Hackathons as Affective Circuits: Technology, organizationality and affect

Technology invites a reconsideration of organization and organizing by calling attention to mediated forms of value production among loose social collectives outside formal organizational boundaries. While the nascent concept of organizationality holds potential for such a re-conceptualization, the processes through which loose social members become invested in co-orientation and collective effort require further empirical and theoretical exploration. In this paper, we link organizationality research with critical media studies on affect and technology to theorize how affect holds provisional collectives together while promoting new modes of value extraction. Empirically, we draw from an ethnographic study of hackathons – transdigital innovation spaces where participants act with and through technology – and suggest three intertwined processes as part of an affective circuit that stokes and directs affect. The paper’s contribution is threefold. First, by analysing how affective circuits bind, integrate and co-orient action among loose members, we contribute to understanding organizationality as affectively constituted. Second, by showing how hackathons leverage desire for community, we offer a critical perspective on affective capture and argue that organizationality involves novel modes of value production. Third, we complement theorizing of hackathons by exploring them as sites of organizationality, focusing on the provisional, relational and affect-rich nature of new forms of organizing in the digital age

Community Based Fisheries Management: Livelihoods Impact

This policy brief addreses the lessons learned and policy recommendations from CBFM-2. The Community Based Fisheries Management (CBFM) Project has been implemented since 1995 by theDepartment of Fisheries (DoF) with the assistance of the WorldFish Center. It has worked in a range of water bodies across Asia (Southern)-Bangladesh; including government owned fisheries (jalmohals) and privately owned fisheries in closed beels, open beels, floodplains and rivers. The second phase of the project, CBFM-2, supported by DFID, is now in its last year of operation and covers 116 waterbodies. It has resulted in the establishment of 130 Community Based Organisations (CBOs) through community development work by 11 partner NGOs

Community Based Institutions And Sustainable Livelihoods Of Inland Fishermen Of Bangladesh

This study investigated the impact of Community Based Fisheries Management (CBFM) on household’s welfare by examining how the various types of assets contribute to household income. A survey of 240 households in Bangladesh was conducted from February to May 2005 to obtain information from fishermen at CBFM and non CBFM sites (control sites). The major objective of CBFM is to build local fishery community organizations for managing fisheries sustainably and improve livelihood conditions of poor fishermen. This is carried out by providing credit, training and developing social awareness so that fishermen’s capacities for managing their livelihood assets are enhanced. A livelihood assets framework is utilized and a regression model is used to analyze the factors that contribute to household income of poor fishermen under the CBFM and in non CBFM control sites.The study finds that the fishermen under CBFM areas have improved their access to different assets such as social capital, human capital, physical capital, financial capital and natural capital. The Principal Component Analysis is used to develop an index of the key variables to be considered in measuring the different asset variables. The results show that the levels of the assets are higher in the CBFM sites compared to the control sites. The participants have acquired use rights of water bodies through administrative support from the government. The organized fishermen participation in making decisions has increased. The participants received higher amount of credit (financial assets) including interest free loans from NGOs to pay for their lease fees and to meet other fisheries related costs. Both the fishermen in the project and control areas have poor productive assets. The fishermen sell their assets during the period of crisis since they do not have savings to fall back to during this period. To examine the relationship between household’s assets and income, the OLS regression is used. The explanatory variables include household characteristics such as age of household head, employment days and household size in addition to livelihood asset variables. The results of the regression show that the social capital, employment days and area of fishing are significant contributors to household income in the project areas. On the other hand, the variables such as household size, age of household head and education are significant factors in determining household income in the control areas. The contribution of social capital factors is significant to household income which indicates that these social factors play a very important role in poverty alleviation in Bangladesh.The overall findings of the study provides support for the development of community based fisheries and the investment in enhancing the multidimensional asset base of rural communities to achieve development goals of poverty alleviation and human development