The Technology Of Nonviolence: Social Media And Violence Prevention
by Joseph G. Bock /
2012 / English / PDF
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Tunisian and Egyptian protestors famously made use of social
media to rally supporters and disseminate information as the
"Arab Spring" began to unfold in 2010. Less well known, but with
just as much potential to bring about social change, are ongoing
local efforts to use social media and other forms of technology
to prevent deadly outbreaks of violence. In
Tunisian and Egyptian protestors famously made use of social
media to rally supporters and disseminate information as the
"Arab Spring" began to unfold in 2010. Less well known, but with
just as much potential to bring about social change, are ongoing
local efforts to use social media and other forms of technology
to prevent deadly outbreaks of violence. InThe Technology of
Nonviolence
The Technology of
Nonviolence, Joseph Bock describes and documents
technology-enhanced efforts to stop violence before it happens in
Africa, Asia, and the United States. Once peacekeeping was the
purview of international observers, but today local citizens take
violence prevention into their own hands. These local approaches
often involve technology--including the use of digital mapping,
crowdsourcing, and mathematical pattern recognition to identify
likely locations of violence--but, as Bock shows, technological
advances are of little value unless they are used by a trained
cadre of community organizers. After covering general concepts in
violence prevention and describing technological approaches to
tracking conflict and cooperation, Bock offers five case studies
that range from "low-tech" interventions to prevent ethnic and
religious violence in Ahmedebad, India, to an anti-gang
initiative in Chicago that uses Second Life to train its
"violence interrupters." There is solid evidence of success, Bock
concludes, but there is much to be discovered, developed, and,
most important, implemented.
, Joseph Bock describes and documents
technology-enhanced efforts to stop violence before it happens in
Africa, Asia, and the United States. Once peacekeeping was the
purview of international observers, but today local citizens take
violence prevention into their own hands. These local approaches
often involve technology--including the use of digital mapping,
crowdsourcing, and mathematical pattern recognition to identify
likely locations of violence--but, as Bock shows, technological
advances are of little value unless they are used by a trained
cadre of community organizers. After covering general concepts in
violence prevention and describing technological approaches to
tracking conflict and cooperation, Bock offers five case studies
that range from "low-tech" interventions to prevent ethnic and
religious violence in Ahmedebad, India, to an anti-gang
initiative in Chicago that uses Second Life to train its
"violence interrupters." There is solid evidence of success, Bock
concludes, but there is much to be discovered, developed, and,
most important, implemented.