in mind, we asked Ganesh the extent to which info-activism resembles market consumption models:</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="callout" dir="ltr"><strong>MG:</strong> You need to think strategically about how it’s going to get picked up, where you want to promote your information, how you want to publish, present it; and push it. The problem with NGO, activists and independent individuals is that they are not as empowered financially [...]. If you look at the corporate section, journalism, etc; you have huge institutions and a lot of more finances behind this stuff. NGOs have one shot to make it work. That’s when people like us come in, to demystify, give people training and create platforms.</p>
</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Comparing activists with ‘virtual consumption communities’ questions the extent to which corporate and social impact models are feeding of each other to present information and succeed. A deeper analysis of this relationship falls out of the scope of this post, but it is worth mentioning when exploring activism in information network societies. As Ganesh clarified, info-activism is not related to marketing, but visualizing information in attractive and interesting ways is crucial not only to persuade, but to make activism accessible and enticing. Today, ten years after it was founded, Tactical Tech maintains a critical approach to their work. It is now moving on to a next stage, beyond the mere representation of data and paying closer attention to the type of information that enhances impact and influence of their tactics.</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="callout" dir="ltr"><strong>MG</strong>: We have definitely moved on thinking about interesting ways of looking at this. Our questions are more critical and political right now. The nature of platforms, the nature of information sharing, what is the true face of social media? There is so much information and data right now. Once information is out there how do you actually make it evidence for evidence-based advocacy. We are trying to play with that idea a little bit. It's not only about having impact but also influence.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Conclusion:</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Part 1 and 2 of this analysis have explored the process of transforming data into civic action. In part 1 we re-visited the question of information communities. We found that diversity in political opinion democratizes the debate in the public space. Information strategies must focus on making information from the grassroots visible and strengthening offline networks that facilitate information dissemination. In part 2, we explored the strategies behind the presentation and representation of this information.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Three main findings came from this analysis:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">a) Non-violent visual advocacy is more likely to reduce the stakes of participation for the common citizen making political engagement more likely.<br /> b) The role of design for short or long-term advocacy is to simplifythe process of civic action, facilitate decision-making and makethese projects self-sustainable. <br />c) Our consumption habits in the market are shaping how we process and interact with information in the public space. The possibility of consumer behavior permeating modalities of activism reinforces the need to explore the most interesting strategies for information dissemination.</p>
<p align="justify">From the perspective of the <strong>Making Change</strong> project’ it is interesting to explore this method to social change as a breach from the ‘spectacle’ criticism outlined by Shah. He argues that in contemporary activism, only a limited production of images enter the network - images in many cases detached from the material realities and experiences that shape the change process in the first place. This tendency results in paraphernalia over the visual, disregarding the crises that led to the inception of protests. The findings from this analysis indicate that visual persuasion is essential to capture the attention of citizens, and hence, the need for a pinch of ‘spectacle’ in data presentation cannot be overlooked. The challenge info-activism now faces is making data’s dissemination self-sustainable in offline communities through the strategy and design of its campaigns.</p>
<p align="justify">Furthermore, the data, stories and narratives Tactical Tech is working to uncover can only be effectively transformed into action through a reconfiguration of the data-citizen relationship. Information strategies, besides from focusing on how to make data enticing, must also focus on the recognition of a status quo of idleness around how we consume, produce, question or interact with information. Tactical Tech has gone a far way at spearheading this line of thought and spreading graphic resistance through civil society, however this is not sufficient unless this recalibration occurs at the individual citizen level.</p>
<h2 align="justify">Sources:</h2>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Bennett, W. Lance. "Changing citizenship in the digital age." Civic life online: Learning how digital media can engage youth 1 (2008): 1-24.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">
<div id="gs_cit2" class="gs_citr">Benkler, Yochai. <em>The wealth of networks: How social production transforms markets and freedom</em>. Yale University Press, 2006.</div>
</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">
<div id="gs_cit2" class="gs_citr">Bimber, Bruce, Andrew J. Flanagin, and Cynthia Stohl. "Reconceptualizing collective action in the contemporary media environment." Communication Theory 15, no. 4 (2005): 365-388.</div>
</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Brundidge, J.S. & Rice, R.E. (2009). Political engagement online: Do the information rich get richer and the like-minded more similar? In Chadwick, A. and Howard, N.H. (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Internet Politics (pp. 144-156). New York: Routledge </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Kozinets, Robert V. "E-tribalized marketing?: The strategic implications of virtual communities of consumption." European Management Journal 17, no. 3 (1999): 252-264. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">McCandless, David. The Visual Miscellaneum: A Colorful Guide to the World's Most Consequential Trivia. Collins Design, 2009.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Shah, Nishant “Whose Change is it Anyways? Hivos Knowledge Program. April 30, 2013.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Wurman, Richard Saul, Loring Leifer, David Sume, and Karen Whitehouse. Information anxiety 2. Vol. 6000. Indianapolis, IN: Que, 2001.</li></ol>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/tactical-technology-design-activism-1'>http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/tactical-technology-design-activism-1</a>
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No publisherdenisseResearchers at WorkWeb PoliticsMaking ChangeDigital Natives2015-04-17T10:34:22ZBlog Entry