Ons huidige socialmediagebruik brengt een aantal grote risico’s met zich mee voor de samenleving. Sociale fragmentatie, polarisatie en de verspreiding van misinformatie zijn schadelijk voor de democratie en onze maatschappelijke weerbaarheid. De verslavende werking van sociale media kan ten koste gaan van ons welzijn. De afhankelijkheid van grote buitenlandse techbedrijven, die winst voor aandeelhouders belangrijker vinden dan het borgen van publieke waarden, ondermijnen onze digitale soevereiniteit en zeggenschap over belangrijke communicatiekanalen.
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The purpose of this literature study was to obtain an overview of previous civic literacy projects and their characteristics as primarily described in educational science literature. Eighteen academic articles on civic literacy projects in higher education were studied in detail and coded using the qualitative data analysis instrument, Atlas.ti. The codes and quotations compiled were then divided in various categories and represented in a two-axis model. The definitions of ‘civic literacy’ found in the literature varied from an interest in social issues and a critical attitude to a more activist attitude (axis number 1). The analysis of the literature showed that, especially in more recent years, more students than citizens have benefited from civic literacy projects in higher education (axis number 2). The visualization of the findings in the two-axis model helps to place civic literacy projects in a broader frame. The final authenticated version is available online at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13472-3_9
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Lower levels of news use are generally understood to be associated with less political engagement among citizens. But while some people simply have a low preference for news, others avoid the news intentionally. So far little is known about the relationship between active news avoidance and civic engagement in society, a void this study has set out to fill. Based on a four-wave general population panel survey in the Netherlands, conducted between April and July 2020 (N = 1,084) during a crisis situation, this research-in-brief investigates the development of news avoidance and pro-social civic engagement over time. Results suggest that higher news topic avoidance results in higher levels of civic engagement. The study discusses different explanations for why less news can mean more engagement.
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Sowijs deed onderzoek naar verschillende strategieën voor burgerparticipatie via sociale media. Hoe moet je Twitteren om mensen te betrekken en gebruik je dan wel of geen hashtags. Lees het in dit whitepaper!
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In cities worldwide, tools for citizen-centric local initiativesto facilitate collaboration and joint decision-making aredeployed as alternatives to the use of large corporatesocial media platforms such as Facebook. These communityplatforms often aim to empower users and enable civicparticipation in local (neighbourhood) developments, butnot without encountering their own issues. Some of theseplatforms struggle to find the best ways to feature hyper-local issues on their online platforms, such as loneliness ofthe elderly or the infrastructure of the local landscape. Othersmight succeed in developing an easy-to-use platform, butlack a solid, motivated and consistent user base that supportsthe community initiative.In this cahier, we explore how we can use digital, visualand participatory research methods to strengthen civicorganisations through improving their tools for citizenempowerment. Throughout the text, we will address boththe process (the methods for mapping and the workshopsfor participatory mapping), and the substance of theresearch (i.e., the outcomes of the mappings and the resultsof the annotation workshops with the civic organisations).Additionally, we will show and discuss student projects thatmade use of our research, as input for their design processes.
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Information literacy is essential for the operation of a civic society in which all people may participate (Catts & Lau, 2008). The aim of the Fact Checking Factory (FCF) is to accomplish cooperation between students and local citizens. We aim to create an agenda for local decision-makers with the project objectives of fact-checking local news. http://ecil2018.ilconf.org/#
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Municipalities increasingly seek to include citizens in decision-making processes regarding local issues, such as urban planning. This paper presents a case study on using Virtual Reality (VR) in a process of civic participation in the redesign of a public park. The municipality included citizens in intensive co-design activities to create three designs for the park and engaged the neighbourhood community in co-decision, in the form of a ballot. Through the civic participatory process, we studied the effectiveness of using VR technology to engage the community in participating in the co-decision process. The three designs were presented using highly realistic 360˚ visualisations and the effects on engagement were compared between various devices: VR headsets, smartphones, tablets, and computers. Viewing the designs in 2D paper plans was also included in the comparison. The study included over 1300 respondents that participated in the ballot. A statistical analysis of the collected data shows that participants viewing the 360˚ rendered images with VR technology expressed a significantly higher engagement in the co-decision process than those using their computer at home or viewing 2D paper plans. The paper describes the complete participatory design process and the impact of the e-governance used on the target group as well as on the actors organizing the e-governance process. We discuss how the use of new technology and active presence of a voting-support team inspired citizens to participate in the co-creation process and how the investment in this procedure helped the local authorities to generate support for the plans and strengthen its relationship with the community. The use of realistic visualisations that can be easily assessed by citizens through user-friendly technology, enabled a large and diverse audience to participate. This resulted in greater visibility of municipal efforts to enhance the living environment of citizens and is therefore an important step in increased civic engagement in municipal policy-making and implementation.
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The Middle East and North Africa region has been absent form stocktaking exercises on social accountability initiatives (SAI), an umbrella term to designate citizen-led tools aimed at socio-political change. We argue that this sidelining is unwarranted, given the proliferation of participatory governance initiatives, civic associations and popular mobilisation in Arab societies after 2011. Whereas the struggle for improved accountability in the Arab world remains under-researched, analysis of authoritarian regime tactics has proliferated. The fact is, however, that many Arab societies have experimented with mechanisms to apply political pressure on corrupt elites while international donors have launched diverse SAIs, including community score cards and participatory and gender-responsive budgeting initiatives. In this chapter, we first identify this double gap: not only has the literature on SAIs overlooked the MENA region but scholarship on the Middle East has largely failed to recognise initiatives launched across the region over the past decade as SAIs. Then, we aim to address the blind spot of Arab SAI’s as pathways towards improved governance. Finally, we present an overview of extant literature and introduce a set of four research questions to better understand what social accountability means for people on the ground. These questions focus on the various meanings of social accountability (musā’ala vs muhāsaba), its modes of mobilisation, the responses from authorities to such initiatives and their overall outcomes.
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Door de digitale transitie ontstaan nieuwe type publieke ruimtes en nieuwe manieren waarop burgers en overheden zich tot elkaar verhouden. Het lectoraat Civic Interaction Design verkent de rol van interactieve media en digitale technologieën in deze ontwikkeling. Samen met bedrijven, overheden, ontwerpers, culturele instellingen en studenten onderzoekt het lectoraat hoe het ontwerp van onder meer interactieve ervaringen, digitale platforms en online diensten bij kan dragen aan het maatschappelijk leven. Hoe kunnen publieke waarden op het gebied van democratie, diversiteit en duurzaamheid worden verankerd in een opkomende netwerk- of platformsamenleving
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This chapter offers a working definition of social accountability as any citizen-led action beyond elections that aims to enhance the accountability of state actors. We view social accountability as a broad array of predominantly bottom-up initiatives, aimed at improving the quality of governance (especially oversight and responsiveness) through active citizen participation. We also trace the evolution of SA as a concept in the literature over the past decades and, then, discuss some influential theoretic approaches to SAIs, pointing out strengths and weaknesses of each model. Finally, we suggest organising Arab SAIs into one of three categories: (1) transparency; (2) advocacy; or (3) participatory governance and we review each of these existing action formats by discussing their main strengths and flaws.
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