Zoekresultaten

Social Media for Development

This PhD research project is about how Dutch development NGOs use social media for their development projects. For this, the following research question has been investigated: how do Dutch development NGOs use social media to further the development activities of their organisations? The purpose of this study is to understand how development NGOs are trying to get to grips with social media. Given the exploratory nature of this research, a qualitative research approach was adopted. Both case studies and the grounded theory method were used for this study. This combination is ideal because with a case study one tries to understand, or explore a phenomenon, whereas, in grounded theory studies, one tries to build theory. Given that this study is concerned with how Dutch development NGOs perceive social media for their development projects, an interpretive paradigm seems appropriate. The grounded theory methodology for this research is consistent with the epistemology of interpretivism. The combination of case study research and grounded theory works well for theory building and has been applied in Information Systems and ICT for Development studies before. As the use of theory before data collection is in opposition to the principle idea of the grounded theory methodology, in which theory emerges from the data, this needs to be addressed when combining case studies and grounded theory. This issue was resolved by using an initial highlevel conceptual framework as a guiding instrument for both the noncommittal literature research and for the conceptualisation of the research problem, whilst not distorting the emergence of theory from the data. This study focuses on formally organised development NGOs who receive funding from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs for their development projects. From the approximately 100 organisations, fourteen NGOs were selected for this study. The choice of fourteen NGOs was driven by a theoretical sampling strategy. Data was collected via semi-structured interviews with 18 respondents and field-notes of meetings or events of 14 development NGOs. The data was analysed using the Glaserian coding procedure of grounded theory, starting with open coding, followed by selective coding, and ending with theoretical coding. Three major themes (or core categories as they are called in the grounded theory method), were identified. This study's first contribution is captured in the theme ‘NGO Enacting Values in Development’. This is about how an organisation’s values are enacted in the context of international development. The organisational mixture of development mind-sets influences organisational activities in development. The ideological trends that are stimulated by societal and technological changes have an impact on the organisation’s development strategy and the strategic collaboration network of development NGOs. The second contribution of this study is captured in the theme ‘NGO’s Views on Social Media Use’. This core category discusses the organisation’s view on the meaning of social media and includes the four following categories: technological, individual, collective and contextual views attributed to organisational social media. The four categories empirically demonstrate the concept of affordance clusters and the connections between them. The study’s third contribution is captured in the theme ‘NGO’s Use of Social Media in Development’, encompassing the social media activities of the studied development NGOs in their development projects. This has led to an assessment framework of organisational social media use by development NGOs, constructed by cross-referencing the organisational goals of development NGOs to the social media activity areas in the context of development. These themes represented by three core categories are inter-related. Feedback loops between NGO’s values in development, views on social media, and the actual uses of social media for development purposes have been discerned. This grounded theory study aims to build an initial theory of how NGOs might approach the use of social media in a development context. This qualitative study has produced some new concepts. This study has led to a substantive theory in the context of international development. Furthermore, this substantive theory is compared with three theory lenses, when applied on the data collected for this PhD research, in their ability to identify similar concepts as reached with the substantive theory following the grounded theory method. Finally, the thesis presents some avenues for future research that may help expand the substantive theory that has been developed under this research to formal theory

Making places and shaping destinations in Brazil: collaboration between universities, NGO’s and communities

Sustainability communication #NoTimeToWaste

It is a fact that the communication branch has been involved in a big variety of unethical practices. Greenwashing exists because we in communications and our colleagues (mainly our colleagues of course J) made text and communication materials to let the green intentions of a company shine, by not including all the facts. Fortunately for the world we have NGO’s that did starting to check companies CSR efforts and intentions and CSR communication became more serious and based on facts and not only on intentions.

Social Media and Development

The goal of this study is to identify the perspectives that development NGOs attribute to organisational social media, and furthermore elaborate on an appropriate categorisation of these perspectives for social media use by development NGOs. How social media is used in the area of development, where the use goes far beyond the private sector purpose of publicity and converting a sale, is a key issue for NGOs. Fourteen development NGOs from the Netherlands that are actively using social media were selected for this study. Interviews were conducted to collect data from the decision makers and practitioners in these organisations. The grounded theory method combined with a multiple case study was applied for data analysis. The resulting preliminary framework presents us with four emerging perspectives, namely Technological, Individual, Collective and Contextual perspectives attributed to organisational social media use. We theorise that there are relationships between these four perspectives. This paper suggests that the understanding of (organisational) social media use among development NGOs can be better understood by identifying these perspectives and their inter-relationships. The implications of these findings for the literature on affordances and organisational social media use in the context of development and NGOs are discussed. Recommended Citation Sheombar, Anand; Urquhart, Cathy; Kayas, Oliver; and Ndhlovu, Tidings, "Social Media and Development: Understanding NGO practices and perceptions" (2018). GlobDev 2018. 3. https://aisel.aisnet.org/globdev2018/3

Animal cards, supermarket stunts and World Wide Fund for Nature

This article explores cooperation between a commercial supermarket chain and an environmental non-governmental organization linking it to consumer perception of the “The Super Animals” collectable cards promotion initiative. The case study focuses on one particular joint project involving Animal Cards that was initiated by the supermarket Albert Heijn and the World Wide Fund for Nature in The Netherlands. Based on this case, environmental non-governmental organizations’ strategic choices in the context of contesting discourses of sustainability and consumption, as well as implications for environmental education, are addressed. This article combines three strands of the literature – on sustainable consumption, on strategic cooperation between commercial companies and environmental non-governmental organizations and on environmental education. It is argued that the Animal Cards initiative presents an ambiguous case by both attempting to enhance environmental awareness and promoting consumption, opening up questions about the value of such cooperative ventures to the objectives of environmental education. It is concluded that cross-sector partnerships have the potential to lead to improvements in corporate social responsibility and environmental awareness among consumers but simultaneously pose the danger of undermining the critical stance toward consumption. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469540514556170 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/

Het imago van Groningen Seaports in 2023

Op verzoek van de directie is het imago van Groningen Seaports onderzocht onder: bewoners in de regio, onder bedrijven (klanten) en onder (andere) stakeholders zoals de overheid, Ngo's enz