Human Rights Movements and the Internet

2011 ◽  
pp. 182-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Lannon ◽  
Edward Halpin
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Internet Usage ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Digital Environment ◽  
The South ◽  
Human Rights Movement ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
Human Rights Norms ◽  
The Impact

This chapter looks at the impact of the Internet on the worldwide human rights movement, and examines the opportunities and pitfalls of the technology and its applications for human rights organisations. It argues that the technology is a useful tool in nongovernmental efforts toward worldwide compliance with human rights norms despite the new challenges it presents for human rights defenders and activists, particularly in the South. Conceptualising the movement as a collection of issue-based social submovements, it draws on social movement literature and examples from Africa to describe how the technology and its applications benefit the movement in six key areas of activity. The promises, pitfalls, and difficulties of Internet usage are discussed, with particular emphasis on censorship, surveillance and privacy, and the challenges they pose for human rights activists operating in a digital environment.

Human Rights Movements and the Internet

2008 ◽  
pp. 2682-2707
Author(s):  
John Lannon ◽  
Edward Halpin
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Internet Usage ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Digital Environment ◽  
The South ◽  
Human Rights Movement ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
Human Rights Norms ◽  
The Impact

This chapter looks at the impact of the Internet on the worldwide human rights movement, and examines the opportunities and pitfalls of the technology and its applications for human rights organisations. It argues that the technology is a useful tool in nongovernmental efforts toward worldwide compliance with human rights norms despite the new challenges it presents for human rights defenders and activists, particularly in the South. Conceptualising the movement as a collection of issue-based social submovements, it draws on social movement literature and examples from Africa to describe how the technology and its applications benefit the movement in six key areas of activity. The promises, pitfalls, and difficulties of Internet usage are discussed, with particular emphasis on censorship, surveillance and privacy, and the challenges they pose for human rights activists operating in a digital environment.

The Impact of COVID-19: Democracy in the Time of a Pandemic

Social Change ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 475-482
Author(s):  
Zoya Hasan
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Development ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Domain Experts ◽  
Sharp Focus ◽  
The World ◽  
Democratic Rights ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
The Impact

The recent spread of the delta variant of the COVID-19 pandemic in many countries, though uneven, has once again set alarm bells ringing throughout the world. Nearly two years have passed since the onset of this pandemic: vaccines have been developed and vaccination is underway, but the end of the campaign against the pandemic is nowhere in sight. This drive has merely attempted to adjust and readjust, with or without success, to the various fresh challenges that have kept emerging from time to time. The pandemic’s persistence and its handling by the governments both have had implications for citizens’/peoples’ rights as well as for the systems which were in place before the pandemic. In this symposium domain experts investigate, with a sharp focus on India, the interface between the COVID-19 pandemic and democracy, health, education and social sciences. These contributions are notable for their nuanced and insightful examination of the impact of the pandemic on crucial social development issues with special attention to the exacerbated plight of society’s marginalised sections. In India, as in several other countries, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected democracy. The health crisis came at a moment when India was already experiencing democratic backsliding. The pandemic came in handy in imposing greater restrictions on democratic rights, public discussion and political opposition. This note provides an analysis and commentary on how the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic impacted governance, at times undermining human rights and democratic processes, and posing a range of new challenges to democracy.

The Protective Shields

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kinda Mohamadieh
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Crowding Out ◽  
Arab Region ◽  
Arab Uprisings ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
Human Rights Movement ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Challenges

This chapter examines the various roles undertaken by civil society organizations (CSOs), or nongovernmental organizations, in the Arab region and their implications for collaboration between CSOs and the United Nations, with particular emphasis on how CSOs figure in policy debates and the human rights movement. CSOs in the Arab region, mainly those working on policy and legislative issues, have been engaged with UN-led processes and conferences since the 1992 Earth Summit, and including the 1995 Summit on Social Development and the 2000 Millennium Summit. However, as some UN agencies, driven by a quest for funding, have moved into programmatic interventions, tensions have sometimes emerged between CSOs and UN agencies when some UN agencies have ended up potentially competing with CSOs for funding or crowding out the space available for CSOs. This chapter first traces the history of CSO-UN interactions in the Arab region before discussing the new challenges and possibilities raised during the period of the Arab uprisings.

Virtual Marketing

2014 ◽  
pp. 16-36
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Mazurek
Keyword(s):  
Technology Development ◽  
Internet Usage ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Network Technology ◽  
Value Network ◽  
Marketing Activities ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
Effectiveness And Efficiency ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
A Company

For the last two decades, virtuality and virtualization processes have been considered as developing phenomena in management studies, particularly within the context of the creation of inter- and intra-organizational networks, establishing strong relationships with customers and the appreciation of intangible assets in marketing. The purpose of this chapter is to identify the main directions of virtualized marketing and present the detailed changes that occur in marketing due to extensive and intensive Internet usage and the directions of network technology development and its impact on prospective marketing activities. The proposed analyses help to understand the multifaceted impact of the Internet on marketing—its concept, activities, and organization—going much beyond simple “e-marketing” perspective. The presented conclusions can be of significant value for both researchers and marketers. It can particularly influence further research on the relationship between the marketing virtualization and the company’s performance, showing the real impact of such processes on the effectiveness and efficiency of a company. The final conclusions will be interesting to marketing managers, who in the cybermarketing era have to deal with new challenges of collaboration, customers’ engagement, and value network creation.

A Composite-Model for E-Commerce Diffusion

2008 ◽  
pp. 2929-2947 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Yap ◽  
Jayoti Das ◽  
John Burbridge ◽  
Kathryn Cort
Keyword(s):  
Cluster Analysis ◽  
Regression Model ◽  
Composite Model ◽  
Internet Usage ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Economic Factors ◽  
Cross Country ◽  
Impact Of Technology ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Socio Economic Factors

Why are some countries successful with e-commerce while others flounder? The purpose of this article is to study the impact of technology, cultural, and socio-economic factors on the global diffusion of e-commerce. While past studies have focused on technology reasons alone, this research includes cultural and socio-economic factors as well. Having access to the Internet does not necessarily translate to e-commerce usage. Fundamentally, culture and socio-economic factors are pivotal in bridging the gap between Internet usage and e-commerce diffusion. The objective is to provide a model that quantifies the aggregated influences of all factors on global e-commerce diffusion. A cross-country regression model analyzes the determinants of e-commerce diffusion and the results used in a cluster analysis to provide further evidence that the propensity for e-commerce depends on the interplay among the different factors. The results can provide firms with an improved understanding of strategies to employ while implementing e-commerce.

The Digital Divide and Social Equity

2008 ◽  
pp. 294-302
Author(s):  
Alfred P. Rovai ◽  
Emery M. Petchauer
Keyword(s):  
African Americans ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Social Equity ◽  
Internet Usage ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Internet ◽  
American Life Project ◽  
Life Project ◽  
Equitable Treatment ◽  
The Impact

The Pew Internet and American Life Project (Pew/Internet; Lenhart, Horrigan, Rainie et al., 2003) reports 42 percent of Americans say they do not use the Internet, with 24 percent being truly off-line with no direct or indirect experience with the Internet. However, these percentages represent averages and don’t pertain uniformly across all subpopulations. Pew/Internet (Fox, 2005) reports Americans age 65 and older, African-Americans, and those with less education lag behind others in Internet usage. The present article examines the impact of these differences on social equity in terms of receiving fair, just, and equitable treatment by the political system regarding public policies and services.

State Funding for Human Rights Activism: Channeling Protest?

2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (13) ◽  
pp. 1703-1728 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominique Clément
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Public Funding ◽  
State Funding ◽  
Private Funding ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Human Rights Movement ◽  
Comprehensive Survey ◽  
Channeling Effect ◽  
The Impact

Channeling theory posits that external funding for social movements, rather than coopting activism, channels activism into more structured and less militants forms. Studies on channeling, however, focus on private funding. The following article examines whether public funding has a comparable effect on social movements. Using the human rights movement in Canada as a case study, it examines several issues relating to channeling: why funders support activism; funding as social control or altruism; how funding is related to consolidating movement gains; and the impact of funding on mobilization, activism, and internal movement dynamics. To address these questions, this article draws on an innovative new data set that includes lists of grants extracted from more than 30 years of government budgets in Canada. It also draws on several years of archival research on a network of 19 organizations in every region of Canada, as well as interviews with former members of these organizations. In addition to demonstrating that public funding has a comparable channeling effect as private funding, this article provides the first comprehensive survey of the extent of state funding for the human rights movement in Canada.

The Impact of Internet Connectedness on Voluntary Social Activity in UAE

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 41-60
Author(s):  
Azza Abdel-Azim Mohamed Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Social Activity ◽  
Internet Usage ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Volunteer Work ◽  
Great Role ◽  
Voluntary Work ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Arab Societies ◽  
The Impact

The Internet plays a great role in various fields in Arab societies, including social voluntary work, which represents a symbol of solidarity and cooperation among individuals in a community. In this paper, the author examines the role the Internet might play in promoting social voluntary work. It examines Internet connectedness among a sample of United Arab Emirates’ Arab residents, and how it might influence their social voluntary work. The results reveal that interpersonal utility and entertainment, news-seeking, and paying are factors that determine Internet usage goals among UAE residents. No significant difference between high- and low-level Internet connectors in terms of social civil involvement was found. Although, there was evidence found that the Emiratis are more socially involved in volunteer work than other Arab nationalities in the UAE. Education, age, income, and occupation were predictor variables of ICI and Civic Social work.

Financial performance of small farm business households: the role of internet

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 553-571 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aditya R. Khanal ◽  
Ashok K. Mishra
Keyword(s):  
Household Income ◽  
Internet Usage ◽  
Farm Households ◽  
Farm Income ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Small Farm ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Total Household Income ◽  
Farm Business ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of internet usage on financial performance of small farm business households in the USA. In particular, the authors want to assess the impact of internet usage on small farm businesses, where the owner’s main occupation is farming. Using a nationwide farm-level data in the USA and a non-parametric matching estimator, the study finds a significant positive impact of internet usage on gross cash income, total household income, off-farm income. The study further suggests that small farm businesses receive benefits from internet usage as it facilitates reduction in income risk through off-farm income sources, as well as a reduction in marketing and storage costs; households’ non-farm transportation and vehicle leasing expenses. Design/methodology/approach In this study, the authors use the “nearest neighbors” matching method in treatment evaluation, developed by Abadie and Imbens (2002). In this method, a weighting index is applied to all observations and “nearest neighbors” are identified (Abadie et al., 2004). Although matching estimation through the nearest neighbor method does not require probit or logit model estimation per se, the authors have estimated a probit model because it allows the authors to check the balancing property and to analyze the association of included variables with the likelihood of internet use. Findings The study suggests that small farm business households using the internet are better off in terms of total household income and off-farm income. As compared to the control group (which is counterfactual, representation of small farm businesses not using the internet), small farm businesses using the internet earn about $24,000-$26,000 more in total household income and about $27,000-$28,000 more in off-farm income. Also, small farm businesses using the internet earn about $4,100-$4,900 more in gross cash farm income compared to their counterpart. The estimate of ATT for NFI is not different from zero. However, gross cash farm revenue increased significantly. Practical implications To this end internet can provide an important role in information gathering. Internet is one of the convenient means to access and exchange information. Information and communication facilitation through internet have opened up new areas of commerce, social networking, information gathering, and recreational activities beyond a geographical bound. Producers and consumers can take advantages of internet in both collaborative and competitive aspects in economic activities as it can reduce the information asymmetries among economic agents. Social implications Farmers will seek assistance in interpreting data and applying information to their farming operations, via the internet. Therefore, it is essential that land grant universities continue to improve the delivery of electronic extension and provide information in a clear and concise manner. Originality/value Studies in farm households have mainly investigated factors influencing internet adoption, purchasing patterns through internet, internet use, and applications. In most cases, impact analyses of communication and information technologies such as internet in agricultural businesses are discussed with references to large scale farm businesses. Thus, the authors know very little about access to the internet when it comes to small farm businesses and small farm households and about how it impacts well-being of small farm households.

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