IT for Change, a nonprofit organization located in India has announced a call for pre-proposals under its Gender and Citizenship in the Information Society, an Asia-wide research program organized with the support of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Individual researchers or research teams affiliated to a recognized and reputable institution can apply under this program. Selected grantees can receive funding support of $25,000 for a one-year proposal involving primary research. The program is more relevant to “feminist centres of learning and research, including women’s studies departments, non-profit centres undertaking research for policy action, action research and global policy networks engaged in globalization and women’s rights lobbying from a Southern feminist perspective, and activist-scholars.” The program encourages developing country researchers in Asia to apply for the grant support. Research scholars from other regions can also apply provided that they have previous experience of working in Asia.
The program has been developed for the purpose of interpreting women’s citizenship in the information society based on feminist multi-disciplinary approaches. It will “explore how the concept of citizenship may be useful to study the gendered context of the emerging techno-social paradigm. The opportunities and challenges for women’s equality and empowerment in the emerging context need to be framed in a nuanced way, juxtaposing the analysis of gender relations with the broader questions of development, participation and power. The Program is thus an attempt to build a theoretical framework and generate policy directions from the standpoint of marginalised women in the region. It will broaden the conceptual horizon about gender and ICTs, towards a politicisation and radicalisation of the ‘access-centred’ discourse so that the core feminist question about power, justice and equity can be addressed in its full implications.”
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