In the four posts that I have previously written on this blog, I have reflected in a free, relaxed way about new technologies and social change. I have tried to contemplate issues such as voice, discourse, and power, and agency and perspective concerning digital transformation. In this fifth post, I …
In my previous four blog posts I spoke about Clicktivism, White Saviourism, the importance of intersectionality, and finally I offered some Dos and Don’ts when it comes to communicating social change. These were mostly lighthearted posts about deeply problematic issues, all, in my opinion, connected by what Nigerian author Chimananda …
As I discussed in my previous post, the COVID-19 crisis has undoubtedly triggered a further disruption in the technology sector. From AI, to sterilizing robots, to rapid developments of new technology being reappropriated in ways we have never seen before, we have seen organisations and businesses turn to technology during …
Three women running a movement that is uniting activists to participate in online and offline protests, addressing inequality, and pushing for social and political change is powerful. The Black Lives Matter movement is teaching us how a social movement can initiate social change, combine digital activism with traditional protests and …
What a year! Hope this finds you as well as possible. Given the challenges we’re facing in this pandemic, campaigning and online activism has become even more important. So I was super excited to come across Zeynep Tufecki’s work, Twitter and Teargas, which is packed full of insights and recommendations, …
With my previous posts (#blacklivesmatter – the story behind the hashtag, Is doing ‘something’ better than doing nothing? and Creating change through online and offline activism) I’ve tried to dig deeper into the origins and success of the BLM movement. However, this is not only a blog about social movements and …
Feeling like I was doing a lot of pointing-out-all-the-ways-you-can-go-wrong in Communication for Development (and in life itself), so I decided to put together a (certainly non-exhaustive) list of dos and don’ts for those of us wanting to cultivate our empathy and be better at Communicating for Social Change. DO: First …
The people of Lebanon have been taking to the streets for over a year now to protest for a change in the confessional, sectarian system of government. They echo the deep-felt experience of having no influence on the decisions that affect their lives, described by Thomas Tufte in his work, …
Alongside Clicktivists and White Saviours, there are a few other belief systems and behaviours that might just be a little less known and a little more insidious. Here are a couple of them – with comics to lighten the load – and their antidotes (spoiler alert, one of them is …
Black Lives Matter isn’t the first social movement to engage an international audience, create political and public engagement by using social media. Both the Fridays for Future movement (with Greta Thunberg in the lead), the Arabic Spring and #IWillGoOut have led the way in showing how social media can engage …
