<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14px; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><div><div><div>Dear BestBits colleagues,</div></div></div><span id="OLK_SRC_BODY_SECTION"><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;"><div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I’m engaged in early-stage research studying southern civil society organizations/networks/collectives/NGOs doing, or seeking to do, digital rights advocacy work without northern partners. This initial stage involves identifying one to three potential research partners, conducting hour-long Skype interviews with them, and collecting artifacts of their work as input to the following panel at a forthcoming academic conference in November:</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><blockquote style="margin:0 0 0 40px; border:none; padding:0px;"><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><font size="3"><b>Title:</b><o:p></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><font size="3">Beyond the Boomerang: Transnational Activism by Southern CSOs without Northern Partners<o:p></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><font size="3"> </font></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><font size="3"><b>Abstract:</b><o:p></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><font size="3">Typical depictions of transnational activism focus on partnerships between Southern CSOs and CSOs from the global North. However, in recent years, increased expertise and expanding local financial resources have grown the capacity of Southern CSOs to engage in advocacy directly. Moreover, both Southern governments and international policymakers have become more responsive to Southern CSOs, changing the political environment. As a result, Southern CSOs increasingly have the ability and opportunity to undertake transnational activism without the aid of Northern partners. This panel examines the scope of this independent advocacy, the conditions that facilitate it, and the dynamics that influence its effectiveness.</font></p></blockquote></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">My contribution to this panel will be a paper that serves as the basis for a larger research project examining ways in which southern NGOs have deviated from the long-standing pattern of using northern NGOs as intermediaries, representatives, sponsors, or spokespeople for their work. Both research and experience by activists and advocates indicate that those relationships tend to create a hierarchy or power dynamic that can allow northern NGOs to retell southern stories or restate southern policy interests in ways that may not fully reflect southern interests. </div></div></div></span><div><br></div><span id="OLK_SRC_BODY_SECTION"><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;"><div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">At this stage, I am trying to identify appropriate case studies in which southern NGOs exhibit maximal independence. The most important criterion is that southern partners in this research be speaking for themselves and not allowing any northern NGO to speak on their behalf. An exception to this may be work in coalitions, but only if the southern NGOs are peers with the northern NGOs in the coalition, have full power in setting the coalition agenda, and participate actively in coalition advocacy efforts. In this regard, it would be very helpful if these southern NGOs are not receiving significant amounts of funding from any one northern NGO because this can also signal a situation in which northern NGOs are still running the show, but cherry-picking southern NGOs to act as surrogates.</div><div><br></div><div>If your organization, network, collective, or group reflects these characteristics, and if you think that knowledge generated by this research may benefit your work, please feel free to contact me off-list.</div><div><br></div><div>Thank you,</div><div>B. Lentz</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><div><br></div><div>----------------------</div><div>Becky Lentz, PhD</div>
Associate Professor of Communication Studies<br><div>Department of Art History/Communication Studies</div><div>McGill University</div><div>853 Sherbrooke Street West, Arts Building, W-265<br>Montreal, QC, Canada H3A 0G5</div><div>Phone 514.398.4995</div><div>Fax 514.398.8557</div><div>Email: <a href="mailto:becky.lentz@mcgill.ca">becky.lentz@mcgill.ca</a></div><div><a href="http://www.mcgill.ca/ahcs">http://www.mcgill.ca/ahcs</a></div></div></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br></div><link rel="File-List" href="file://localhost/Users/rglentz2/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip/0/clip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file://localhost/Users/rglentz2/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip/0/clip_themedata.xml"><style>
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