Patron: President of Austria, Dr. Heinz Fischer

KCTOS: Knowledge, Creativity and
Transformations of Societies

Vienna, 6 to 9 December 2007

S E C T I O N S

Indigenous Peoples Knowledge Society: Transformations and Challenges

 

Indigene in der Wissensgesellschaft: Transformationen und Herausforderungen

 

Section Chair/ Suggestions, Abstracts to / Sektionsleiter/Vorschläge, Abstracts an::

Adam Fiser (University of Toronto, Canada) and Philipp Budka (University of Vienna, Austria) [BIO]

Email: adam.fiser@gmail.com and ph.budka@philbu.net

 
ReferentInnen / Speakers / Orateurs  >>

ABSTRACT:

 

Of the more than 300 Million Indigenous Peoples recognized by the United Nations, a growing minority is actively shaping indigenous visions of a knowledge-based society. These visions are not simply indigenous responses to global mainstream debates over post-industrial development or techno-scientific culture, etc. More importantly, they articulate the actual deployment of new media and information communications technologies (ICTs) by indigenous communities to forward their own policies and practices. They frame how indigenous communities are mobilizing over the internet and on the Web to communicate their lived experiences and extend their local networks to global audiences, including and especially, a global indigenous audience.

For academics in the field, online indigenous communities are opening up spaces of inquiry beyond the digital divide by actively co-creating virtual communities and transforming their cultural experience through ICTs (i.e., real life in cyberspace). Questions about resources, knowledge/power and access continue to be important, but they have become more complicated by issues of networking and social life, virtual reproduction, and information policy. These new social, political, and cultural forms of indigeneity will be discussed within this section.

  • How can/should social sciences describe and explain local indigenous knowledge production in a potentially global knowledge system? What are the socio-cultural and political inter-linkages between local and global?
  • How do indigenous communities integrate new media practices and ICTs into processes of local media production and networking to participate in socio-cultural life, political movements, economic development, healthcare, education, and so forth?
  • How might indigenous communities’ uses of new media and ICTs reflect challenges for diversity, conflict, global ethics, pluralism, gender, youth and heritage?
  • What best practices have indigenous organizations developed around the inter-linkages of knowledge production, new media, ICTs, and local/global community networks (that could inform practitioners and scholars)?

 

Nach Angaben der Vereinten Nationen sind weltweit rund 300 Millionen Angehörige Indigener Völker von den rezenten und rasanten Entwicklungen, welche die Transformation der Informations- zur Wissensgesellschaft kennzeichnen, betroffen. Der als "Digital Divide" geführte Diskurs zu Globalisierungsprozessen verlagert nicht nur die Produktion und Kontrolle von Wissen in zunehmendem Maße von den Zentren in jene Peripherie, in den diese Menschen tatsächlich leben. Diese scheinbar neue Form der Vergesellschaftung, welche die unterschiedlichsten sozialen, kulturellen und ökonomischen Kontexte von Indigenen beeinflusst, wird in der Sektion mittels interdisziplinärer Beiträge beleuchtet.

  • Wie sieht das Verhältnis von lokalen indigenen Wissen und "modernen globalen" Wissen aus?
  • Wie gestaltet sich in Indigenen Gemeinschaften die Integration von Medientechnologien in demokratiepolitisch relevanter Art und Weise und in Bezug auf diverse Formen von Ökonomie und Bildung?
  • Welche Bereiche der neuen Kommunikationsformen, welche die Wissensgesellschaft kennzeichnen, können Indigene Organisationen tatsächlich nutzen?
  • Welche Rolle spielen Konzepte wie Kultur, Religion oder Geschichte für Indigene Gemeinschaften in einer globalen Wissensgesellschaft?
  • Welche best practice Modelle haben Indigene Organisationen und Institutionen lokal und international entwickelt?

ReferentInnen / Speakers / Orateurs

  • From Zapatistas to Virtual Communities. The Practice of Electronic Civil Disobedience and Social Movements in Cyberspace
    Veronica Alfaro (New School for Social Research, NY, USA)
    ABSTRACT

  • The Brazilian indigenous peoples and the Internet
    Eliane Fernandes Ferreira (University of Bremen, Germany)
    ABSTRACT

  • Indigenous Knowledge and Information and Communication Technologies: An Opportunity to strengthen the Development Process in Indigenous Communities
    Rodrigo Garrido | Macarena Vivent | Manuel Morales (Universidad de La Frontera, Chile)
    ABSTRACT

  • A Model for Community Participation in African Libraries to preserve Indigenous Knowledge
    Betsie Greyling (eThekwini Municipal Library, South Africa)
    ABSTRACT

  • Indigenous Diplomacy and Young Professionals
    Wanda McCaslin and Helga Lomosits (Native Law Centre of Canada & University of Vienna, Austria)
    ABSTRACT

  • Learning to read the world through other eyes
    Lynn Mario Menezes de Souza (University of Sao Paulo, Brasil) and Vanessa Andreotti (University of Canterbury, New Zealand)
    ABSTRACT

  • Indigenous Cyberspace: The Maori Renaissance and its Influence on the Web Space of Aotearoa / New Zealand
    Catharina Muhamad-Brandner (University of Auckland, New Zealand)
    ABSTRACT

  • Experiential learning in an Indigenous context: Praxis of place, experience and criticality
    Kevin O’Connor (McGill University, Canada)
    ABSTRACT


Patron: President of Austria, Dr. Heinz Fischer

KCTOS: Knowledge, Creativity and
Transformations of Societies

Vienna, 6 to 9 December 2007