[bestbits] Southern digital rights, IG, and ICT policy activists without northern partners (time-sensitive)

[Becky Lentz]

Dear BestBits colleagues,

I¹m 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:

> Title:
> 
> Beyond the Boomerang:  Transnational Activism by Southern CSOs without
> Northern Partners
> 
>  
> 
> Abstract:
> 
> 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.


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.

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.

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.

Thank you,
B. Lentz

----------------------
Becky Lentz, PhD
Associate Professor of Communication Studies
Department of Art History/Communication Studies
McGill University
853 Sherbrooke Street West, Arts Building, W-265
Montreal, QC, Canada H3A 0G5
Phone 514.398.4995
Fax 514.398.8557
Email: becky.lentz at mcgill.ca
http://www.mcgill.ca/ahcs



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