Civic Space Research Articles

A framework and exemplars for ethical and responsible use of AI Chatbot technology to support teaching and learning

The aim of this paper is to investigate the ethical and responsible use of AI chatbots in education in support of critical thinking, cognitive flexibility and self-regulation in terms of their potential to enhance and motivate teaching and learning in contemporary education environments. AI chatbots such as ChatGPT by OpenAI appear to be improving in conversational and other capabilities and this paper explores such advances using version 4. Based on a review of the research literature, a conceptual framework is formulated for responsible use of AI chatbots in education supporting cognitive flexibility in AI-rich learning environments. The framework is then operationalized for use in this paper through the development of exemplars for math, english language arts (ELA), and studying with ChatGPT to close learning gaps in an effort to foster more ethical and responsible approaches to the design and development of AI chatbots for application and use in teaching and learning environments. This paper extends earlier foundational work on cognitive flexibility and AI chatbots as well as work on cognitive flexibility in support of creativity and innovation with AI chatbots in urban civic spaces.

Non-Profit Making Organisations (NPOs) and the Dilemma of Combating Transnational Crimes in a Digitalized Era: Emerging Perspectives of NPO Actors from Selected African Countries

The paper is premised on the argument that States may find themselves in a dilemma, as they seek to counter transnational crimes, more so and subjects of this paper, illicit money transfers/money laundering and terrorism financing, and doing so with great caution not to restrict the Not-for-Profit Organisations (NPOs) operations. anecdotal evidence suggests that NPOs are caught up as the unintended ‘victims’ of FATF Recommendation-8-based-regulatory and policy frameworks- particularly of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing. while this is so, there is a paucity of literature interrogating the impact of such regulatory and policy frameworks on the NPO sector, even with its uncontested contribution to development and the fight against terrorism. The paper argues that the Sector’s contribution to this important debate is essential for ensuring that they comply with the intended need to protect against terrorism and money laundering while also working in an environment that doesn't jeopardize their contribution to development. Drawing from some of the findings of a recent study undertaken by the Defenders Protection Initiative (DPI) focusing on 5 African countries, the paper revisits the discourse on NPOs and money laundering and terrorism financing presenting an overview of the state of civic space specifically, the operational environment of NPOs in East Africa as impacted upon by the AML/CTF regulatory frameworks. Tapping in the synthesized views of industrial experts (NPO Sector experts) on this matter consulted during the study, the paper unmasks the evolving dilemma of balancing the enforcement of the regulatory framework curbing transnational crimes on one hand and restraining State securitization of the NPO sector since it's prone to exploitation. The paper makes recommendations as emerged from the study aimed purposely at balancing the friction between the regulation of NPOs as against the need to fight terrorism financing and money laundering.

Practices of using Rapid Response Collecting by Ukrainian museums in wartime

Social activity and public involvement in participatory practices, and the creation of civic spaces on the basis of the museum have become relevant for the formation of the concept of a modern museum. Such practices are especially important in times of crisis, when history is being documented online and the Rapid Response Collecting (RRC) method is becoming widespread. Modern war discourse requires the newest forms of archiving and description, because the recording of history is complicated by the volatility of the military situation, the movement of large flows of displaced persons and the departure of citizens abroad. The Ukrainian experience of documenting the war is examined in the article taking the example of the ATO Museum (an acronym for anti-terrorist operation) in Dnipro and the online Museum of Civilian Voices. It is important for us to pay attention to the national peculiarities of the codification of collective memory through individual experience and life stories during the full-scale military aggression against Ukraine, and to show the newest forms of presenting the evidence of war.

Tribalization in civic space: Locating civil society in the Naga context

ABSTRACT The Naga, comprised of various tribes, were traditionally governed by independent village republics. The inclusion of the Naga areas into the modern Indian State has been opposed, ensuing in a long-drawn armed struggle for sovereignty. Military measures have been used to deal with this struggle. Naga society is characterized by dualities in the form of the categorization of tribes as an administrative category against the discourse of a greater Naga identity, experiences of electoral politics to the Naga indigenous form of democracy rooted in the village republic, and the protracted Naga political struggle to the idea of Nagaland state as a solution, among many others. These dualities have shaped collective actions in the forms of associations and organizations to constitute the Naga civil society. The paper examines the socio-political realities and the resulting collective actions as a dimension of civil society.

From Civic Space to the Internet: Legislating rights to peaceful assembly during pandemic

With the social distancing measures implemented during Pandemic Covid 19, many peaceful assemblies have attempted to restructure, equip, and empower themselves creatively for online gathering. This incident emphasises the importance of digital tools, such as the Internet and ICTs, in exercising online rights to peaceful assembly and association. Given the above, this article attempts to deliberate on transforming rights to the peaceful assembly from offline to online and the legal challenges attached. The authors argue that the right to peaceful assembly and association is vital to ensuring enhanced transparency and accountability in implementing human rights policies within countries.

Peacebuilding in Politically Challenging Environments: How Do Local Peacebuilders Navigate Muddy Waters in the South Caucasus?

Abstract With the global proliferation of the liberal peace agenda, there has been an increase in attention to the participation of non-governmental organizations (NGO s) in the development and support of national peace agendas. However, with the rise of authoritarian states around the world, and the closing of civic spaces, NGO s have become constrained and limited in their actions. We often see autocratic and repressive regimes not welcoming the implementation of any initiatives that fall outside the scope of their official negotiation platforms, and therefore, limiting the participation of their citizens in unofficial peacebuilding initiatives. Through the application of the authoritarian conflict management framework, this article discusses the challenges of carrying out peacebuilding work in such non-permissive environments in the context of the South Caucasus and points out ways that local peacebuilding organizations and peace activists work around these restrictions to negotiate the reconciliation space that they are attempting to create.

Membangun Kepercayaan dan Solidaritas Sosial dalam Ruang Madani Sebelum dan Sesudah Konflik Etnis Terjadi di Maluku

This research aims to provide a sociological description and analysis toward the civil sphere of the Taniwel Timur community. Social trust and solidarity became the focus to see peace maintained before and after ethnic conflicts in Maluku. There are two main important points which are, the social life of the Taniwel Timur people before and after the conflict and the way they built trust and social solidarity. This research uses qualitative methods through interview techniques with key informants, observations, and literature studies. The result of the research found that the Taniwel Timur community creates civic space through everyday relationships and interactions that remain guided by collective experiences, ways of life, traditions and habits, and social networks. In the civil sphere of the Taniwel Timur community, social trust and solidarity are built and become a resource to maintain peace when conflicts occur in Maluku.

Women and the Civic Space in Namibia South Africa and Zimbabwe Constraints and Counter constraints

Women and the Civic Space in Namibia South Africa and Zimbabwe Constraints and Counter constraints

Black Male Teacher-Coaches’ Utilization of Black Counterpublics: The Black Family, Liberatory Fantasy, and Resisting the Ontological Limitation of Blackness

Drawing from a conceptual framework grounded in Black critical theories, this qualitative case study explored the youth knowledge that two Black Male social studies teacher-coaches serving in urban Catholic high schools acquired through Black counterpublics to reconceptualize the ontological limitation of Black existence. Findings demonstrated that it was within civic spaces generated within the Black family and community that participants acquired the socio-cultural knowledge to see through antiBlack forms of White projection.

Social Media Regulation, Freedom of Expression, and Civic Space in Nigeria

This study investigates the impact of the digital revolution on freedom of expression and civic space in Nigeria, particularly examining the role of social media regulation in the country's shift towards autocratization. Employing secondary data sources, the research focuses on key variables, including the government's approach to online content regulation, social media shutdowns, and capacity to regulate online content. The analysis reveals that the government's attempts to control the new media space go beyond silencing the press to outright repression, leading Nigeria towards authoritarianism characterized by reactionary tendencies. Moreover, the study finds that the combination of excessive social media regulation, a suppressed judiciary, and a weakened legislature may result in authoritarian rule in Nigeria. The paper concludes that disobedience to court orders and the use of state institutions against political opposition contribute to the erosion of democracy, highlighting the importance of a balanced approach to social media regulation to protect freedom of expression and maintain a democratic society.

Transformations in contemporary Quebec nationalism, 1960–2020: A shift in the sources of collective animosities

AbstractThis article is interested in the shift of the object of hostility, which historically fuelled Quebec nationalism. The main targets of discontent have long been the ‘rest of Canada’ and the lower socio‐economic status of Francophones. After the 1995 independence referendum, the feeling of dissatisfaction with Canada, and even resentment, gradually faded. This retreating within Quebec's borders has led many French‐speaking Quebecers to become concerned about the conditions that make possible the preservation of their cultural and linguistic heritage in North America. This shift has meant that the source of concern is now individuals and groups who do not share this heritage rooted in Western Judeo‐Christian values or who are perceived not to adhere to the concerns related to the preservation and development of the French character and the dominant values within the ‘Quebec nation’. The expression of these concerns has manifested itself primarily in debates about the place religion should occupy in public and civic spaces since the mid‐2000s.

Civic Engagement, Public Intellectualism, and Art

Revisiting a previously unpublished analysis of the Clamor (2016) and Tekist (2017) art shows presented at the Fine Arts Institute and the Museum of Modern Art in Sulaimani, Iraqi Kurdistan, Cockrell-Abdullah considers the spaces in which artists are siting their work so that they may speak to specific public audiences and their social and cultural concerns, and how this work creates sheltered civic space in Kurdish society that allows for open discussion of social problems.

Labor Power in the Repair Shop: Circuits of Repair Between Solidarity and Poor Economy

ABSTRACT This paper presents the findings of comparative research into the labor, organizational and spatial practices of a new kind of hybrid civic spaces that we refer to as “social impact-driven repair shops.” These are an emerging typology of urban spaces dedicated to repaired and up-cycled items that also go beyond the functions of a traditional shop. Significantly, these shops are run not purely for economic reasons, but rather to position themselves as local, socio-political interventions aiming to confront the environmental impacts of waste, support ethical and affordable consumption, alongside providing new opportunities for employment. We focused our fieldwork (2017–2019) on three such “repair shops”: ReTuna Återbruksgalleria in Sweden, The Loop in the United Kingdom and RiMaflow in Italy. We discuss the differing labor and spatial practices taking place within each while highlighting some of the tensions that emerge, and the implications for some of the wider debates in repair studies, “green work” and circular economies. We conclude by identifying two divergent and potentially antagonistic circuits of repair which we name “repair as solidarity” and “repair as poor economy,” which we propose as a lens to better grasp the different logics underpinning the transition to circular economies.

METAMORPHOSIS OF CIVIC SPACES IN A THIRD WORLD METROPOLIS: A CASE OF DHAKA CITY

In the Third World, the civic spaces are undergoing rapid changes due to population explosion and fast development trend. Some civic spaces are flourishing while some are declining. As the social, physical and psychological needs of people vary from place to place, the character of civic space or image of an urban area also vary from region to region. There is also great variation in the quality of civic spaces between the Third World Cities. Considerations of such variations and an understanding of the local context are therefore essential for an urban designer in a developing metropolis. With this view in mind, this paper investigated the civic spaces of Dhaka and their evolution pattern. This paper studied selected eight important civic spaces of Dhaka City e.g. Lalbagh Fort, Central Martyr’s Monument, National Parliament Building Complex, Dhanmondi Lake, Crescent Lake, Book Fair at Bangla Academy, Teacher-Student Centre (TSC) of Dhaka University and the City Embankment for Dhaka. It is found that Dhaka has unique character of civic spaces created by their space quality, amenity, accessibility, man made and natural elements, and the social attitude of the people. It is also found that the proximity of a civic space, the variety of activities, legibility, intimacy, and permeability are the essential quality of the vibrant civic spaces of Dhaka.

Tackling online gender-based violence; understanding gender, development, and the power relations of digital spaces

Digital systems now mediate our everyday social practices, political and economic lives. But ICT4D (ICT for development) research exploring the relationship between gender, technology and development has only had a limited conception of the power relationships and structures underpinning these systems. In this literature, technology is linked to gendered empowerment in that it is conceptualized as a means of increasing women’s choices and freedom, with little consideration of its potential disempowering impacts. Based on an understanding that the production of gender is ineluctably related to the production of power, and rooted in earlier techno-feminist scholarship, this paper proposes a new theoretical framework on the power relations of digital systems, exposing the visible, hidden, and invisible power in socio-technical systems and infrastructures. The framework is explored through a review of data and research on the global epidemic of online misogyny and gender-based violence (GBV). Harassment contributes to a culture of violence against women offline, and silences women’s voices in digital civic spaces, threatening the achievement of development goals. This paper illuminates the multiplicity of structural factors behind online GBV and offers a provocation for a critical ICT4D research agenda on the relationship between gender, digital technologies and development goals which engages with the complex and opaque power relationships underpinning the contemporary digital economy.

Where the Rainbow Rises: The Strategic Adaptations of China’s LGBT NGOs to Restricted Civic Space

ABSTRACT The past decade has witnessed a new trend towards restrictions and surveillance on civil society organizations in China, which seriously affected China’s grassroots LGBT NGOs. Based on a field study of Chinese grassroots LGBT NGOs, this article explores the coping strategies utilized by these organizations to survive in a restricted civic space. Empirical evidence shows these organizations adopting various tactics to obtain funding and legitimacy. Yet despite the undeniable agency of these LGBT NGOs, they are still restricted by institutional power. While scrupulously avoiding political risks, grassroots LGBT NGOs inevitably shifted away from rights advocacy missions to become service-oriented, depoliticizing and even distorting their agendas. Consequently, the intensifying restrictions and surveillance have invisibly but saliently reshaped the structures and practices of these NGOs.

Archipelagic geographies, civil society, and global development

AbstractCivil society is seen as a key actor within and for global development. However, spatial representations of civil society within the global development landscape are dominated by scale, place, and verticality, neglecting more relational understandings of civic participation. Engaging with archipelagic thinking, drawn from the work of Édouard Glissant, Derek Walcott, and others, this paper makes a case for thinking about civil society through archipelagic relational ontologies. By employing an archipelagic lens to empirical material from research with civil society groups in Barbados and Grenada, the paper explores the relational creativity and metamorphic transformations that are part of civil society action. Utilising an archipelagic lens to think about civil society organising emphasises how civil society activity is produced, performed, and operationalised through creative relational arrangements that span (and contest) dominant spatial categories. For civil society actors this ‘metamorphic creativity’ – the crafting of these relations, the bringing together of ‘bits and pieces’, and the transforming and reworking of these relations to produce new forms and spaces of civic activity – is key to sustaining civil society and their own civic identities. This illustrates the creative, yet fragile nature of civil society, concluding that through these metamorphic relations civil society actors foster new civic spaces and identities, yet civil society simultaneously may also be constituted through, and potentially (re)produce (new) hierarchies of power.

Inter-Ethnic Interactions in Urban Public Space: The Malaysian Experience

Social interaction entails communal experiences between people during their daily activities. People from different ethnic backgrounds in Malaysia namely the Malays, Chinese and Indians spend their leisure time in an urban square, which offers opportunities for social interaction among three ethnic groups. However, how are public spaces utilised for leisure by people from different multi-ethnic backgrounds? Does the variety of attributes in public spaces attract people from a different background? The current aim of this research sets to establish properties and attributes of urban square characteristics such as the quality of daily activities that contribute to inter-ethnic social interactions among users in urban civic spaces. The study focused on constructing indices on how daily activity attributes, and how to investigate the diversity amongst the three ethnic groups on how the urban public space is perceived. A total of 140 questionnaires were administered to measure how the public square users perceived public space use in Batu Pahat town, Malaysia Peninsular. The analysis was facilitated through analytic tool of the Rasch Model. The study revealed that the Malays use urban squares more than Indians and Chinese. Consequently, this affects the level of the Malays social interaction among others. While on the other hand, for square activities reflecting Chinese and Indian culture makes the urban square less attractive to the Chinese and Indians. It suggests that the environmental attribute quality of the square should be improved to attract social interaction amongst the three ethnic groups.

The Efficacy of E-Governance Policy and Practice in Uganda: A Perspective Review

The Arab Spring foregrounded a new reality that a digitally disruptive and highly networked world presents a wicked governance problem for governments seeking to enact effective governance systems in an era where citizen’s unconventional digital mobilization can unseat repressive and unresponsive governments. This reinforces the need for spontaneous, contextually grounded and participatory e-governance mechanisms given their normative and transformative capacity to shift beliefs and norms of policy makers, enhance quality of policy outputs, elicit public confidence and heighten government’s legitimacy. In this paper, the authors assess the efficacy of Uganda’s e-governance policy, praxis and challenges as part of the broader e-governance discourse in the global south. The outcomes reveal that Uganda has instituted excellent legal, institutional and infrastructural e-governance mechanisms, but the conspicuous absence of political will, by an increasingly vulnerable political elite class, hampers sustainability of effective e-governance. Measures like rash and selective application of laws, introduction of new repressive laws, coercive means including violence and arbitrary arrest for dissenting opinions, increased state sponsored online and offline surveillance, internet shutdowns, network disruptions, online harassment, remote intrusion of civil society websites, and censorship, only further shrink civic space ultimately knocking both trust and legitimacy. Therefore, we propose that government prioritizes expansion of civic space to allow favourably reflexive and participatory citizen engagement as a pathway to enhanced quality of policy outputs and governance as a means to achieve its Vision 2040 by way of digital infrastructure, connectivity, legal and institutional frameworks and media freedom are dependent on political will. Keywords: e-governance, infrastructure, connectivity, institutional frameworks, political will DOI: 10.7176/PPAR/12-7-01 Publication date: October 31 st 2022

Retrofitting Makerspace: Unifying Outdoor-Indoor activities for Civic Engagement at Sentul Park, Kuala Lumpur

A contemporary approach of makerspace that combines art, technology, learning and collaboration has been widely integrated into the 21st-century civic infrastructures. However, it has resembled chiefly the maker movement of indoor spaces compared to outdoor or hybrid indoor-outdoor spaces. Hence, this paper intends to explore the potential of retrofit makerspaces that merges the usage of the outdoors-indoor spaces for civic engagement. The objectives of this paper are threefold: (1) To examine a learning-design partnership in hybrid spaces through community’s engagement; (2) To explore a wide range of creative civic spaces that would foster business start-ups, job opportunities, products, services, and income generation; and (3) To develop a working, learning, and recreational space design concept that is more tactile and outdoor environment-oriented. The primary data was gathered through site observation and participation in the workshops and events at Sentul Park. Limited access to the perimeter of the private areas of Sentul Park became a setback in this study. Thus, the data collected for the inaccessible areas was derived mainly from reports published by the local authority, the site’s developer, and previously published researchers. The three types of retrofitted makerspaces created for education, community, and workplace, which unify the outdoor and indoor spaces, could become a trendsetter and potential platform for future civic engagement in Malaysia. More significant efforts and attention are needed to understand a community’s needs and preferences in the city’s ever-evolving physical and cultural aspect to make makerspaces a new form of civic infrastructure.