The Future of Citizenship

All over the world the spotlight is on the citizen. From Time magazine’s  nomination of the protestor as person of the year to the enduring  optimism around the ripples of the Arab spring: from Obama’s ‘yes we  can’ to Cameron’s big society: citizenship seems to have become the new  magic bullet. But will this new starring role for the citizen actually  lead to solutions?

The Future of Citizenship

All over the world the spotlight is on the citizen. From Time magazine’s nomination of the protestor as person of the year to the enduring optimism around the ripples of the Arab spring: from Obama’s ‘yes we can’ to Cameron’s big society: citizenship seems to have become the new magic bullet. But will this new starring role for the citizen actually lead to solutions?

New Donors, New Investments: New Development?

On January 27, 2012, the International Development Studies of Utrecht University organised its eight knowledge for development seminar. The seminar aimed to critically assess the meaning of development in the context of contemporary transformations such as the increased involvement of giants like India and China in development cooperation and the increased role of southern countries in international investment flows. Some key questions were: How do these new relations influence the notion of...

It's the Future Calling

What do you do when the phone rings? You pick up, or let people leave a message on your voicemail and check it soon after. The phone has been ringing for a long time now in the development sector. What do you do when a caller starts conversing? You talk back - if only to say you're going to hang up. We talk a lot in the sector. What do you do when the caller starts shouting? You hang up, even if the other person has a valid reason to shout. In the development sector, we don’t like shouters. W...

Regional Perspectives on the ‘Dignity Revolutions

This policy paper provides unique perspectives from Middle Eastern   activists who are part of popular protests across the region. The   recommendations are based on their perspectives and addressed to the EU   at large European Commission, the Dutch government and  Non-Governmental  Organisations in order for them to best support the  democratic  transitions in the region.These perspectives were the subject of lively and inspiring debates at...

Exporting Censorship and Surveillance Technology

Western companies turn a healthy profit by exporting their surveillance technologies and equipment to repressive regimes. This is what Ben Wagner concludes in the Hivos-commissioned report “Exporting Censorship and Surveillance Technology”. Wagner interviewed dozens of people from Europe and North Africa and found that governments there have relied heavily on Western censorship technologies in an attempt to quell the civil unrest during the Arab Spring.

Can Knowledge Trigger Change?

This Briefing Note argues that there is an acute and pressing need for new perspectives and knowledge on the changing terrain and dynamics of development and social change. It contributes to the debate on knowledge and change by sharing and discussing the insights emerging from Hivos’ experiences. Furthermore, it positions Hivos’ knowledge endeavours in the aid and knowledge for development  discourse, drawing on a mix of Hivos practice, policy and Knowledge Programme research.

Like a Bridge over Troubled Waters

In the Think Piece LIKE A BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATERS: Dialogues of policy, practitioner and academic knowledges the author Wenny Ho deals with Cross-domain Knowledge Integration (KI) in International Development Cooperation (IDC). KI is understood as processes of knowledge co-creation linking domains particularly those of policy-making, science and practitioners.

'Power, Knowledge and Pluralism' with Robert Chambers (IDS)

On Monday January 23, Robert Chambers, world renowned international  development scholar and research associate at IDS, discusses how power, professionalism, funding, methodologies and mindsets, influence and can distort and constrain the creation of knowledge.

Unpacking Digital Natives from their Shiny Packaging

In this article, the writer supports that China, despite having a plethora of hacker talents, does not conform to the typical paradigm of liberal, usually anti-government, group of digital natives. She explains that the so-called “red hackers” are working hand-in-hand with the dominant ideology, fighting against the enemy abroad while hunting down the enemy within who disrupts the ‘harmony’ (of the nation). Focusing on China’s digital culture, Tsou demonstrates that digital natives, despite...

Beyond Philanthropy

In 2007, Hivos, an international non-governmental organisation inspired by humanist values, formed a partnership with Logica, a global IT company, and the Mamidipudi Venkatarangaiua Foundation (MVF), an Indian organisation working to abolish child labour. This NGO–business partnership, lasting four years, engaged highly skilled Logica consultants from the Netherlands and India to work with MVF to develop a management information system (MIS) and child monitoring system (CMS). This partnership...

Impunity, freedom of expression and social justice

There is an apparent low profile war going on against progressive circles in Honduras, and this edition of Envio magazine demands that the international community take notice. It reports on an international expert meeting in which Hivos teamed up with CEJIL, ERIC and Jueces por la Democracia to talk about impunity, freedom of expression and Justice. The goal of the event, held in october 2011, was to support Honduran human rights activism with reflextions and lessons from neighbouring countries.

Open Archives Initiative

All our publications are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 license. To enable other publishers and parties to use our data, we provide an Open Archives Initiative repository.

On Natives, Norms and Knowledge

Using digital technologies has become so convenient that with the rise of the so called digital revolution arose also the need to reflect it. A very impressive compilation of reflections dealing with the role and impact of the “user” (or digital native, as it is now called) comes in the form of a four book collective called Digital AlterNatives with a Cause? by the Centre for Internet & Society and Hivos. The fourth book features Ben Wagner’s essay Natives, Norms and Knowledge: How Inform...

Digital Native: Twin Manifestations or Co-Located Hybrids

Ben-David’s piece is a well-articulated and informed attempt to resolve two of the several conceptual fuzziness of the term “Digital Native”. She attempts this in a philosophical manner: trying to move away from the ontological “who are Digital Natives?” to an epistemological “when and where are Digital Natives?” Her reasoning is that this perceptive change will allow us to unpack the duplicity of a hybrid term and to understand if it refers to a unique phenomenon in the world worth exploring.

Digital AlterNatives Video Contest

The Centre for Internet and Society and Hivos are pleased to announce the Digital AlterNatives video contest. There are hundreds of stories of the Everyday Digital Native - people who are always connected, or on the fringes, or groups that bond over causes but don’t really care for the ‘Digital Native’ tag & hype. Tell us their story through your video! Deadline for your proposals is the 8th of January 2012.

Policy Brief Gender Mainstreaming 2.0

This policy brief aims to deepen our understanding and provide new insights in order to bring gender mainstreaming to the next level. Synthesis papers and cases studies have been produced in four policy areas to learn more about the ways in which GM has been implemented. These range from violence against women to micro-finance, and from value chain development to the aid architecture. In this policy brief we present the experiences in these specific policy domains, share our key insights on g...

From Facebook revolution to surveillance technology

In the beginning of 2011 the Arab Spring took the world by surprise. Around the world people were confronted and inspired by millions of brave citizens who stood up, ousted two dictators and demanded democratic reforms. (Inter) nationally technology like Twitter and Facebook have been praised for these web 2.0 revolutions. While the Facebook revolution discourse has been much debated, the flip side to the technology coin has been ignored.

Small, competitive and resilient - How small-scale producers contribute to food security

Food insecurity threatens almost one billion people, especially in rural areas in developing countries, where four out of five people go hungry every day. Scientists estimate that the world’s population will grow to 9.1 billion by 2050. Since natural resources are already dangerously degraded, fossil fuels are becoming scarce, and climate change has become an impending reality, this poses a serious challenge. To nourish the growing population and meet the challenges of climate change, it is n...

Civic Driven change:Bringing Politics back in

Politics is central to development discourse, yet remains peripheral.  And, over some twenty years, a civil society narrative has not fulfilled  its potential to ‘bring politics back in’. Reasons can be found in  conceptual confusion, in selectivity in donor thinking and policies  towards civil society and in the growth-driven political economy of  NGO-ism.

KP policy paper on the ‘Dignity Revolutions’ recommended by BNR News Radio as a reading material

At a programme of the Dutch radio channel BNR News Radio on Wednesday 23 November, the latest policy paper of KP Civil Society in West Asia entitled Regional Perspectives on the 'Dignity Revolutions': How Middle Eastern Activists Perceive Popular Protest was recommended as a reading material. This policy paper provides the perspectives of political and social actors who are the foot soldiers of the ‘Dignity Revolutions’. Please click the link of the programme below (in Dutch).  

BlueCoat: US technology surveilling Syrian citizens online

In the context of repression in the Middle East and North Africa,  surveillance technology has played a key role in providing authoritarian  regimes with the tools necessary to track citizens online. Among these  companies, BlueCoat has proved to be the most efficient in helping the Syrian regime control every movement of Syrians on the Internet.

Regional Perspectives on the ‘Dignity Revolutions

This policy paper provides unique perspectives from Middle Eastern  activists who are part of popular protests across the region. The  recommendations are based on their perspectives and addressed to the EU  at large European Commission, the Dutch government and Non-Governmental  Organisations in order for them to best support the democratic  transitions in the region.

Syria's crisis: A 'war of attrition' and a 'marathon', experts say

Read the interesting article of Ahram Online on the conference Emerging Spheres of Civil Engagement in Syria organised by Hivos, Arab Forum for Alternatives and University of Amsterdam on 24-25 October 2011 in Cairo.