Workshop-agenda

Anita Gurumurthy, Executive Director, IT for Change, India
Chat Garcia Ramilo, Global Coordinator, Association for Progressive Communications Women’s Networking Support Programme, Philippines

This panel will explore the new knowledge paradigms of the information age, which have promise for democratising knowledge processes. It will locate questions of women’s capacities and skills within the new/emerging techno-social context and its attendant opportunities for women’s participation in the public sphere – in economic, social and political arenas. The session will also look at the assimilation of ICTs in education systems and critique existing models. What new frameworks and models are needed to understand the potential of new technologies as an enabler for women’s empowerment? What parallels can be drawn between mass education and a similar massification of new technologies, for gender equality? What are the implications for policy?

Speakers:
Vimala Ramachandran, Director, Educational Resource Unit, India
Leelangi Wanasundera, Information and Communication Program, Centre for Women's Research,
Sri Lanka       - See powerpoint   See paper
Margaret Zunguze, Founder and Executive Director, E-Knowledge for Women in Southern Africa,
Zimbabwe       - See powerpoint   See paper

This panel will examine the structural and discursive shifts in media, and the attendant complexities for feminist action. It will look at how the information society is configuring media, recasting old questions on the portrayal of women at one end and opening up new spaces for individual expression, sexual freedom, collective solidarity, voice and agency at another. One of the most important changes has been the blurring of the lines between ‘public’ and ‘private’ interactions in digital space, and thus a redefinition of both ‘public’ and ‘private’, with profound implications for gender. The session will explore the structural changes characterising the entire gamut of new media constituted through multiple forms - FM radio to YouTube to online networks and websites – in terms of their implications for feminist action. How therefore should we interpret ‘old’ and ‘new’ media to construct our debates about media? What particular shapes and forms do new media take at the community level and what are the implications of these for the voice, agency and participation of women? What are the critical policy issues and imperatives in these areas?

Speakers:
Jac sm Kee, Coordinator, Violence Against Women and ICT Project, Association for Progressive Communications, Women’s Networking Support Programme, Malaysia
 See paper
Sejal Dand, Director, Area Networking and Development Initiatives, India

Mira Ofreneo, Research Associate, Isis International – Manila, Philippines
 See powerpoint
Sally Burch, Executive Director, Agencia Latinoamericana de Información, Ecuador
 See paper

This panel will look at the changing socio-political context of our times, examining how the two phenomena - globalisation and information society – shape and are shaped by each other. The presentations will provide a critique of existing global governance frameworks – on trade, finance, work, intellectual property, and rights; explore how forces of democracy and control coexist, and are in constant struggle, in the larger information society context; and trace the specific implications for gender. The speakers will also bring to bear on this panel reflections drawing from their expertise on global policy advocacy. The challenges and opportunities for feminism in relation to post-capitalist globalisation (captured often in terms like ‘network society’ and ‘digital capitalism’) will be examined, along the intersecting policy issues and imperatives..

Speakers:
Shalmali Guttal, Senior Associate, Focus on the Global South, India
 See paper
Mavic Cabrera-Balleza, Senior Programme Associate, International Women's Tribune Centre, USA

The structural changes that new technologies promise, and are beginning to usher in, have implications for far-reaching institutional transformation. We see that new techno-social models for community development, for instance, through e-governance, have pushed for greater institutional accountability through information flows and transparency, greater community participation in agenda setting and new bottom-up models of ‘public’ information. How can these models be directed for women’s empowerment? What are the intersections between the citizenship and information society discourses? What insights do we have for reshaping institutional rules and practices through new ICTs for ensuring gains for gender equality? How do new information and communication processes change power structures? How can we shape ICTs to obtain information and communications systems that can lead to a power shift? This session will use a feminist lens to look at the ways in which development policy needs to shape the assimilation of ICTs for equitable change.

Speakers:
Uajit Virojtrairatt, Chairwoman, Civil Media Development Institute, Thailand
 See powerpoint
Sumi Krishna, President, Indian Association for Women's Studies, India

Information and communication technologies have reconfigured identity on symbolic and material planes. Digital spaces afford new platforms for self-expression, new freedoms and associations. They also reinforce and reconstitute patriarchies in multiple ways. What are the critical issues representative of the politics of gender, identity and sexuality in the information society? What new meanings of ‘public’ and ‘private’ obtain in these changing times? This session will examine the intersections of information technology, identity and sexuality and their significance for feminist policy in the area of pornography, sexual expression and freedoms.

Speakers:
Namita Malhotra, Legal Researcher, Alternative Law Forum, India
 See paper
Cecilia Sardenberg, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology of the Federal University of the Bahia, Director of NIEM, Brazil

Presenter: Anita Gurumurthy, Executive Director, IT for Change, India
See powerpoint

CHAIR: Sally Burch, Executive Director, Agencia Latinoamericana de Información, Ecuador
Commentators:
Shireen Huq, Founder Member, Naripokkho, Bangladesh
Therese Niyondiko, Executive Director, The African Women's Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), Kenya
Parminder Jeet Singh, Executive Director, IT for Change, India

Reflecting on research imperatives for policy advocacy on gender, development and the information society and on advocacy strategies to be taken forward in global and sub-global arenas

Facilitator: Chat Garcia Ramilo, Global Coordinator, Association for Progressive Communications Women’s Networking Support Programme, Philippines

Presenter: Tesa de Vela, Associate Director, ISIS International - Manila, Philippines

CHAIR: Tesa de Vela, Associate Director, ISIS International - Manila, Philippines
Speakers
Mavic Cabrera-Balleza, Senior Programme Associate, International Women's Tribune Centre, USA
Susanna George, General Membership, ISIS International - Manila, Malaysia
  See paper
Magaly Pazello, Member, G2G Gender and Technology, Former Member of the WSIS Gender Caucus SC, Brazil
  See powerpoint
Chat Garcia Ramilo, Global Coordinator, Association for Progressive Communications Women's Networking Support Programme, Philippines
  See paper