Introduction to Digital Natives with a Cause?

Tags: Digital Natives
Additional tags: Agents of change , Social transformation , Youth

Youth are often seen as potential agents of change for reshaping their own societies. Considering their size in terms of numbers in developing countries unleashing the potential of even a part of this group promises to substantially impact societies. Youth are more naturally equipped with the skills to make use of the potential of ICT and actually are seen as the driver of this transformation. Especially now when youths thriving on digital technologies flood universities, work forces, and governments and could facilitate radical restructuring of the world we live in. So, it’s time we start listening to them.

Although there is much attention for the potential impact of youth as e-agents of change, there is limited knowledge about the subject and this knowledge is mostly focussed on western societies. In 2009 Hivos partnered with the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) , Bangalore, to assess the state of knowledge on the intersection between youth, ICT and engagement worldwide and with a specific attention for developing countries. The report Digital Natives with a Cause? charts Digital Native scholarship and practice in order to create a framework that consolidates existing paradigms, and informs further research and intervention within diverse contexts and cultures. The main question remained: what do we really know about this Digital Natives revolution? Which was strengthened by the fact that the Digital Natives do not have a voice in the discourse and discussion about them.

 

To address these knowledge gaps and lack of Digital Natives participation in the discourse Hivos and CIS are organising a series of events, dialogues and expert meetings. Three workshops will be held in Taiwan, South Africa and Chile. to give back the voice to Digital Natives, asking them to document, articulate and reflect upon their own practices in order to explore and exploit the potentials, excitement and possibilities of their everyday use of technologies. It also aims to involve other stakeholders, particularly academics and practitioners, in dialogue with the digital natives during an expert meeting. Thereby they will contextualise and paint a larger picture of the questions of agency, transformation and youth in different parts of the world. The book will have a website which documents these dialogues in a live form using Web 2.0 tools and inviting Digital Natives from around the world to share stories about themselves or about other Digital Natives that they might have encountered in their environments.