Digital Natives with a Cause? — Position Papers (Thinkathon 2010)

Digital Natives with a Cause? — Position Papers collects short, practice-rooted essays and case studies produced for the Thinkathon (6–8 December 2010) and edited by Nishant Shah with partners at Hivos. The booklet brings together contributions from scholars and practitioners across Asia, Africa and beyond to rethink the meaning of “digital native” and to document how young technology users pursue causes, make change, and sustain action in local and networked public spaces.

Publication Details

👤 Editors / Convenors:: Nishant Shah (editor), with contributions from YiPing (Zona) Tsou, Simeon Oriko, Cole Flor, Prabhas Pokharel, Nonkululeko Godana, Maesy Angelina and others.
🏛️ Published by:: Hivos Knowledge Programme / Centre for Internet and Society (CIS)
📅 Date:: December 2010
📘 Type:: Conference booklet / Position papers
📄 Access:: Download PDF

Abstract

This booklet offers multi-perspective reflections and short empirical pieces on how people who identify with or are described as “digital natives” engage with causes and civic life. Moving beyond age-only definitions, the contributors reframe the term to emphasise practices, causes, and the situated ways technology mediates everyday political and cultural work. Case studies and position pieces document: discursive activism and everyday deliberation; artistic and tactical interventions (e.g., B! Poetry and Blank Noise); mobilising by story; the localised nature of platform use (PTT in Taiwan, Ushahidi in Kenya, Blank Noise in India); and practical questions for donors and institutions about sustainability and digital/physical engagement. Summary and themes derived from the conference booklet.

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Context and Background

Produced as an outcome of a Hivos / CIS Knowledge Programme, the Thinkathon and its position papers responded to an observed gap in the scholarship and practice surrounding youth, technology and social change. Contributors came from diverse geographies (Asia, Africa, Europe) and combined practitioner experience with reflective analysis. The collection deliberately challenges binary narratives around Digital Natives (euphoria vs. alarm) and proposes finer categories — Everyday Digital Natives, Digital Alternatives, Digital (alter) Natives — that foreground cause-centred practice, situated tactics, and hybrid cyber/physical engagement. The booklet documents workshop proceedings plus short essays and case studies that emerged from regional workshops in Taipei and Johannesburg and the final Thinkathon in The Hague.

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Key Themes and Findings

Reframing “Digital Native”: Authors argue against age-only definitions and encourage thinking in terms of practice, cause and the situated integration of digital tools into everyday life.
Everyday / Discursive Activism: Small, repeated acts of discussion, curation and sharing (what Prabhas terms “discursive activism”) are an important form of political practice; they create deliberative micro-spaces rather than mass campaigns.
Story and Narrative as Catalysts: Storytelling (case: #JusticeforJules, #ISaidNo) can rapidly concentrate attention, spur mobilisation and translate online narratives into on-the-ground action.
Art and Tactical Interventions: Artistic tactics (e.g., B! Poetry) and playful recoding can produce micro-ruptures that invite reflection and interrupt consumer routines.
Localisation & Platform Specificity: Platform practices are highly local. Examples include PTT’s terminal-BBS politics in Taiwan and Ushahidi’s crisis mapping in Kenya—the technical affordances and social norms shape outcomes.
Voluntarism, Sustainability and Meta-Projects: Movements like Blank Noise illustrate the “meta-project” model (many small volunteer-led projects under an open collective). Donor support needs to recognise processes, core facilitation and operational needs, not just discrete campaigns.
Power, Risk and Ethics: Practices such as Human Flesh Search demonstrate how mobilisation can flip into harassment; contributors call for reflexive ethics when intervening online.

These themes point to a plural, practice-centred understanding of digital civic action — one that privileges situated tactics, narrative work, and facilitative infrastructures over top-down institutional templates.

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