I'll be teaching a course for TechChange on ICTs and peacebuilding next month. I'm really excited to be facilitating it, and I was really thrilled to see the final cut of the course introduction video we produced today: Hopefully you'll join us, it's going to be a lot of fun and some awesome guests will … Continue reading TC-109: Technology for Conflict Management and Peacebuilding
Politics
Putting the ‘political’ back in political economy
I stumbled across an article in the New York Times a few days ago by Tyler Cowen of George Mason University and a regular contributor to the blog Marginal Revolution. Entitled "Income Inequality Is Not Rising Globally. It's Falling.", it takes a crack at attempting to indicate that while country-level income inequality is increasing the overall effects … Continue reading Putting the ‘political’ back in political economy
Quick thoughts from the #Tech4PP Twitter chat
I followed (and even participated!) in NDI's Twitter chat today on using technology to increase political party and electoral participation. If you're interested you can find the thread by searching the hashtag '#Tech4PP'. There were a lot of good examples of tech being used to increase participation, make processes more transparent, and boost inclusion in the … Continue reading Quick thoughts from the #Tech4PP Twitter chat
When Radio Goes Bad: RF communications and the increased violence in South Sudan
I was reading an update about the increasing ethnic violence in South Sudan forwarded to me by a colleague, and noted the fact that radio is being used to organize and encourage violence in South Sudan. For those who have studied or read about the genocide in Rwanda, radio was one of the key mediums employed by … Continue reading When Radio Goes Bad: RF communications and the increased violence in South Sudan
NATO, the U.S. and Ukraine: A political economy of bad options?
Since I'm not an expert on Ukraine, the greater region it's situated in, or much of the history, I've primarily observed and absorbed the various op-eds, arguments and blog posts I've seen from others. I don't really have much to add about Ukraine or the politics of the region itself, but I have found the … Continue reading NATO, the U.S. and Ukraine: A political economy of bad options?
The Prevention Problem: Thinking about Rwanda 20 years later
Of my areas of interest, the two that stand out are violence prevention and technology. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Rwanda genocide, and I've been keeping track of the media coverage which has included the usual themes of never again, and a call to seek the tools and capacity to prevent such … Continue reading The Prevention Problem: Thinking about Rwanda 20 years later
Learnings from ISA
Another March, another ISA conference. 2014 has been good, especially since the networking and socializing was matched by excellent feedback on what I presented. The highlights: What I thought was a failed experiment in getting Twitter to love me actually teased out some interesting methodological challenges that other panelists on the Crowdsourcing Violence panel faced. … Continue reading Learnings from ISA
Kristof, Columbia, and the ‘Public Intellectual-Professor’: Part 2
Earlier this week I wrote the first half of this pair of posts, focusing on the problems in Nicholas Kristof's piece on why professors should be more engaged in the public debate. I came down pretty hard on it, not because I disagree with the general sentiment (my doctoral research and interests are very policy … Continue reading Kristof, Columbia, and the ‘Public Intellectual-Professor’: Part 2
Kristof, Columbia, and the ‘Public Intellectual-Professor’: Part 1
This will be a two-parter since there's a lot in it. It's been interesting reading the initial article about why professors need to be involved in public debate from Nicholas Kristof and seeing the rejoinders, particularly Michelle Goldbergs' article about Columbia University's decision to let two of their best professors of public health go. I'm … Continue reading Kristof, Columbia, and the ‘Public Intellectual-Professor’: Part 1
New post on the TechChange blog!
I just had a new post go up on the TechChange blog - I haven't written for them in a while, so it feels good to be writing for them again!Here's a brief intro, and you can read the rest here:"In recent years, mobile phones have drawn tremendous interest from the conflict management community. Given … Continue reading New post on the TechChange blog!
Charles P. Martin-Shields 