Topics Knowledge Platform
Civil Society Building
Promoting Pluralism
Small Producers Agency
Civil Society in West Asia
Digital Natives
Knowledge Management
Post-Conflict Participation
Urgency Required
Package Politics: Antagonism, Resistance, and Peace in Syrian Political Discourse
Working Paper 8 examines ways in which regional conflicts, especially the relationship with Israel, have an influence on the resilience of the Syrian regime. It does so based upon the analytical notion of discourse, which examines the role of discursive assumptions and norms in framing social practices. The norms and mechanisms inbuilt within discourse contribute to the shaping of the choices and practices of political actors in many ways: by determining the range of possible action, by legi...
Internet or Enter-Not: the Syrian Experience
Working Paper 10 discusses the status of the internet in Syria. Syrian authorities show a large amount of distrust vis-à-vis the new technology and there is much state control. The list of banned sites is long, varied and flexible. Website bans are about muzzling free expression and controlling access to information. Syrians are arrested because of their beliefs they express on the Web. Is there a future for the use of internet as a tool of expression in Syria? Syrians try to find their w...
A Matter of Religion? Really?
ISS-student Rima Irmayani is currently blogging from Indonesia about her fieldwork that she’s undertaking for her MA research on understanding community participation in post-conflict reconstruction programmes. (see profile here). As farming is one of the main livelihood strategies in Poso-Central Sulawesi local government and NGOs put considerable effort into helping farmers to rebuild their agricultural practices after the violence ended in 2001. By interviewing the farmers in Sintuwulemba...
Twitter #digitalnative and Blog
Want to follow and contribute to our Twitter conversation going on in the Taipei workshop. Follow #digitalnative! Read our blog here.
Talking Back Workshop
‘Talking Back’ is the first workshop for the Digital Natives with a Cause? knowledge programme, for which 20 digital natives from 16 Asian countries have been selected to come to Taipei and discus, document and reflect on their online activities. This workshop is organised by the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), Hivos, the Frontier Foundation and Academia Sinica and will take place from the 16th till the 18th of August.
Draft programme
The draft programme reflects this conference aim.
Draft programme
The draft programme reflects this conference aim.
Programme
We herewith would like to share with you the draft programme of the conference. Please note that it is a draft version. Updates can be found on this website. Here we will also publish details about specific sessions.Country Profile
Syria is situated in the Middle East and borders Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Following World War I, France acquired a mandate over the northern portion of the former Ottoman Empire province of Syria. The French administered the area as Syria until granting it independence in 1946. The new country lacked political stability, however, and experienced a series of military coups during its first decades. Syria united with Egypt in February 1958 to form the United Arab Republic. In...
Country Profile
Iran is situated in the Middle East and borders Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey and Turkmenistan. In 1906 the Constitutional Revolution transformed the Iranian absolutist monarchy of the Qajar dynasty to a constitutional monarchy. This was opposed by Russia and after a while they returned kingdom to absolutism by setting artillery fire against the Parliament (majles) and killing the key figures of the constitutional movement. Reza Shah took power after the British le...