Technological
Initiatives for Social Empowerment:
Design Experiments in Technology-Supported Youth Participation
and Local Civic Engagement
Leo Burd
PhD Thesis Defense
MIT Media Lab
May 4th, 2007
Reference materials
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Final thesis document: PDF version (4 Mb)
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Video of the defense: http://www.media.mit.edu/video/view/leob-2007-05-04
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Slides of the defense: PDF version (3.2 Mb), MS PowerPoint version (8 Mb)
Abstract
Despite the
recent advances in science and technology, never in history has the world
seen so much discrepancy in wealth, power and living conditions. Believing
that information and communication technologies can help address this issue,
governments and funding organizations have been investing in bringing
computers and internet connectivity to underserved communities.
Unfortunately, many of those initiatives end up privileging the community
residents who were the most visible, literate or active, leaving behind the
ones who would need additional support and reinforcing even more the status
quo.
In order to
foster a more democratic and participatory society, it is important to create
initiatives that are more inclusive and empower individuals to control their
own development. In this thesis, I propose a framework for the design and analysis
of technological initiatives for social empowerment and I apply the framework
in the implementation of two initiatives that focus primarily on youth
participation and local civic engagement.
In the Young Activists
Network initiative, I worked with youth technology centers from different
parts of the world organizing young people to become agents of change in the
places where they live. After two years trying different ideas, it became
clear that, in spite of the localized successes, the Young Activists Network
approach required so much effort from our partner community organizations and
volunteers that it would be virtually impossible to sustain it over time and
scale it to other sites.
Based on the
lessons learned, I started the What's Up Lawrence project, an initiative that
aimed at building a self-reinforcing, city-wide network to help young people
in the organization of personally meaningful community events. In order to
support such a network, I built What's Up, a neighborhood news system that
combines the power of the telephone and of the web to make it easier for
young people to share information, promote community events, and find out
what is happening in their region.
This thesis
provides a detailed description of the process that led to What's Up. It also
highlights the main technical, educational and organizational elements that
have to be considered in the implementation of technological initiatives for
social empowerment and suggests the creation of a special organization to
help in the adoption and further refinement of the proposed initiatives.
Dissertation committee
Mitchel Resnick (Thesis Supervisor)
LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research
Program in Media Arts and Sciences
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Roger Hart
Professor
Developmental Psychology Program
City University of New York
Lorlene M. Hoyt
Assistant Professor of Technology and Planning
Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Alexander Pentland
Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences
Program in Media Arts and Sciences
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Bibliographic reference
Burd, L.
(2007). Technological initiatives for social empowerment: design experiments
in technology-supported youth participation and local civic engagement. Program
in Media Arts and Sciences. Cambridge, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. PhD: 226 leaves.
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