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Information Activism - Tactics for Empowerment (TTC)
http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/tactical-technology-information-is-power
<b>This is the first of a two-part analysis of information activism for the Making Change project. This post looks at the benefits and limitations of increasing access to information to enable citizenship and political participation. </b>
<pre style="text-align: justify;"><strong>CHANGE-MAKER</strong>: Maya Ganesh<br /><strong><br />PROJECT</strong>: 10 Tactics for Information Activism<br /><strong><br />METHOD OF CHANGE</strong>: <br />Information activism at the intersection of data, design and technology<br /><strong><br />STRATEGY OF CHANGE</strong>:<br />-Demystify the technology, strategy and tactics behind information activism.
-Train people on how to use them for their projects.
-Empower people and increase political participation at the grassroots<br /></pre>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I came into the office today and CIS Director gifted me the Red House edition of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: ‘We are All Born Free”. Skimming through it, I found a series of graphics and artistic interpretations of Articles 1 to 30:</p>
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<p align="center"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/bornfree.jpg/image_preview" alt="Article 5 - We are all born free" class="image-inline" title="Article 5 - We are all born free" /></p>
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<td><strong>Article 5 </strong><br /> Photo courtesy of Library Mice blog: <a href="http://librarymice.com/we-are-all-born-free/">http://bit.ly/1cAMpYy</a></td>
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<p align="center"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/bornfree2.jpg/image_preview" alt="Article 24 - We are all born free" class="image-inline" title="Article 24 - We are all born free" /></p>
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<td style="text-align: center;"><strong>Article 24 </strong><br /> Photo courtesy of Illustration Cupboard: <a href="http://www.illustrationcupboard.com/illustration.aspx?iId=3405&type=artist&idValue=351&aiPage=1">http://bit.ly/1kI5EBd</a></td>
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<p>The purpose of this book is to find “exciting ways to socialize young people to very real issues”, rewrite human rights in a “simple,accessible form” and stimulate imagination to “observe and absorb details in a way that words struggle to express”. While specifically targeted for 12+ children, these images create associations and connections that trump the dullness of black and white texts for any audience; offering an alternative way of presenting complex bodies of knowledge crucial for our survival, such as the Declaration of Human Rights.</p>
<div style="text-align: left;" class="pullquote" dir="ltr">Change: information interventions to inspire and facilitate change-making among civil society networks.</div>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">In the same spirit, Tactical Technology aims to use information design strategies to create similar associations in the field of activism. The <a href="https://www.tacticaltech.org/">Tactical Technology Collective</a> is an organization dedicated to the intersections of data, design and technology in campaigning. Its has two main programs:<a href="https://www.tacticaltech.org/#evidence-and-action"> Evidence & Action</a> that works with data management in digital campaigning; and <a href="https://www.tacticaltech.org/#privacy-and-expression">Privacy & Expression</a> that provides digital security and privacysupport advice to activists. The collective envisions change as a creative and pragmatic intervention that inspires and facilitates change-making among civil society networks. We interviewed Maya Ganesh, who is part of the E&A program, and our conversation shed light on benefits and the challenges of using visual advocacy strategies to create social change.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">On this opportunity, I will explore the potential of information activism to create opportunities and spaces of engagement. Following Saussure’s dyadic model of the sign, it will be split in two parts. The first entry will look at the ‘signified’: the ideas, associations and cultural conventions derived from information and how these could solve crises of civic engagement and citizen action. The second entry will look at the ‘signifier’ -the shapes and sequences that compose the knowledges navigating political activism. These will be viewed from the strategic, design and technological point of view. Both parts will be informed by our conversation with Maya and complemented by literature on political engagement in the digital age. On a less academic note, the posts will also refer to the experience of graphic designers, artists and bloggers who are experimenting with information design to express dissent in transnational platforms.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr">Part 1: Is Information Power?</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">‘Transforming Information into Action’ is Tactical Technology’s take on the traditional idiom ‘Knowledge is Power’. The collective’s experience shows there are a number of steps to transform raw data into political power and for the purpose of this analysis, I will only look at information disseminated with this particular intention. This will aid to understand the relationship between increasing information availability and having it trigger civic action in contemporary activism. According to Fowler and Biekart, acts of public disobedience and activism after 2010 share the objective of reclaiming active citizenship through ‘novel ways’ that counter traditional political participation mechanisms (2013). Hence, we want to know if information activism is one of these ‘novel’ strategies enabling citizenship in the digital era.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">More power to whom?</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Overcoming information inequity</strong><br />If information activism is “the strategic and deliberate use of information within a campaign”, the first step is to question the type of information used in these campaigns. While many scholars claim that access to political opinion increases participation in the democratic process by fostering debate and inclusive deliberation on policy issues (Dahl, 1989, Bennett, 2003, 2008; Montgomery et al. 2004,) Brundidge and Rice’s exploration of Internet politics shows that strategies that merely increase access to information are flawed by design. They claim that increasing information mainly benefits the middle class, who counts with previous exposure to political knowledge and hence processes it with greater ease. This group ultimately dominates the public discourse widening -what they call- the ‘knowledge gap’ between socioeconomic classes (Brunridge and Rice, 2009, Bimber et al. 2005). This is the ‘information’ version of the gentrification of politics explored by Shah in the <a href="http:http:/cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/hivos-knowledge-programme-june-14-2013-nishant-shah-whose-change-is-it-anyway">Whose Change is it Anyway</a> thought piece, and a definite deterrent of collective action at the grassroots level.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">A basic example to show how this manifests in the information environment is this info-graphic on <a href="http://www.2012socialactivism.com/">Social Activism</a> created by <a href="http://www.columnfivemedia.com/">Column Five</a> and <a href="http://www.takepart.com/">Take Part</a> and presenting the findings on their 2010 study on Social responsibility:</p>
<pre><strong>Example 1:
</strong>Social Activism Study (2010): <span class="st">How can brands engage Young Adults in Social Responsibility? </span></pre>
<p align="center"><img class="decoded" src="http://www.2012socialactivism.com/images/infographic.png" alt="http://www.2012socialactivism.com/images/infographic.png" height="878" width="310" align="middle" /><br />Access complete info-graphic here: <a href="http://www.2012socialactivism.com/images/infographic.png">http://www.2012socialactivism.com/images/infographic.png</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The information is clear, the presentation is clean. This graphic could mobilize the middle class citizen who works in a company and has time and money to spare in donations and fund-raising activities. The graphic is informational yet it does not offer alternative participation avenues for groups outside of the politically savvy, young, educated and affluent circle (Brundidge and Rice, 2009) Instead, it reiterates socioeconomic inequalities from the offline community into the information landscape. With this in mind we asked Maya whether gentrification was a barrier for info-activism interventions at the grassroots:</p>
<blockquote style="text-align: justify;"><strong>MG</strong>: The things we are documenting are by citizens with socioeconomic barriers and obstacles. It is not our mandate to reach out to the ‘common citizen’ but it is very much our mandate to look at what is happening and what is happening to people with socioeconomic barriers who are lower on the ladder. If you look at <a href="https://tacticaltech.org/first-look-syrian-info-activism">Syrian info-activism</a>, these are people facing the worst situations you can imagine, and they are doing it [...] and we document what they are doing, trying to understand it, pull out trends and then showing people.<br /></blockquote>
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<h3 id="docs-internal-guid-55c9389d-2e66-a4f1-cb32-393bdd9637f0" style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Empowering information communities</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Offline networks support information dissemination</strong><br />In this respect, offline community networks are key to bridging the knowledge gap cited above. The relationship between organizations like Dawlaty, SMEX and Alt City and groups in the Arab region function as a core of ideas and resources from which localized methods and solutions emerge (read more <a href="https://www.tacticaltech.org/info-activism-resources-localised-and-arab-world">here</a>). This flow of information, coupled with the offline support, makes information from less visible demographics visible, deepens democracy and creates opportunities for these actors to participate and set the public agenda (2009). We asked Maya in what other ways information activism facilitates this process:</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>MG</strong>: We have moved on a lot from information activism. <a href="https://informationactivism.org/en">10 Tactics</a> is quite old for us now but it is still interesting to see how this stuff works. This material was produced in 2008-9 and is very popular with our audience. A lot of our work now is [...] take this material to newer communities of activists or people who have been around for a long time but are getting involved with the digital for the first time. That’s one part of our work and it’s sort of self-sustainable that way.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Therefore the value of information activism, rather than increasing the quantity of available data, is how it enables diversity and visibility of political opinion in the public sphere. One of the better known examples of information design interventions that gloat inclusiveness is:</p>
<pre><strong>Example 2</strong>
Occupy Design: the collective that builds “visual design for the 99%”:</pre>
<p style="text-align: center;" dir="ltr"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/Occupy1.jpg/image_preview" alt="Occupy 1" class="image-inline" title="Occupy 1" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;" dir="ltr"><strong>2011</strong></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;" dir="ltr"><strong>2011</strong><br />Images courtesy of Experimenta Magazine: <a href="http://bit.ly/1hGpvOP">http://bit.ly/1hGpvOP</a></p>
<p align="justify">By presenting income and unemployment statistics about the American middle and lower class in the public space, activists from Occupy Design made the claims of the Occupy Wall Street Movement visual and visible. This enabled this group, the 99%, to reclaim the space not only through physical mobilization but also through the expression of subjectivities and open -graphic- power contestation. According to Pleyers, the pervasiveness of the movement both at the offline, online -and in this case, visual- levels created opportunities of horizontal participation, asserting spaces of democratic experience (2012).</p>
<h3>From Information to Action</h3>
<p><strong>Is information enough?</strong><br />Nevertheless, exposure to powerful images does not necessarily guarantee impact and influence, much less civic engagement. We asked Maya what she thought motivated civic action:</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong> MG: </strong>External things push you over the edge. A flash-point issue could tip you over to do something different, even if you are that someone that has never been involved in anything. The gang rape in Delhi for example: it has sparked a lot of people who have never been involved and are now pushed to [act]. There are different precipitating factors and that’s why the stories of people: what people do, how they do it and why they do it, matters.</p>
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<p align="center"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/Galhigangrape.jpg/image_preview" alt="Delhi Gang Rape" class="image-inline" title="Delhi Gang Rape" /></p>
<p align="center">Women protesting in Bangalore after the Delhi gang rape. Photo courtesy of Dawn: <a href="http://bit.ly/1cAFLRP">http://bit.ly/1cAFLRP</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Whether it is ‘external things’, a ‘flash-point issue’ or ‘precipitating factors’; the individual must make a connection between new events and how they affect the current status quo. A set of critical skills must be in place, as well as a desire to participate in civic life. (Brundidge and Rice 2009, as well as Montgomery et al. 2004) Richard Wurman, the american graphic designer, refers to this in his book ‘Information Anxiety’. He posits that there is an ‘ever-widening gap’; a ‘black hole’ between data and knowledge that limits our ability to make sense of information; even if it is vital for our context and survival. “The opportunity is that there is so much information; the catastrophe is that 99 percent of it isn’t meaningful or understandable” (Wurman et. al 2001) How do we reconcile this challenge with Tactical Technology’s mandate? What is the turning point between exposure to information and engagement in civic action?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">In this post two issues behind information dissemination have been explored:</p>
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<li style="text-align: justify;">The risk of creating homogeneous political discussions by catering only to middle class’ interests; overlooking diversity of political expression in the public discourse. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The need for offline communities to facilitate information dissemination on the ground and mainstream the technical and financial support offered by collectives such as Tactical Technology. </li></ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;" class="callout">The next question is how info-activism creates the connections between data and information to trigger civic engagement, and on this note, we proceed to analyse the role of the ‘signifier’ in information dissemination on the next post. Part two post will look at the strategy, design and technology behind the symbols and sequences of information, and how these determine the citizen’s perception of its ability to create change.</p>
<h2></h2>
<p>Access Part 2: Information Design, following this link:</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Sources:</h2>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Biekart, Kees, and Alan Fowler. "Transforming Activisms 2010+: Exploring Ways and Waves." Development and Change 44, no. 3 (2013): 527-546.</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;">Bennett, Winston. "Communicating global activism." Information, Communication & Society 6, no. 2 (2003): 143-168.</li>
<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;">Dahl, Robert A. Democracy and its Critics. Yale University Press, 1989.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Kathryn Montgomery et al., Youth as E-Citizens: Engaging the Digital Generation. Center for Social Media, 2004. Retrieved February 15, 20</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Pleyers, Geoffrey. "Beyond Occupy: Progressive Activists in Europe." Open Democracy: free thinking for the world 2012 (2012): 5pages-8.</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>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/tactical-technology-information-is-power'>http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/tactical-technology-information-is-power</a>
</p>
No publisherDenisse AlbornozResearchers at WorkWeb PoliticsMaking ChangeDigital Natives2015-04-17T10:36:01ZBlog EntryFrom 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>
<p> </p>
<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>
</blockquote>
<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 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 EntryCreative Activism - Voices of Young Change Makers in India (UDAAN)
http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/young-voices-udaan
<b>This post is a short account of what happened at UDAAN in December 2013 — a conference that gathered 100 youth from across the country to discuss pressing environmental issues and creative strategies to tackle them. We conducted a survey to map the perspectives of these young change-makers and get a glimpse of how India's youth is now framing and going about making 'change'</b>
<div align="center">
<pre><strong><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_UDAANlogo.jpeg/image_preview" title="logo" height="91" width="400" alt="logo" class="image-inline image-inline" />
CHANGE-MAKERS: </strong>Youth (India)
<strong>
EVENT</strong>: UDAAN 2013 organized by 350 India: a global organization building grassroots movements across the country.
<strong>
METHOD OF CHANGE</strong>: Behavioral change, solidarity networks and creative activism.</pre>
<em>
</em></div>
<em>
</em>
<h3 align="right" style="text-align: right;"><em>“Change or making change is to bring about a paradigm shift in the way we do certain things. To alter our general way of life as it remains now into something that is positive and ideal.”</em></h3>
<p align="justify"><br />This is one of the many responses we collected from UDAAN participants on what it means to make change in India today. So
far, in <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/">previous articles</a>, we have looked at organizations working
with specific demographics and themes. On this opportunity, we are
exploring the ideas behind a group conformed by individuals coming from
different walks of life, who embody an array of historical,
linguistic and cultural understandings of the world, yet still find an intersection at their intents for change. We addressed
the core questions raised in the project's thought piece: Whose
Change is it Anyway: <em>“What is the understanding of change with
which we were working? What are the kinds of changes being imagened?
Whose change is it, anyway?”</em> -to start touching base with the ideas
underpinning their actions, and identify how -or whether- it
introduces new ways to define this concept. </p>
<h2>UDAAN 2013</h2>
<p align="justify">I had the privilege of joining this inspiring group during a four day conference and got the opportunity to share with students, activists and entrepreneurs from 13 states of India (chosen from a pool of 2000 applicants) involved in social change practices across the country. Despite the diverging world views among participants, the sense of a common purpose was almost undisputed. Every attendee was committed to mitigate the detrimental impact of climate change in their cities, protect vulnerable populations and advocate for justice. However, the most interesting points of contention lied on how to translate this commitment into individual and collective <em>action, </em>create conditions that enable change, and encourage community participation in environmental, political and social issues.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY">With these questions in mind, the conference focused on providing strategies of action and the attendees explored all sorts of lobbying and political participation mechanisms through its workshops. Three main elements stood out for me. First, the cocktail of tactics provided by experienced campaigners: from direct resistance and non-violent action to story-telling and street theater; participants were inspired to experiment and re-conceptualize activism.</p>
<p align="center"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/IMG_1972.JPG/image_preview" alt="Space Theatre" title="Space Theatre" class="image-inline image-inline" align="centre" /><br />Space Theatre Ensemble</p>
<p align="center"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/Gamification.jpg/image_preview" title="Gamification" height="266" width="400" alt="Gamification" class="image-inline image-inline" /></p>
<p align="center">Educators Collective</p>
<p align="justify">Second, the use of gamification in the workshops, facilitated by the experiential learning group <a href="https://www.facebook.com/educatorscollective?ref=ts&fref=ts">Educators Collective</a>, was the key to introduce values of leadership, solidarity and sustainability into individual behaviour and team practices. And finally, the add of 'unconference slots' to the program empowered attendees to share their methods, initiatives and projects in an open platform. This fostered peer-to-peer learning and more importantly reinforced the net of support and the immense amount of admiration (that grew exponentially between participants) for each other's work.</p>
<h2 align="JUSTIFY"><strong>Youth and Activism in India</strong></h2>
<p align="JUSTIFY">Coming from the perspective of our research project: <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/hivos-knowledge-programme-june-14-2013-nishant-shah-whose-change-is-it-anyway">Making Change</a>, it was second nature to me to question frameworks utilized around "making change". I was pleasantly surprised to find an array of perspectives and experiences floating around panels, workshops and keynote presentations. They were definitely seeking consensus, yet in a way that did not inhibit diversity of thought, intellectual curiosity and self-reflection. This sparked the idea of collecting these views and use them as a sample of the current status of youth activism in India. Particularly considering how many of the strategies taught at UDAAN, while incredibly powerful, require a set of resources (including capital, time and energy) that are not readily accessible for all aspiring activists in the country.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY">These thoughts are consistent with a couple of articles I referred to for context on Indian youth and activism. Starting with the IRIS Knowledge Foundation and the UN-HABITAT's report: <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/www.esocialsciences.org/General/A201341118517_19.pdf">"State of the Urban Youth, India 2012: Employment, Livelihoods, Skills"</a>. It states that in only seven years, India will become the youngest country of the world with a median age of 29 years old. This, coupled with the fact that India's youth is the largest group in the working-age population — in a country that is expected to become one of the world's next major economic powers (Ilavasaran, 2013) — has, according to Padma Prakash, led demographers and economists to consider youth as the future of the country's economic growth. Having said that, these promising prospects do not reflect that 87.2% of the unemployed of the country are youth, only 27% of Indian youth is literate and 64% is located in rural areas. These facts display a constant negotiation between precariousness and hope, and particularly the high level of dissonance between the expectations and opportunities surrounding this group. Furthermore, as put by Prakash, despite the amount of economic information we have on this group, we lack a deep understanding of the social constructs underpinning their motivations and actions. On one hand, Ilavasaran suggests precariousness is the trigger behind both their unrest and their activism. On the other, the path they end up taking will depend on how they understand making change and their role within this process.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY">This dilemma was quite evident at UDAAN. Youth from all over India came together to fervently speak about the grievances climate change is causing in their regions and share the stories behind their struggles. On this note, the conference represented an incubator for their ideas and frustrations. and one of its main goals was to steer all this energy towards a path of constructive positive change. Carpini on his work on civic engagement (2000) outlines three factors that lead to participation: motivation, opportunities and capabilities; and how the interplay of the three result in different patterns of change-making. Hence, what is left to answer is how will this chaotic ecosystem shape youth's ideas of creating change? And to what extent will these conditions determine their motivation, opportunities and capacities of participating in the process? The survey we sent out to participants is only a starting point to reflect on these points. It did not aim to resolve these questions, but instead gather a snapshot of how politically and socially active young citizens are locating change and framing some of the biggest challenges of its generation.</p>
<h2 align="JUSTIFY">Online Survey</h2>
<div>About 25 people participated in the survey. The survey had five questions that explored three concepts analyzed in the Making Change research project: change, civic engagement and methods of change. It was divided into three sections:</div>
<p align="JUSTIFY">a) <strong>Definitions:</strong> Participants were asked how they understand 'change' and 'making change'.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY">b) <strong>Actors:</strong> Participants were asked to reflect on their role and the role of youth in the process of making change. It also touched on concepts of active citizenship and engagement.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><strong>c) Methods: </strong>This section looked at the practices and methods preferred by youth for making change. Participants were asked to think about strategies and tactics discussed at the UDAAN workshops or other initiatives of interest, and how ICT/technology affect the process.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY">The purpose was to collate as many ideas and perspectives around change-making from this group and hence, the questions were broad and open-ended. The participants remained anonymous and details about their age, religion, region, socio-economic status, etc., were not disclosed. The language barrier and access (and frequency of access) to social media platforms was a big limitation to obtain a larger sample but the responses still reflected interesting patterns, which were later classified and categorized using a keyword system. </p>
<p align="JUSTIFY">The results were displayed on the info-graphics found below:</p>
<ul style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><li>Infographic 1* reflects the different ways participants outlined change-making: definitions of 'change' and 'making change', type of change (positive, neutral or confrontational), location of change (individual, society or system) and time of change (now, future, long-term).</li><li>Infographics 2* and 3 outline the profiles of a change-maker and an active citizen.</li><li>Infographic 4 lists their preferred methods of change -in no particular order. The bottom section reflects the spectrum of opinions around the use of technology.</li></ul>
<p>*The percentages reflect the portion of respondents who reflected this view and the texts are excerpts of the respondents' answers.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY">This presentation format was chosen for three reasons: first, to facilitate the consumption of raw data collected from the survey and make visual associations between themes. Second, to put into practice some the recommendations from the storytelling workshop to make research more accessible to the public. And third, as a somewhat self-serving experiment to measure a) the ability of a graphic designer rookie, with no previous experience (like me), to create visual aids and graphics with free online tools, and b) explore empirically some of the methods I have encountered through my research: <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/methods-to-conceive-condense-social-change">Methods for Social Change</a>. Hence, the following results will not be of an academic nature as previous posts, but will instead clarify some of the patterns, evident in the original responses, that may have been lost in graphic translation. </p>
<h2>Locating Change: Definitions</h2>
<p style="text-align: right;"><em style="text-align: left;"><strong> "Change is any alteration from an established status-quo. Making change is creating a system that is self-sustaining and capable of surviving over a long period of time"</strong></em></p>
<p>In spite of including both concepts on the same question, most respondents differentiated them in their answers. Approximately 50% of the sample responded 'change' was either an irreversible process or an outcome to a process, while the other 50% implicated themselves in the 'change' process, stating it means to shift and modify how we act and think. A similar spirit was reflected about 'making change'. About 29% of the participants acknowledges a break from previous practices, and 29% considers we are implicated through the adoption of a new model of action. Interestingly enough, only 5% considers making change a duty or a responsibility. This low percentage signals making change is understood as non-compulsory which does not affect active politically involved citizens but leaves the more passive and idle off the hook when it comes to acknowledging their role in the process of change. </p>
<p align="justify">Moving on to type of change: 38% of the respondents consider making change a neutral process that does not guarantee a positive change (as considered by 33% of the sample). It was defined as an event that merely breaks the norm or from usual practices. A possible reading of this is that a group is not mobilizing its efforts with a plausible positive alternative in mind. Instead, it seeks difference without a deeper considerations of <em>how</em> will it differ from the conditions it is breaking from. This fits into the 'politics of hope' paradigm brought up by Shah in the piece: This approach to change and the idiom 'making a difference' is "so infused with the joy of possibilities" that it doesn't evaluate whether the outcome will lead to further assurance or precariousness, when compared to the earlier structure. This approach limits structural, systemic and sustainable change, an issue that was also evident in the results of the time-line. 0% thinks change must be made immediately but the rest of the sample was divided into making plans for the future (19%) and a smaller number on securing a self-sustaining system (10%) to replace the former. </p>
<div align="center"><a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/easel.ly/all_easels/277883/MakingChange2/image.jpg"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/easel.ly/all_easels/277883/MakingChange2/image.jpg" alt="MakingChange2 title=" height="805" width="628" /></a></div>
<p align="center"><strong> Infographic 1: </strong>Making Change (Generated using: <a style="text-align: left;" href="http://easel.ly">easel.ly-</a>)</p>
<p align="justify">Finally, on the question of where is change located, we find the first instance of a pattern that was evident throughout the survey. On this category 38% finds change must occur externally: either in society and others (19%), or through the shift from a status quo that is perpetuating inequality (19%). Yet the largest group (24%) identified that change must occur internally first. The role of the self was also very prominent in the following sections as well. </p>
<h2>Agents of Change</h2>
<p>After
locating change, the project also intends to understand who are the
main actors and stakeholders lumped into the category of 'citizen' or
'citizen action'. On this survey, these actors were dubbed
'change-makers'. Respondents were free to describe what they
understood by the term and the social construct determining the model
they were working towards (as aspiring change-makers themselves). The
second actor we inquired about was 'active citizen'. The concept of
citizenship is ambiguous terrain, yet there seems to be a connection
between the identity confered by the 'citizen' status and the
respondents' inner call for action. </p>
<h3><strong>a) The Change-Maker:</strong></h3>
<p style="text-align: right;"><strong><em>"I think that all of us can be change-makers. We need to be sure of what and why we need to change and have a vision of how the world will be after making the change</em>"</strong></p>
<p align="JUSTIFY">The Change-Maker (Infographic 2) was defined by the four characteristics outlined below.</p>
<div align="center"><a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/easel.ly/all_easels/277883/ChangeMaker2/image.jpg"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/easel.ly/all_easels/277883/ChangeMaker2/image.jpg" alt="ChangeMaker2 title=" height="507" width="657" /></a></div>
<p align="center"><strong> Infographic 2</strong>: The Change Maker (Generated using: <a style="text-align: left;" href="http://easel.ly">easel.ly</a> )</p>
<div align="justify">Each characteristic was coupled by actions that reinforce this behaviour. For example, understanding the issue (33%) comes hand-in-hand with inciting motivation through information: <em>'If one aspires to change, then one must first understand what is to be changed, how it is to be changed and what would replace the changed system. The primary step is to realize and acknowledge the problem, educate others and then action” </em>(Anonymous survey respondent, 2013) Another interesting example is how the 28% that identified the individual as the source of change, also recommend self-reflection on how to create the most impact: "[My role as a change-maker is]<em> practicing what I preach and learning to critique myself constructively and in a manner that helps me improve"</em> (Anonymous survey respondent, 2013) This brings a different light to Carpinis categorization of 'capabilities' in social change. It is no longer about participation in an external movement but more about how the individual secures sustained change through his own consistent and coherent behaviour.<br /><br /></div>
<h3><strong>b) The Active Citizen</strong></h3>
<p style="text-align: right;"><em><strong>"An active citizen is who follows the constitution, understands and takes responsibility for himself and for influencing his family and community for the betterment of life's social, economic and environmental issues"</strong></em></p>
<div align="justify">
<div align="right">
<h3></h3>
</div>
<p align="justify">Self-awareness was a key point in how the active citizen was personified. It was one of most emphasized points, placing more responsibility on the role of the citizen as opposed to on the issue at hand. Attitudes such as 'realizing the problem', 'taking responsibility' and 'taking initiative' reflect that the individual is finding motivation on taking ownership of his choices and decision-making power. The individual is focusing less on antagonizing the structure and is instead elevating his identity to a fearless, noble status -the citizen is becoming the hero of its own narrative. This ego-emphasis, is also motivating the citizen to invest on increasing its own knowledge capital and attain a thorough understanding of the issues, to then heighten individual and collective awareness around them. The objective is either local -give back to its community- or normative -work towards justice and equity- but there seems to be consensus on the starting point. </p>
<p align="center"><a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/easel.ly/all_easels/277883/ActiveCitizen/image.jpg"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/easel.ly/all_easels/277883/ActiveCitizen/image.jpg" alt="ActiveCitizen title=" height="805" width="628" /></a><br /><strong> Infographic 3 -</strong> The Active Citizen (Generated using: <a style="text-align: left;" href="http://easel.ly">easel.ly</a>)</p>
</div>
<h2><strong>Methods for Change</strong></h2>
<p style="text-align: right;"><strong>“<em>By going out there and making the change! Get down and dirty. Then use those examples in the form of story, pictures, etc. and inspire others around you to first change themselves and then help change society!”</em></strong></p>
<div align="justify">Finally, infographic 4 displays a mapping of the methods brought up by participants. Again, awareness and behavioural change were the most popular, placing information and the individual at the epicenter of change-making. The impact of the theater and story telling workshops on participants was also evident, on several mentions to the power of 'artivism'.<br /><br />
<div align="center"><a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/easel.ly/all_easels/277883/Methods/image.jpg"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/easel.ly/all_easels/277883/Methods/image.jpg" alt="Methods title=" height="840" width="656" /></a></div>
<div align="center">Infographic 4: Methods for Social Change (Generated using: <a style="text-align: left;" href="http://easel.ly">easel.ly</a> )</div>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><br />In regards to communication and technology, I was surprised to find that many respondents find it insufficient. They instead recognize the need for strong offline communities making sure activism online translates into the offline realm. “<em>[online platforms] are vital in building quick connections amongst those who feel alike towards bringing change. But eventually, all struggles for change have to be offline [...] technology could be the first step that eventually leads the path to more offline and personal connections.”</em>(Anonymous survey respondent, 2013) <em>: </em>Others were wary about its power and they recognize it can be used to both help and contain the activist with the same intensity: <em>"Technology can either blind people or give them sight."</em>(Anonymous survey respondent, 2013) These views reflect youth has moved on from the tech hype that pervades the digital activism discourse. The role of technology was not excluded from the conference's tactic package and the group perceives technology as a powerful complement, yet it still places a lot more emphasis on creating sustainable change through education, behaviour and offline interactions than through digital interventions.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><em></em></p>
<h2 align="JUSTIFY"><strong>Conclusion</strong></h2>
<p align="JUSTIFY">Comments at the aftermath of the event reflected participants had undergone a collective mental shift on how to create social change. We arrived looking outwards: accustomed to pointing fingers and scouting for common enemies that personify the misdoings of inequality perpetrators. Five days at Fireflies later and after UDAAN's intervention, I can safely say we left looking inwards. We are now determined to seek information and identify the most effective ways to mainstream it and make it accessible; we are impelled to reconnect with our creative and artistic selves and put them at service of communication; we are encouraged to share our personal stories and have them inspire solidarity and movement in our communities, and above all, we will continue to pursue the level of behaviour-action consistency that legitimizes our efforts at making change. The conference turned out to be a very organic experience and it provided all of us with a space to connect with ourselves and one another in a time of growing loneliness and isolation in the digital age.</p>
<p align="JUSTIFY">Furthermore, the
thoughts that surfaced on the survey are important pointers to
continue uncovering what drives civic engagement among youth. Seeing
these activists locate change in the self was a refreshing break from
the times we used to overindulge in the possibilities of
technology-mediated change. It seems that the digital is already so
embedded in our interactions and ecosystems that it has not only has
ceased to be novel, but it is recognized as insufficent, and hence,
the attention has returned back to the user and its offline
communities. With this in mind, the group that attended UDAAN, as
part of the demographic who represents "the promise and future
of India's growth", is taking up the challenge of strengthening
ideas of making change in their networks. Have them succeed, and this
'growth' will be met by a current of better informed, better armed
young activists working to secure a self-sustaining system for the
generations to come. </p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>**</strong> Thanks to everyone who participated on the survey, Special mention to UDAAN organizers, Educators Collective and the wonderful UDAAN 2013 group<strong>**</strong></em></div>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><strong><br />Sources:</strong></p>
<ol>
<li>HABITAT, UN. "State of the Urban Youth, India 2012.", (2013)</li>
<li>Ilavarasan, P. Vigneswara. "Community work and limited online activism among India youth." <em>International Communication Gazette</em> 75, no. 3 (2013): 284-299.</li><li><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">Shah, Nishant “Whose Change is it Anyways? </span><em style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">Hivos Knowledge Program. (</em><span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">April 30, 2013).<br /><br /></span></li></ol>
<p align="JUSTIFY"><strong>Resources:</strong></p>
<ol>
<li>Easel.ly: To create and share visual ideas online: <a class="external-link" href="http://www.easel.ly/">www.easel.ly/</a><cite></cite></li>
<li>Info.gram: Create infographics: <a href="http://infogr.am/">infogr.am</a></li>
<li>More on UDAAN: <a class="external-link" href="http://world.350.org/udaan/">http://world.350.org/udaan/</a></li>
<li>More on Global Power Shift (350) - <a class="external-link" href="http://globalpowershift.org/">http://globalpowershift.org/</a> </li></ol>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/young-voices-udaan'>http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/young-voices-udaan</a>
</p>
No publisherdenisseResearchers at WorkMaking ChangeWeb Politics2015-04-14T13:21:22ZBlog EntryBridging the Information Divide - Political Quotient
http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/information-divide-political-quotient
<b>On this post, we will unpack 'information poverty'- a problem lying at the very foundation of the crises that inspired this project and a barrier impacting political action. We interview Surabhi HR, the founder director of the political consulting firm Political Quotient, an initiative that seeks to change how youth interacts with politics in India</b>
<pre><strong>CHANGE-MAKER</strong>: Surabhi H R
<strong>ORGANIZATION</strong>: Political Quotient
<strong>METHOD OF CHANGE</strong>: Building an information service for citizen grievances, designed to keep elected representatives accountable for what happens in their constituency.
<strong>STRATEGY OF CHANGE</strong>: Building a new breed of politically conscious youth in India through technology and an interdisciplinary approach to change.</pre>
<p align="justify">The deeper we delve into this project, the more the ‘information question’ rises to the surface as the decisive factor shaping political participation in democracies. Most of the initiatives we have learned about are focused on providing spaces, resources and opportunities to enable voices, participation and richer exchanges of information and knowledge. Yet, framing these as ‘empowering’ overlooks citizens who are trapped in an information gap or suffocated by an information overflow. People who find themselves in either side of the spectrum, are for the most part discouraged from engaging with this information, participating in public discussions (Jaeger, 2005), and do not have the same political opportunities as people with wider and freer access to information.</p>
<p align="justify">As we continue to explore how youth is redefining civic action in digital and information societies, we must thoroughly understand the different ways in which information barriers are affecting political action. On this post, we will go over a short glossary of terms that will help us understand <strong>information poverty</strong> better- a problem lying at the very foundation of the crises that inspired this project. These terms will be somewhat similar to each other, but will be unpacked from three different points of view, describing the implications of information poverty for social justice, technology disparity and democracy. The glossary will be coupled by our conversation with Surabhi HR, the founder director of the political consulting firm <a href="http://politicalquotient.in/">Political Quotient</a>, an initiative that seeks to change how youth interacts with politics in India. Her background in Economics added new nuances to our analysis, as we explore the workings of political action through the lenses of economic theory.</p>
<h3>Political Quotient</h3>
<p align="justify">Political Quotient wants to “<em>build a new breed of politically conscious youth that engages with the political system and equips them with the necessary skills to do so”. </em>They have been running two programs: the <strong>‘Political Internship Programme’</strong> where young people have the opportunity to join party lines and support with legislative research, performance auditing, media management and event organization. And the second program is <strong>‘Politicking’</strong>, in which they organize Google hangouts and panels between student leaders, political commentators, and party heads to debate and discuss policy-making and politics.</p>
<p align="center"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/Politicking.jpg/image_preview" alt="Politicking" class="image-inline image-inline" title="Politicking" /></p>
<p align="justify">Now PQ is moving on to a new phase, in which they recognize it is not only youth who must be empowered. Similarly to <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/information-structures-janaagraha">Janaagraha</a>, they also believe there must be an information structure in place to support elected representatives, who have been chosen to govern without the resources to effectively do so. <em>“Things are changing, elected representatives are being held accountable, asked to be more transparent and to be more active, but the honest truth is they don’t have the necessary support to do this” </em>comments Surabhi on the situation that led her and her team to develop a set of services and products to engage people in direct conversation with their elected representatives. These including the following:</p>
<p align="justify">a) A <strong>grievance addressing service:</strong> designed to keep elected representatives accountable for what happens in their constituency. Citizen grievances can be sent by e-mail, smartphone, sms, etc. to the elected representative’s office, where it will reach a multi-platform software that redresses the grievance to the right department; (for example, if the grievance is related to a tree fall, it will be redressed to the forestry department as opposed to staying in the MLA office). The whole process will be transparent, as both the citizen and the MLA will be able to track the status of the complaint, from the day it was issued to the day it was implemented, using technology.</p>
<p align="justify">b) A <strong>government schemes and subsidies information service: </strong>Citizens will have access to information about schemes through digital technologies, and find out if it is reaching the right beneficiaries.</p>
<h2>Glossary:</h2>
<p align="justify">
(or crash course on concepts we should be familiar with when discussing making change in information societies)</p>
<p align="justify">To understand what information poverty is and how Political Quotient’s intervention in the information landscape will impact political action, will refer to the work of Johannes Britz, Doctor in Information Science and that of Anthony Downs, Economist specialist in public policy and public administration. This choice is inspired by a natural tension in our research as we continue to negotiate: what change ‘should’ look like from the lens of social justice and sustainable development, and what the ecosystem of change actually looks like when we deconstruct the political and economic structures enabling and constraining intents of change.</p>
<pre>
<div style="text-align: center;">1.<strong>Information poverty:</strong></div>
According to Johannes Britz, : “the situation in which individuals and communities do not have the skills, abilities or material means to obtain efficient access to information, interpret it and apply it.”</pre>
<p align="justify">Britz believes that information poverty must be addressed from a social justice perspective that considers the social, political and economic consequences of lack of information for our ability to fulfill our capabilities and freedoms. He posits a 'fair information society' as an ideal, in which social institutions work towards eradicating the four main characteristics of information- poor societies (See box below)<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/information-divide-political-quotient#fn1" name="fr1"></a><a name="fr1"></a></p>
<blockquote style="float: right;">
<p align="center"><strong>Characteristics of information-poor societies</strong></p>
<p>
1. Lack of essential information<br />2. Lack of financial capital to access information<br />3. Lack of technical infrastructure to access information<br />4. Lack of intellectual capacity to filter and evaluate<br /><strong> </strong>the benefits of information</p>
</blockquote>
<p align="justify">The third characteristic: <strong>'inefficient information infrastructures'</strong> is the main gap, both Janaagraha and Political Quotient, are addressing in urban India. They are both providing services to connect the citizen with their elected representatives; establishing a reliable exchange of information between parties, and as a consequence, more autonomy, transparency and accountability in the governance process.</p>
<p align="justify">How does Political Quotient brings us closer to a fairer information landscape in governance? Surabhi responds: <em>“The [grievance addressing] system is using the benefits of filling the information gap to create tangible assets: greater accountability, interaction, participation in the citizen-elected representative relationship and thereby fundamentally changing the way they interact.” </em></p>
<p align="justify">Following Britz's reading of John Rawls' categories of justice<a name="fr1" href="#fn1">[1]</a>. PQ’s work addresses social justice in the following ways:</p>
<ul><li>
<strong>Recognition and participation:</strong> Enhancing the citizen’s ability to file a complaint is in itself an act of recognition of the citizen’s power to affect its own environment and his possibility to participate in the governance process. <br /></li><li><strong>Reciprocity: </strong>The system enables interaction between the elected representative and the citizen, setting forth reciprocity, transparency and a horizontal platform for exchanges where both parties manage the same information. <br /></li><li><strong>Development of capabilities: </strong>Assuming a successful implementation, grievances addressed imply the realization of the power of the citizen and a more functional infrastructure that enables their development as individuals. <br /></li><li><strong>Distribution and enablement: </strong>Assuming all citizens in Karnataka have access to ICTs, this service distributes power and bridges the distance between them and the government.</li></ul>
<div align="justify" class="pullquote"><br />"In a society where we depend on the creation, access and manipulation
of information, [lack of information] questions the fundamental freedoms
of people”. Britz, 2004</div>
<p> </p>
<p align="justify">While all these are highly idealistic assumptions, the last one is the most problematic (in a country where the Internet and mobile penetration rate remain as low as <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/With-243-million-users-by-2014-India-to-beat-US-in-internet-reach-Study/articleshow/25719512.cms">16%</a> and <a href="http://www.iamwire.com/2013/06/indian-mobile-landscape-2013/#_am76us06">26%</a> respectively). While information and communication technologies do play an important role in bridging the gap between those who have access and produce information and those who don’t, as Britz outlines, the growth of ICT’s takes information poverty to a <em>“whole new dimension”</em>; in most cases dividing the info-haves and the info-have nots even further. Britz ideal of an fair information society is what we aspire to, yet there are structural limitations in place which might prevent information-based initiatives, such as Political Quotient, from achieving its social justice objectives.</p>
<pre>
<div style="text-align: center;"><strong>2.Information Poverty</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">Information poverty can also be thought of as ‘information inequity’, which for the last 20 years has been strongly correlated to the digital divide. From this perspective, we can define it as the “economic inequality between groups in terms of access to and use of knowledge and ICTs.” </div>
</pre>
<p align="justify">Analyzing information precariousness from the technology perspective brings us to the elements contributing to the digital divide and how they are affecting our ability to be informed by and of digital technologies. According to Britz, the three main elements contributing to the divide are the following:</p>
<blockquote>
<div align="center"><strong>Factors Contributing to Digital Divide</strong><br /><br /></div>
a) <strong>Connectivity: </strong>Lack of infrastructure and material access to ICTs
<br />b) <strong>Content:</strong> Inability to access content because it is unaffordable, unavailable or unsuitable.<br />c) <strong>Human approach:</strong> Lack of education and digital literacy to understand and use information and data as knowledge.<br /></blockquote>
<p align="justify">This is a paramount consideration for Political Quotient if they aspire to reach all the constituencies in Karnataka; both rural and urban. Surabhi recognizes the firm will have to overcome the socioeconomic barriers that impede a pervasive adoption of her product. <em>“When one travels between rural and urban, the differences are many. Nothing has been done on the ground and there is a lot of potential. What is encouraging is that they want to learn.” </em>This limitation is conflicting with the amount of information the stakeholders of this project need to handle in order to successfully bridge the information gap (between the elected representatives and the citizens) and have it be a<em> “mutually beneficial relationship between the voter and the voted” </em>as they envision:</p>
<div align="center"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/Capturadepantalla20140414alas15.jpg/image_preview" alt="Information Gaps" class="image-inline image-inline" title="Information Gaps" /><br />Information stakeholders need in order to use this service<br />Infographic generated using <a href="https://infogr.am/">info.gram</a><br /><br /></div>
<p align="justify">While the service PQ is developing seeks to leverage technology to bridge this gap, digital illiteracy might not only prevent citizens from using the system, but could potentially exclude them further from the democratic process. As Shah posits in the project’s <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/whose-change-is-it-anyway.pdf">thought piece</a> (on increasing the access to ICTS): <em>“the analogue citizen is expected to transition to the emerging new paradigms: earlier categories of discrimination or exclusion are now replaced by technology exclusion.”</em> The team plans to work with their clients (representatives) in digital technologies and organizational skills capacity building, yet an information inequity strategy needs to be put in place in order to guarantee the fulfillment of all the stakeholders’ capabilities -particularly equitable participation from the citizen’s front.</p>
<pre>
<div style="text-align: center;"><strong>3. Information Poverty:</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">Information poverty can also take the economic avatar of ‘imperfect knowledge’. According to Anthony Downs, “lack of complete information on which to base decisions is a condition so basic to human life that it influences the structure of almost every social institution”.</div>
</pre>
<p align="justify">Downs' perspective is based on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_choice">public choice theory</a>, which is <em>“the use of economic tools to deal with traditional problems in political science”</em>. This is a subset of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_political_theory">positive political theory</a>, that models voters, bureaucrats and politicians as self-interested. He posits in his work <a href="http://www.hec.unil.ch/ocadot/ECOPOdocs/cadot2.pdf">‘Economic Theory for Political Action in a Democracy’</a> that political parties in democracies formulate policy and serve interest groups merely as a means to gaining votes.</p>
<p align="justify">Surabhi and her team align with this thinking: <em>“Politics is not benevolent; ours is a for-profit model that seeks to engage with the elected representative in providing him a mechanism to ensure that he gets more votes. At the same time, we also engage with citizens in ensuring that their interests and issues are looked into. Our basis is that politicians work for votes and the same should be leveraged to solve problems”</em>. Downs’ thesis is that given these assumptions, a democracy –a political system where the parties compete for the control of the government –can only function to its fullest potential when there is perfect information and information is costless. This is what makes democracy the gold standard of governance and the great model on paper that promises to secure our equality and freedoms.</p>
<p align="justify">Yet, democracy does not cease to bring disappointment and a sense of helplessness towards politics amongst youth. The advent of digital technologies has been a glimpse of hope for their political engagement, and this entire research is grounded on the question of how is it they can renew trust and mobilize youth towards civic engagement. A first step towards this direction is assuming the inherent faults in the system, as opposed to focusing on citizen apathy. Democracy has been implemented in a system where there is imperfect knowledge and where there is a high degree of both voluntary and involuntary ignorance <a name="fr2" href="#fn2">[2]</a>,. This, according to Downs, means that:</p>
<blockquote>
<div align="center"><strong>Consequences of imperfect knowledge in governance</strong></div>
<ul><li>Parties do not know what citizens want </li><li>Citizens do not always know what the government is doing or should be doing </li><li>Information to overcome this gap is costly</li></ul>
</blockquote>
<div align="left" class="pullquote"> “Ignorance of politics is not a result of unpatriotic apathy, rather it
is a highly rational response to the fats of political life in a large
democracy” Downs, 1957</div>
If information is costly, so is democracy. The highest risk of deeming citizens apathetic is ignoring the information barriers that prevent them from participating fairly in decision-making processes. Political Quotient cannot intervene by encouraging citizens to be informed, but it can provide them with tools to bring them closer to constituency related information, bringing down the costs of both participation and information. As put by Surabhi: <em>“We want to be an ally of the political system. They need to do good. They are there for 5 years and need to do something.”</em>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Making Change</h2>
<p align="justify">While my glossary of terms may seem repetitive (I did define the same term three times), I want to make an emphasis on how important it is to unpack our concepts through various lens of analysis. We started this project exploring multi-stakeholderism and partnerships on the ground, however we are naturally moving on to spaces of knowledge collaboration where change is conceived through the amalgamation of different disciplines. These convergences do not necessarily happen in the most visible ways though, and one of the project’s objectives is to identify undocumented yet significant interventions to make change in the landscape of information societies.</p>
<p align="justify">Political Quotient’s initiative breaks the following paradigms in the discourse of 'change in the digital era':</p>
<blockquote>
a) It removes the spotlight from the <strong>citizen:</strong> while the focus of the project is to level citizens-citizen and citizen-government power relations (in terms of access to information), the political firm is focusing on improving the efficiency of the government apparatus, which brings new light to how 'citizen action' unfolds in the context of urban governance. <br />
<div> </div>
<div>b) Political Quotient’s <strong>methods</strong> are far from what we see in the ‘spectacle imperative’ where the intent for change is scaled up through visibility in the public sphere. The firm was conceived in the private sector and its work will take place from within the elected representative’s offices. </div>
<div> </div>
<div>c) The firm, in the same way as Vita Beans, applies an i<strong>nterdisciplinary approach </strong>to the design of its technology. (Fun fact: Political Quotient is working alongside Amruth’s team to create mobile applications for the service; which means the infrastructure will include both behavioural science and economic thinking behind its design. Read <a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/digital-storytelling-human-behavior-vs-technology">one of our previous posts</a>, to learn more about Amruth's approach to change and digital design)</div>
<div> </div>
d) <strong>Technology</strong> is indeed framing their understanding of change, but in this case, the question is how technology can be amplified by human behaviour and education, as opposed to how technology determines or amplifies our ability to make change as it is commonly conceived.<br /></blockquote>
<div> </div>
<p align="justify">Not including an analysis of information poverty, and how it both inspires and limits intents of change, devoids the project from understanding the dynamic nature of information and how it interferes in social justice and political action. Furthermore, info-poverty is not a condition characteristic of digital and information societies. Our ability to access information has always determined our dexterity to navigate institutions and infrastructures; indistinctive of what technologies are available at the time. We hope that Political Quotient’s initiative locates not only the information gaps, but also the inherent obstacles the digital divide might represent for their work, and as stated by Surabhi in their theory of change, take them <em>“as an opportunity for a solution. Going from mere ideas to action”.</em> We wish them the best and will follow up on them after June, once the new elected representatives are in office, to see the extent to which information poverty has been addressed through their service. </p>
<h2 align="justify">Footnotes:</h2>
<p align="justify">[<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/information-divide-political-quotient#fr1" name="fn1">1</a>] Britz based his categorization in John Rawls work on principles of
justice. Particularly on 'A Theory of Justice' a work of political
philosophy and ethics where he discusses inequality, distributive
justice and his theory of <a title="Justice as Fairness" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justice_as_Fairness">Justice as Fairness</a>.
We did not refer to his work for this post, but it is worth a read in
the context of the digital divide and the question of fair
redistribution of digital technologies. </p>
<p align="justify">[<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/information-divide-political-quotient#fr2" name="fn2">2</a>] Read more on voluntary or involuntary lack of knowledge in Downs' work on <a href="http://www.hec.unil.ch/ocadot/ECOPOdocs/cadot2.pdf">economic theory and political action</a>. Particularly his reading on persuasion, ideologies and rational
ignorance -in a context of imperfect knowledge and democracy. Some
interesting ideas on persuasion: "<em>Persuasion can only occur in the
midst of ignorance; reality is: there are votes who are less informed
than others and they need more facts; and we are mostly approached by
biased versions of facts" </em>and on rational ignorance:<em> "when
information is costly, no decision-maker can afford to know everything
[...] ignorance of politics is not a result of unpatriotic apathy;
rather it is a highly rational response to the facts of political life
in a large democracy"</em>.</p>
<h2 align="justify">Sources</h2>
<div id="gs_cit2" class="gs_citr"><br />1. Britz, Johannes J. "To know or not to know: a moral reflection on information poverty." <em>Journal of Information Science</em> 30, no. 3 (2004): 192-204.<br /><br />
<div id="gs_cit2" class="gs_citr">2. Downs, Anthony. "An economic theory of political action in a democracy." <em>The Journal of Political Economy</em> (1957): 135-150.<br /><br />3. Jaeger, Paul T., and Kim
M. Thompson. "Social information behavior and the democratic process:
Information poverty, normative behavior, and electronic government in
the United States." <em>Library & Information Science Research</em> 26, no. 1 (2005): 94-107.</div>
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<div id="gs_cit2" class="gs_citr">4. Norris, Pippa. <em>Digital divide: Civic engagement, information poverty, and the Internet worldwide</em>. Cambridge University Press, 2001.<br /><br />5. <span class="reference-text"><span class="citation journal">Shah, Nishant “Whose Change is it Anyways? Hivos Knowledge Program. April 30, 2013.</span></span></div>
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/information-divide-political-quotient'>http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/making-change/information-divide-political-quotient</a>
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No publisherdenisseResearchers at WorkNet CulturesMaking ChangeResearch2015-10-24T14:28:06ZBlog Entry