Addressing platform capitalism: The legacy of Indymedia and online participatory democracy

The rise of platform capitalism has meant great challenges for activists and social movements. The very idea of the internet as a tool for democratization, as embodied by the radical participatory network Indymedia, is being brought into question. As we adjust to the changing social and technological realities amid the COVID-19 pandemic, there are increasingly concerns over the influence and power of the tech oligopolies of platform capitalism. This article reviews literature on and around platform capitalism, and examines emerging issues in relation to the author’s experience as an Indymedia activist. Critically reflecting on these experiences and interviews in 2020 with other Indymedia activists, this article describes the rise and decline of this radical, participatory media network in Australia. In doing so the article examines the legacy of Indymedia and what lessons may be learnt for present and future activists seeking radical change.

Electronic

Electronic reading has changed dramatically over the last three decades, and so too has electronic literature. Electronic literature is born-digital, with computational aesthetics that are essential to its poetics and the experience of reading it. Ten years ago, “electronic literature” was largely limited to screens and interaction with their interfaces. Today, a cell phone, virtual-reality headgear, or even a public square works just as well as an environment for reading electronic literature. This essay examines electronic reading by way of electronic literature, through consideration of three recent works of electronic literature—Jacob Garde and Aaron Reed’s The Icebound Concordance, J. R. Carpenter’s The Gathering Cloud, and José Aburto’s “Paper Alive” and “Blot Alive”—that each promote recognition of how reading is no longer the sole activity of the human and how electronic reading involves a participatory network of actors and media forms.

Association Between Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program Implementation and Principal Support

The use of Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program (CSPAP) has been recommended to help students achieve 60-minutes of physical activity each day. Implementing a CSPAP requires planning, coordination, and ongoing oversight, but an understudied factor is how principal support influences CSPAP implementation. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of principal support on CSPAP implementation. Method. Schools in the Iowa FitnessGram Initiative ( n = 84), a participatory network of schools committed to supporting physical education and wellness efforts, were invited to participate in the study. Physical education teachers from 42 schools completed a survey assessing CSPAP implementation and principal support for school wellness. Descriptive statistics and correlation analyses were used to report associations between the variables. A regression analysis was conducted to evaluate the impact of principal support on CSPAP implementation. Results. Almost half of the schools were reported to be fully implementing just one CSPAP component and no school was reported to be fully implementing all five. The CSPAP component with the highest reported level of implementation was quality physical education, while the lowest level of implementation was reported for family and community engagement and staff involvement. The regression analysis identified that principal support was a significant predictor of CSPAP implementation, b = 0.55, t(37) = 3.10, p < .004. Conclusions. Principal support is associated with implementation of CSPAP initiatives. Strategies that focus on how to attain principal support for CSPAP initiatives are needed and could have a significant impact on student physical activity and health.

Strengths and weaknesses of the Net-Map tool for participatory social network analysis in resource management: Experience from case studies conducted on four continents

For researchers, conducting face-to-face interviews is always a challenge as it often turns into a one-way directed information retrieval. Therefore, interviewees not always are very motivated, enthusiastic and cooperative in responding to the questions. In the end, this has implications for the quality of the interview data. To improve the interview setting and the resulting data, in several projects the Net-Map tool was used to conduct participatory social network analysis. The tool is a combination of in-depth interviews and participatory network mapping. During the interviews, the interviewee draws the network of relevant actors, notes down their motivations and evaluates and displays the actors’ influence and benefits by building towers using any kind of stacks. In this research note, we present the strengths and weaknesses of the method against the experiences with applying the Net-Map tool on four different continents and give ideas for improvements and further research.

The value of the participatory network mapping tool to facilitate and evaluate coordinated action in health promotion networks: two Dutch case studies

Introduction: Facilitating processes for coordinated action in the field of health promotion is a challenge. Poorthuis and Bijl’s (2006) Participatory Network Mapping Tool (PNMT) uses visualization and discussion to map the positions and roles of network actors, stimulate learning processes, and elicit actionable knowledge. This article describes the results from the application of the PNMT in networks of two Dutch health promotion programmes (Health Race and BeweegKuur) with the aim of determining the value of the PNMT to partners in health promotions networks. Methods: A qualitative secondary analysis (QSA) was conducted to clarify positions and roles, learning processes, and actionable knowledge of network actors in existing data sets including five group interviews of the Health Race programme and 16 individual interviews and 15 group interviews of the BeweegKuur programme. Results: The PNMT maps both positions and roles of (missing) actors and makes successes (e.g. knowing each other) and challenges (e.g. implementing new activities) visible. Thus, the PNMT provides a starting point for discussion and reflection and eliciting actionable knowledge such as involving new actors and target populations in the programme. Conclusion: The PNMT contributes to the facilitation of coordinated action in health promotion networks by making positions and roles of network partners visible. In combination with dialogue and reflection the PNMT helps to elucidate factors influencing coordinated action and outcomes. The PNMT is valuable in grasping intangible aspects between actors by stimulating collective learning. These insights can be used by researchers and network actors to achieve more successful coordinated action for health promotion.