When top down visions meet grassroots digital activism: notes from Netherlands

The Netherlands provides several avenues for citizen participation in formal policy-making, and is often described as a global leader in e-participation and e-government. Yet, even in a context where citizen participation has become a policy principle, the desired format of and the actual opportunities for participation can be problematic. The Dutch case raises awareness on four pitfalls: the appropriation of citizen participation as a means to legitimise cuts to public services; the development of a limited (and limiting) vision of participation; the difficulty of a systematic review of the landscape of participation opportunities; and the limited approach to the role of ICTs in policy-making. This Brief seeks to understand what lessons can be learned from the integration of ICTs in the governance process in the Netherlands. In particular, it looks at the visions and opportunities for citizen engagement opened up by the use of digital technologies in governance processes. This research presents the top-down visions and opportunities for citizen engagement, comparing them to those emerging organically out of a specific case of grassroots digital activism.DFIDUSAIDSidaOmidyar Networ

Ons Geld citizen initiative, Netherlands

Ons Geld (Our Money) is a Dutch citizen initiative seeking to put the question of money production on the public agenda. Ons Geld pushed for legislation that would ensure commercial banks cannot create new money when providing their clients with credit lines. Furthermore, the initiative asked that when money is created by the state, it should be used in the public interest and not for bailing out commercial banks or real estate companies. The Netherlands is often hailed as a leading example of the integration of ICTs within democratic politics, and the organisers of Ons Geld initiative made extensive use of digital technologies - websites, online forums, social networking platforms, electronic newsletters - to build support for their initiative. This case study suggests that explicitly integrating ICTs within the formal avenues for citizen participation constitutes a good starting point for expanding the current e-government policy framework. Such an enlargement entails the development of suitable online tools that can allow citizens to start citizen initiatives in a way that is inclusive and deliberative from the beginning. Furthermore, such a framework should not limit itself to technological solutions, but also invest in the development of cultures of civic engagement, as well as provide resources for the development of these initiatives.DFIDUSAIDSidaOmidyar Networ

Country overview Netherlands

Citizen engagement in the Netherlands is formalised at both national and local levels. The legal avenues for citizen engagement at the national level consist primarily of agenda-setting and advisory direct voting mechanisms such as citizen petitions and referenda. At the local level, citizens have a more diverse array of opportunities to engage in policy development. Yet, the availability of these opportunities depends on local administrative arrangements and as such it varies from place to place. This report aims at providing an overview of the normative and institutional state of art of ICT-mediated citizen participation in the Netherlands. The first section provides an overview of the political and civic liberties framework in the Netherlands. In the second section the landscape of ICT mediated citizen engagement is mapped. In the third section, the report engages with the implications of technology mediations for deliberative democracy and transformative citizenship. The findings of this report suggest that the Dutch e-government framework remains focused on service-provision, missing out on opportunities to foster the creation of ICT-enabled civic infrastructures that would enable citizens to engage in the governance of their lives. Furthermore, in addressing citizens mostly as consumers of digital governmental information or of online public services, this policy framework encourages the development of individual-centred information systems, ignoring the community-building potential of ICTs.DFIDUSAIDSidaOmidyar Networ

Teaching Qualitative Research Methods in Media and Communication: The Benefits and Limitations of Digital Learning Objects

Teaching qualitative research is often hampered by student uncertainties around how to apply methodological knowledge in practice. Digital learning objects (DLOs) may offer a solution to this problem, although they also come with limitations. This study assessed the student perspective on the strengths and limitations of six qualitative analysis DLOs in the field of media and communication. Drawing from a thematic analysis of 527 written student reflections on the use of these DLOs in learning practices, this paper found that DLOs were helpful in clearing doubts and cementing knowledge. Furthermore, they motivated students by increasing self-regulation and by providing a new learning environment that was perceived as showcasing “learning how to learn.” However, the DLOs also introduced new anxieties, destabilized the relationship between lecture and tutorial, and were not successful at fostering student reflexivity in relation to the research process. These findings provide practitioners with pedagogical insight into using DLOs to improve the learning experience of qualitative research

Mediated Grassroots Collective Action: Negotiating Barriers of Digital Activism

While so far social media have been largely constructed as the quintessential tools of collective action and praised for their potential to empower individuals to act as civic agents, this paper foregrounds the tension between expectations created by public discourse and citizens’ own involvement with digital activism. This study adds to an understanding of barriers by examining how they are experienced by participants in mobilizations at the individual level. Looking at how obstacles of digital activism are experienced by citizens reveals the processes through which the structures of digital mediation impose limits over those who depend on them for their organization. By examining three regional Canadian cases, this research discusses the significant barriers mobilizers experience and finds that many of the obstacles organizers face point to an enduring need for a wellorganized, tech-savvy, collaborative network as an organizing body to reflectively handle the challenges posed by digital grassroots civic mobilization

Can we really have nice things? Preparing for the Metavers

Drawing from our previous experience of the virtual world Second Life, we engage in a critical reading of the hype and promotion of the Metaverse in Mark Zuckerberg’s 2021 Keynote Presentation (Meta 2021). We zoom in on the visions of the reality and of the future that big tech leaders promise to legitimize themselves as not only economically but socially and morally valuable. Presented with the help of three broad themes – connection, experiences, and creativity – the promises of a better future articulated in the descriptions and visions of the Metaverse are anchored in a deterministic narrative of technology as an enabler of individual choice and freedom. In this way, the commercial intent behind the world-building actions of a mighty economic actor becomes reframed as merely an expression of users own needs and dreams of a better future

The personalization of engagement: the symbolic construction of social media and grassroots mobilization in Canadian newspapers

This article explores the symbolic construction of civic engagement mediated by social media in Canadian newspapers. The integration of social media in politics has created a discursive opening for reimagining engagement, partly as a result of enthusiastic accounts of the impact of digital technologies upon democracy. By means of a qualitative content analysis of Canadian newspaper articles between 2005 and 2014, we identify several discursive articulations of engagement: First, the articles offer the picture of a wide range of objects of engagement, suggesting a civic body actively involved in governance processes. Second, engagement appears to take place only reactively, after decisions are made. Finally, social media become the new social glue, bringing isolated individuals together and thus enabling them to pressure decision-making institutions. We argue that, collectively, these stories construct engagement as a deeply personal gesture that is nevertheless turned into a communal experience by the affordances of technology. The conclusion unpacks what we deem as the ambiguity at the heart of this discourse, considering its implications for democratic politics and suggesting avenues for the further monitoring of the technologically enabled personalization of engagement

Voice and Listening in Social Media Facilitated Activist Collectives

This paper examines the articulation of Canadian civic culture from below. Focusing on digitally mediated grassroots mobilizations, it asks how citizens construct and discursively deploy voice and listening as civic values. The paper draws from three empirical cases: the 2014 mobilization of parents during the teachers’ strike in British Columbia; the 2015 citizen mobilizations in support of Syrian refugees; and the 2016 sit-in protest outside the Toronto Police headquarters. Citizens participating in these initiatives were keen to “speak up,” establishing voice as a civic value. Yet, this is not accompanied by equal attention to the role of listening. This invites simplistic takes to citizen participation, leaving it vulnerable to populist hijackings

Selling brands while staying “Authentic”: The professionalization of Instagram influencers

While Instagram influencers may have started out as ordinary people documenting their everyday life through a stream of photographs, they are increasingly emerging as an intermediary between advertisers and consumers. This study examines the professionalization of Instagram influencers, combining data from 11 interviews with travel influencers with a visual and textual content analysis of their 12 most recent Instagram posts (N = 132). We show how the increasing professionalization of the influencer steers their relationship with their audience, the advertisers they work with, and the platform Instagram. We argue that, for the Instagram influencer to be perceived as successful, they need to negotiate a tension: they need to appear authentic, yet also approach their followers in a strategic way to remain appealing to advertisers. Although Instagram influencers are seen as more trustworthy than traditional forms of advertising, this tension ultimately leads to a standardization of the content shared by influencers