Digital Technologies, Conflict and Social Change

Over the past decade, digital technologies have assumed critical bearings on the ways in which humans interact, societies change, and conflicts evolve. Social media specifically play a crucial role in determining the course of varied kinds of conflicts, in democratic and political movements, as well as in citizen-led social activism. This symposium intends to generate conversations and induce exchanges on practitioners’ use of digital technologies in conflict, conflict management and social change, conflict transformation, peacebuilding, mediation, prevention, and countering of violent extremism. The symposium is planned as a hybrid interactive exchange. Panel presentations will be made by UNDP, swisspeace, Search for Common Ground, Citizen Lab, United States Institute of Peace (USIP), Mercy Corps, Peace Tech Lab, Action Aid, and many others. Keynotes lectures will be delivered by Professor Toyin Falola (Chair in the Humanities at the University of Texas), and Professor Birgit Bräuchler (Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen). There will also be the launch of the book “Social Media Impacts on Conflict and Democracy”. Morning session 08.45 Welcome Coffee 09.00 – 09.15 Welcome Words & Opening Remarks Prof Dr. Sebastian Bonhoeffer (Director of the Collegium Helveticum) Prof. Dr. Annuska Derks (Social Anthropology, UZH) Dr. Medinat Malefakis (Junior Fellow, Collegium Helveticum) 09.15 – 10.00 Keynote Lecture Conflicts in Africa and the Emerging Social Media Dynamics Prof. Dr. Toyin Falola (Humanities, University of Texas, Austin) 10.15 – 11.45 Panel I – Digital Technologies and Conflict Chair: Prof. Dr. Didier Peclard (University of Geneva) Nothing Sacred: Digital Technology, Religious and Secular Voices for Reform in Togo Siena Anstis & John Scott Railton (Citizen Lab) Disinformation, Online Hate Speech and Inter-Communal Conflicts in Myanmar William Ford (United States Institute of Peace) Digital Technologies and the Terrorism Landscape in the Lake Chad Basin Dr. Akinola Olojo (Institute for Security Studies) Afternoon session 13.00 – 14.45 Panel II – Virtual Handshakes or Mediating Technologies? Chair: Dr. Emanuel Schaeublin (Center for Security Studies, ETH Zurich) Mediating in the Digital Age: Integrating Social Media into Peace Agreements Maude Morrison (Center for Humanitarian Dialogue) Social Media, Conflict, and Peacebuilding: Issues and Challenges Will Ferroggiaro (Mercy Corps) Cyber Mediations and Digital Peacebuilding Ahmed Eleiba (swisspeace) 15.00 – 15.30 Book Launch – Social Media Impacts on Conflicts and Democracy Editor: Prof. Dr. Lisa Schirch (Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame) 15.30 – 17.15 Panel III – Digital Technologies as Catalysts of Social Change Chair: Prof. Dr. Fritz Brugger (NADEL, ETH Zurich) Social Media in Militarized Counterterrorism Operations Against Boko Haram Brigadier General Auwal Mahmud Gumel (Nigerian Defence Academy) The Intersection of Digital Technologies with Preventing Violent Extremism Nika Saeedi (UNDP) Local Women’s Rights Movement, Networks and Organization as Critical Drivers of Digital Access to Women and Girls in Nigeria Amina Aliyu Adamu (Action Aid) 17.15 – 18.00 Keynote Lecture Interpenetration and Con-Constitutiveness of Media and Peace Building in East Indonesia Prof. Dr. Birgit Bräuchler (Anthropology, University of Copenhagen) Please register for on-site participation via this link or follow the event via live-stream.

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