Information practices of young activists in Rwanda

© the author, 2015. Introduction. This paper explores reasons why the information practices of a group of young Rwandan activists online differed from those of a similar group of young Australians, in particular, why they did not use the Internet to interact with people they did not already know. Method. The study uses abduction, a research method which is discovery-oriented. Data intended to shed light on the development of social capital through the use of information and communication technologies were collected in 2011 through a series of interviews and analyses of Websites and blogs. The data were supplemented in 2013 by data gathered from e-mail correspondence. Analysis. These data were systematically combined and matched against the theoretical positions of Chatman’s concept of the small world to make sense of what had been observed. Results. Young Rwandan activists can be seen to exist in four small worlds, each with its own norms. There are tensions among these norms so that the practices of the world of young activists are not developed. Conclusions. The small world nature of embodied social interactions may give rise to intense local information flows but may hinder engagement in globalised actions for social change

Inclusion, Identity and the Capacity to Act

Introduction to vol.3 no.

I-Witnessing; Reflections on Cosmopolitanism in Kigali

Starting from the classic view of cosmopolitanism, this paper uses personal experiences gained during a six-week stay in Rwanda with a family affected by the genocide to explore the disjuncts which emerge in trying to understand the concept. In this process of exploration, it considers conceptions of the guest, the stranger and what Geertz terms the `cosmopolite. Taking a reflexive position, it explores what it means to be a witness to events in someone elses life, with a focus on post-genocide reconciliation that took place in the family in January and February 2011. In this context, it introduces the notions of cosmopolitan curiosity (Appiah) and cosmopolitan tolerance (Beck) and finds each of them affected by structural imbalances which render them potentially inadequate in practice. The paper concludes that, from a reflexive point of view, an understanding of cosmopolitanism is a work in progress, and that it is much more difficult to sustain as a lived reality than it is as an abstraction

When our Data Don’t Match the Concepts: Reflections on Research Practice

© 2015 Australian Library & Information Association. Our understanding of knowledge in the field of library and information studies and its development is guided by a notion of consensus and accepted ways of working. Research findings make incremental changes to our knowledge and we have become used to acknowledging the constructivist underpinnings of scholarly knowledge by expecting differences in information behaviour and practices by people situated in different contexts and recognising the need for varied approaches to information provision to match these practices. Research thus can be seen to take a ‘business as usual’ model, as the ways of creating new knowledge are well established both in the consensus of the field and in the rigour of research methods. The purpose of this paper is to explore this notion of ‘business as usual’ in research in library and information studies, consider how it constrains the development of new understandings and to propose how the communal understanding, the consensus, can be revised. The paper concludes that moving away from a ‘business as usual’ model will potentially require acts of heroism, including the ability to see the creation of new knowledge as an imaginative process of discovery

Metagenomic analysis facilitates ontogenetic investigations of microbiota composition and antimicrobial resistance in silver gull (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae) chicks

The proliferation of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in recent decades has been fuelled by the development, overconsumption and misuse of antibiotic therapeutics and non-medical antimicrobials. The evolution of AMR-bacteria is predominantly underpinned by the horizontal transfer of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs), which allows AMR to be transferred between bacterial species and accumulate within bacteria, even in the absence of antimicrobial selection pressures. It has been speculated that avian wildlife, in particular waterbird species such as gulls, act as reservoirs of AMR, facilitating the propagation of AMR-bacteria that can then be transmitted into humans. The current thesis, therefore, investigated whether silver gull (Chroiocephalus novaehollandiae) chicks may play a role in the evolution and proliferation of AMR-bacteria. Firstly, numerous DNA extraction protocols were trialled to optimise the extraction of DNA from multi-species microbiota samples. Metagenomic sequencing and analysis were then conducted for 60 temporal multi-species microbiota samples from 23 silver gull chicks, which had been subcultured for Enterobacteriaceae, a subpopulation of the microbiome enriched in AMR-associated bacteria. The data were examined in order to characterise bacterial and AMR composition and to analyse ontogenetic shifts in the microbiome to assess if the silver gull chick microbiome has the ability to accumulate and maintain AMR. Metagenomic analysis revealed a diverse Gammaproteobacterial community of 125 species and 30 genera, and the majority of species were of a genus containing pathogenic and AMR-associated species. Additionally, metagenomic analysis detected a large ARG pool, with 115 ARGs identified across all samples. These ARGs were dominated by Beta-lactams and Aminoglycoside resistance phenotypes, which are the most commonly used antibiotics in Australia. Ontogenetic analyses further showed that both bacterial and AMR profiles were in constant flux and varied between samples and within individual chicks. Additionally, both richness and composition measures for bacterial species and ARGs were significantly correlated, such that the ARG profile within a sample was correlated to the bacterial profile. The high diversity of AMR-associated bacteria and ARGs found in these samples indicates that the silver gull microbiome may act as an ‘ecological sponge’ of AMR-bacterial contamination in the environment, which transiently colonise the gut. Moreover, these findings indicate that ARGs are not accumulated and do not persist over time but are brought in with the transient bacteria they are associated with. The current thesis, therefore, concludes that silver gull chicks do not contribute to the proliferation and evolution of AMR-bacteria, and further, do not act as a 6 reservoir to support the propagation of AMR-bacteria. Moreover, this thesis presents the first longitudinal metagenomic study to examine the dynamic nature of the microbiome and AMR in a wildlife host. Future studies should investigate potential sources of the AMR contamination reflected in this silver gull population, and explore potential reservoirs of AMR, including wildlife populations and the non-human environment

Creating community : theorising on the lived experiences of young people

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Business.Community is a term used to convey a range of ideas, from a sense of belonging to contributing to a collective to sharing ideas and values. An analysis of the literature suggests that community is used interchangeably with notions of identity, social relations, social capital and civil society. This ethnographic study of the lived experience of community online and offline of members of Generation X and Generation Y engaged in civil society shows community is important to them. It is important to feel that they belong, that they are part of something larger than themselves and that they are making a difference in their world. In being part of something larger, they are making individual choices, but for a purpose recognised and shared by others. This community is conspicuous when it relates to embodied, associational or collective actions, but it can be inconspicuous when people interact online or when it is based on the intangibles of trust and credibility. They are creating their identities as they become adults, reflecting on their growth and development, and finding a sense of self through writing and other forms of expression and through interaction with others, in circumstances where public and private worlds collide. They place emphasis on the techniques for establishing and maintaining social relations online and offline. They acknowledge that friendship, based on having some emotional connection with others, is important but also recognise that satisfying relationships can be formed through the sharing of information. Most are aware that the relationships they develop can be commodified and traded as contacts, but they acknowledge the need for acting from a moral position. They value authenticity in relationships but may not be deterred by not knowing who they are interacting with online. They create their own agenda for action, based on their own interests and concerns; online they may be passionate about issues but offline they may prefer not to take part on collective action. A theorisation of this lived experience of community indicates that participants in the study have a vocabulary they can use to discuss notions of community that comprises words not necessarily associated with community and containing potentially contradictory orientations. Finally, this study indicates that further research is needed on whether the concerns with community expressed by these participants arise from the privileged position of the university-educated and on the paradoxical relationship between public and private, a tension which underpins much of the findings

Who to be?: Generations X and Y in civil society online

An ethnographic study of members of generations X and Y which explored participants' perspectives on the creation and understanding of identity, found that young people have a strong sense of self, and value authenticity in themselves and others while recognising that it is possible to create multiple identities. Information and communication technologies were seen to both support and threaten their sense of self. Participants approached the question of 'who to be' in many ways, each of which revealed tensions between the freedom to create one's own identity and the desire for authenticity, and between the need for a sense of security and recognition of the possibility of experimenting with something challenging or different