Search Results (All Fields:quot;Agencyquot;, Status:quot;Publishedquot;) - Repository ISS and Hivos
Institute of Social Studies and Hivos
Strengthening citizen agency through ICT: an extrapolation for Eastern Africa
01/01/2009Since the late 1990s, the prospect of using ICT (Information Communication Technologies) to improve accountability, transparency, access to information, and monitoring authorities has attracted general optimism. However, early hopes that e-initiatives would be the panacea of all the problems have given way to more modest claims. An aspect that has not received much attention so far is the use of ICT in support to citizen agency; to involve and inform communities and interact with and influence authorities. There are quite a few examples of successful smaller projects in this realm, also in developing countries. But new emerging technologies (e.g. mobile phones) create new momentum for strengthening citizen agency at larger scale. This paper focuses on the how ICT is already being used for this, and where the possibilities for the future lie.
House of Obedience: Social Norma, Individual Agency and Historical Contingency
01/01/2009Based on 14 months of fieldwork, this paper examines the influence of social norms, individual agency and historical contingency on the practice of House of Obedience (bayt al-tā‘a) in the sharī‘a courts of the Gaza Strip. It argues that the text of Islamic family law is only one dimension in the administration of House of Obedience. Aspects concerning the wider sociopolitical context, notably the pre-eminence of the notion of family honor (sharaf), the mutually constitutive relation between the sharī‘a court and the community and the specificities of the court cases are crucial. As an ideological construct, the law does not necessarily correspond to a social milieu full of inconsistencies, oppositions, contradictions, and tensions. Thus, the practice of law has always been characterized by pluralism, flexibility and a degree of ambiguity, whereas the text remains characterized by rigidity, restriction, stability and, in some aspects, superficial clarity.