6 research outputs found
Involving citizens through multi-platform strategies: transparency watch in North Macedonia
This chapter explores how civic activism utilises digital media to engage citizens in combatting corruption. It provides a case study of how civil society organisations (in this instance, Transparency International-Macedonia) are employing digital media and developing digital tools for creating awareness of the types and levels of corruption occurring within North Macedonia as well as creating a means for civic engagement in the processes of combatting corruption. It is through the examination of the Transparency Watch (TW) project in North Macedonia that we begin to understand the complex strategy for developing and employing digital media to engage citizens. In doing so, the chapter views activism for countering corruption from the grassroots level
through data collection and infrastructures. It explores the opportunities and challenges faced by grassroots and civic organisations in such endeavours
Lessons learned from online students in a conflict zone
I’ve spent the past two plus years teaching synchronous online classes twice a week to undergraduate students in Myanmar (Burma). As a visiting faculty member, I have seen to-date, high levels of student engagement in their learning within this online classroom environment. However, in the Spring 2024 semester, I will admit it became more challenging to hold students to course expectations and requirements as strictly as one would like, while recognizing how their everyday experiences were evolving, physically and emotionally, with the inception of conscription laws for the military and the limitations on their electricity supply. These barriers impacted, at times, their access to their learning, but not their enthusiasm and drive to learn. The students have revealed their resilience and their determination to learn, so that they can one day apply the skills and knowledge they gained from their studies to be future change-makers. As the semester ended, I found myself reflecting on this more recent experience and reconsidering the practices of online learning. I thought about how I continually adapted my teaching to support their learning in a changing political landscape. What follows is what I learned, which is applicable to teaching online or in person
Why do we do as we do? How do we know what’s best? Reflecting on the methodological challenges of measurement in initiatives using digital technologies for combatting corruption
This paper discusses the methodological challenges in the design of anti-corruption initiatives utilising digital technologies. In particular, the focus is on the measurement problem. Using anti-corruption initiatives as case studies, two central issues that are raised: firstly, of examining and unpacking the rationale for how digital technologies are understood (and assumed) as useful for combating corruption. Secondly, identifying motives and drivers in within these anti-corruption initiatives. As digital technology is further employed in anti-corruption initiatives, it seems a good point at present, to stop and reflect on how and why such initiatives are designed with digital technologies. The paper concludes that there is need to include greater discussion about the underlying methodological challenges around measurements. It requires more openness in terms of the principles and the system of methods used for the selection of digital technologies and connecting choice to identified objective, and the role of measurement to the objective
Weighing Up the Options. Adventure of an Academic Career Outside of the US?
Este documento es un preprint y no ha sido revisado[EN] As you think about preparing for your future as a political scientist – are you considering studying or a career outside of the US? In this chapter, we draw on our collective experiences from Spain and the UK to sketch out some key issues you might want to consider when looking at graduate courses or academic positions abroad. Are there any major trade-offs that need to be considered? From master’s level to doctoral studies through securing your first political science academic post, and everything in-between. We attempt to explore and unpack these to lay out the options available for prospective and current graduate students thinking about their future prospects as political science academics beyond the US. This manuscript is part of Strategies for Navigating Graduate School and Beyond, a forthcoming volume for those interested in pursuing graduate education in political scienc
The Janus face of personal data agency in public and private use applications
Wide-spread (personal) data collection and use through digital apps and platforms raises questions around the ability of citizens to both keep some of their information private as well as have agency in how this information is used for public and private services. We contrast the digital ‘fingerprints’ and design of personal apps, such as digital identifiers to use public services or civil society for organizing collective action, with the information of use and privacy citizens have. There is an assumption that the use by citizens of various apps in their personal, private spaces as consumers creates a different relationship in terms of regulation and agency over data, as compared to those apps and digital platforms created through policymaking for access to public services. Here, we are defining data agency as a cross of awareness and informed levels of data to be collected and for what purposes with the level of control over the data once collected – in terms of use, reuse, and sale. The goal of this research is to build a framework for understanding data agency of citizens in relation to data sharing practices
Weighing up the options. Adventure of an academic career outside of the US?
As you think about preparing for your future as a political scientist – are you considering studying or a career outside of the US? In this chapter, we draw on our collective experiences from Spain and the UK to sketch out some key issues you might want to consider when looking at graduate courses or academic positions abroad. Are there any major trade-offs that need to be considered? From master’s level to doctoral studies through securing your first political science academic post, and everything in-between. We attempt to explore and unpack these to lay out the options available for prospective and current graduate students thinking about their future prospects as political science academics beyond the US. This manuscript is part of Strategies for Navigating Graduate School and Beyond, a forthcoming volume for those interested in pursuing graduate education in political science