Remember the BINGOs and FLAMINGOS?

What we see in global civil society depends on what value lens we use to define it. The trend towards networked organisation may have emancipatory effects, but may also obscure inequalities and clashing values. Working Paper 14 systematically describes the different expectations people have of global civil society. Each of us, Marlies Glasius suggests, carries a slightly different picture of the concept in our head. She describes the different normative connotations, normative ideal types, the new actors (or not so new actors) and the trends in global civil society.

Know-How, Know-What

Michael Edwards spoke about Know-How’, ‘Know-What’ in his lecture entitled ‘Know-How’, ‘Know-What’ and the Politics of Knowledge for Development at the internationale dialogue Knowledge & Change: Theory and practice of development. Michael Edwards is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities on civil society, philanthropy, and social change. In his speech he addressed particularly the politics of knowledge, which determine how thinking is translated into action of various kinds and which ideas are considered legitimate. He also stressed that these political factors are going to become even more important in the future.

Changing Perspectives: Small-scale farmers, markets and globalization

The Knowledge Programme on ‘Small producers agency in globalised markets’ released this first Working Paper during the First Provocative Seminar and the Hivos Conference on Knowledge and Change. This paper looks at some of the big dilemmas confronting small-scale producers. It revisits five decades of changes in policies, behavior and practices and highlights some areas of debate that have changed in light of the 2007-2008 global food crisis.

Reflections Lost in knowledge – yearning for change

After attending the dialogue hosted by HIVOS on the theme of ‘Knowledge and Change’ I was left impressed and informed by the content, insights and conclusions presented. But the greatest thought-prompting tension that I have taken away with me came more from the theme than the content. Michael Edwards’ opening address focused our attention on the relationship between knowledge and change. Perhaps my train of thought was triggered by the question raised at this early point around the possibility that feelings play a more significant role in changing behaviour than knowledge and thinking do.

Reflections on how knowledge triggers social change

Appointed as a “tracker” to assist in synthesizing our very rich discussions during the three days of the Dialogue, I found myself absorbed in the question: “How does knowledge trigger social change?” Through observation and conversations with various participants, the recurrent responses took the form of the following statements: “Crisis leads to change”, “Subversion is the starting point of change”, “Inspiration leads to change”, “Knowledge coupled with resources and cooperation leads to change.”

Reflections on new and old actors

Some of the so called new or emerging groups that come up during the discussion are the diaspora, CSR, new media and the sad and lonely people who use the new media. We heard from the speakers at the Dialogue how new media like FB and twitter helped activist in Iran and Syria which in some sense is redefining new forms of activism. We also heard the downside of how companies like Google or Nokia can make one very traceable and hence vulnerable as well.

Reflections on gender, knowledge and change

When social change movements of all kinds are under attack, progressives need to build coalitions and to talk to one another as never before. Feminist models and methodologies can enrich every social change movement. A good question is worth its weight in answers. Good questions provide a framework to explore issues. Good questions determine answers.

Which change agents really matter?

Who bring about real change? New actors? Old actors? Or perhaps old actors that are just recently recognized as “actors”? These were some of the questions that have been asked to several participants on the second day of the Knowledge and Change conference.

Rumble in cyberspace: perspectives on civic engagement through the Internet

The session on civic engagement through the Internet touched on three important concepts for the Dialogue: knowledge, communication and social change. Around these concepts, presentations sparked off a debate on the use of Internet for today’s civil society movement.

In times of crisis how to sustain local economies?

Development vol 53 no 3 on sustaining local economies was launched at the Hivos dialogue ‘Knowledge & Change, Theory and practice of development dilemmas’ in The Hague, 29 September 2010. The launch was one of two parallel events on the first day. At the launch Hivos programme coordinator Josine Stremmelaar, journal author Alec Balasescu, Editor of Development Wendy Harcourt and Development Analyst and Editorial Board Member of the Development Journal Shobha Raghuram laid out some of the complex constraints at the macro level which hinder local economies and their autonomy.

Conference Pocket Booklet

For the dialogue we composed a booklet in which we outlined the rationale of the dialogue and reflections on the main question: 'How does knowledge trigger change?'. This has resulted in a colourful booklet which included worldwide contributions from a.o. Alan Fowler, Jackie Dugard, Diego Munoz, Ria Brouwers, Salam Kawakibi and many more.

Video: Knowledge & Change

For the Knowledge and Change Dialogue correspondents of Metropolis TV explore with you the impacts and politics of knowledge on the ground. What does it mean when a country is dominated by coloured information? What does it mean when you change the dynamics of information by crowd sourcing it and giving people a voice? See the video here.

Video: Talking Knowledge?

The Hivos-ISS Civil Society Building Knowledge Programme aims at a better understanding of civil society dynamics in order to facilitate changes in the unequal balance of power in favour of vulnerable and marginalized groups. But how useful is this effort? And who benefits from it in practice? We asked our colleagues, researchers and activists at seminars, meetings and forums how they have experienced their participation in this Knowledge Programme.

Watch the video (with both English and Spanish subtitles) on our brand new Hivos Knowledge Programme Vimeo Channel here

Video: Women's Movement in Nicaragua

The women’s movement and the struggle for their rights in Nicaragua, 1998 – 2008

From 2008-2010, Hivos and ISS facilitated a research programme to analyze Nicaragua’s women’s movement and the strategies developed during the last ten years to defend and extend women’s rights. This tier of the knowledge programme involved academics, practitioners and activists from Hivos, ISS, Movimiento Autonomo de Mujeres and Centro de Investigacion de la Comunicacion.

Pictures: Knowledge & Change

Here's a reflection of the dialogue in pictures. (c) Gerlinde de Geus

A climate neutral dialogue

During the International Conference of Knowledge and Change many scientists, NGO practitioners and activists from all over the world joined Hivos in The Hague to reflect upon issues around knowledge management for development. An inspiring dialogue with interesting discussions. However, with all these international visitors, the conference has caused a lot of greenhouse gases. Hivos takes its responsibility and invests in sustainable energy projects in developing countries to compensate its CO2 emissions.

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