Evangelia Papoutsaki MA Leeds, PhD Cardiff, MRSNZ

ADVOCACY RESEARCH: RESETTLEMENT OF AFGHAN NATIONALS IN NEW ZEALAND AFTER THE FALL OF KABUL

 

Commissioned by Amnesty International NZ, World Vision NZ and Action Station (in progress)

 

MAPPING SOCIAL MEDIA USE in KYRGYZSTAN: A Pilot Study

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Funded by Mitacs Accelerate Canada

In partnership with Simon Fraser University and the University of Central Asia

Aim: The research analyzes the structures of social networks, the varying uses of social media and information diffusion among social networking sites’ users in Kyrgyzstan as a pilot study and possibly expand in a subsequent project to Central Asia. It  studies social media consequences on politics, the rise of populism, democracy, equality, participation, diversity, deliberation, privacy, surveillance, community building, informal social networks, public sphere and everyday life. Using visualizations of complex networks and network matrices, this research will reveal the structure of the network, calling out cliques, clusters, communities, and key participants. Through mapping attribute data and network metric scores this research will also visualize network matrices. While in Kyrgyzstan social media has grown exponentially and has growing significance as a medium where social and political attitudes are shaped, and is the platform where civil activism and volunteering is developed, there is virtually no analysis of content and audiences. Research would focus on Central Asian social media use, using Kyrgyzstan as a case study: an analysis of how social media are used as an alternative information source and civil and political engagement, and an analysis of focus, themes, and users’ profile.

 

 

MAPPING THE COMMUNICATIVE ECOLOGY OF REMOTENESS: FROM ISLANDS TO HIGHLANDS 

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Aim: This project is using data from comparative ethnographic research that maps the communicative ecology of islands and mountainous communities with the aim of exploring the role remoteness plays in sharing unique communicative environments. We are exploring remoteness through the lenses of conviviality, communicative rhizomes and storytelling networks created by community members, community organizations and local media. The research draws on observations and interviews from Amami islands in the south of the Japanese archipelago and remote mountainous communities in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia. Despite their apparent geographical differences, these islands and mountainous communities in Kyrgyzstan share some common characteristics. They are also experiencing a community radio trend that is reshaping their communicative ecologies and redefining the way they experience their communicative sociality. The mediated communication practices of remote communities, unlike their mainland or urban center (national and prefectural) counterparts, are seen as part of a more fluid interconnected network system that embraces both individual and collective agents, reflecting strong reciprocal relationships that are necessary for surviving in remote areas. The communicative ecology of the examined communities contains several elements of what makes remote communities resilient. These elements include a healthier information landscape and dynamics of production, movement, access, use and impact based on local information needs, social trust and agents of change/cultural enablers. Resilience is seen here as a culturally mediated response to some of the challenges remote communities often face, including heavy weather patterns, aging population and depopulation. This research explores aspects of resilience within the context of remoteness through the mapping of their communicative ecology.

 

# Community Radios and Community Building in Central Asia: a case study from Kyrgyzstan

Aim: This is an exploratory study mapping community radio and its role in community building in Kyrgyzstan. The aim of this research is to analyze the development of community radio broadcasting, a recent trend in this Central Asian post-Soviet country, the role of community radios and their community-building function in Kyrgyzstan. Community radios and multimedia centers in Kyrgyzstan started evolving after the 2000s in Kyrgyzstan. Using a communicative ecology approach that places community radios within the wider media ecology of their communities, the research is supported with data collected through content analysis and in-depth interviews with community radio and multimedia centers’ directors and editors, community volunteers, and with donor organizations who are supporting community radios and multimedia centers in Kyrgyzstan.

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# Community Media Audience Evaluation

Aim: This research commissioned by the Community Media Association of Kyrgyzstan aims at evaluating community's response to the community media/radio using survey, focus groups and interviews with community members and other key stakeholders.

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ELDERLY PERSPECTIVES FROM THE MARGINS: ORAL HISTORIES OF RURAL KYRGYZSTAN

 

Aim: The project is a pilot collaboration between University of Central Asia and the Sanzhyra Center, focused on Batken Region. Through oral history interviews with village elders in three districts, this project emphasizes four research dimensions: village histories; memories of the pre-to-post-Soviet "bridge" generation; ongoing Tajikistan-Kyrgyzstan border conflicts, and the nature of sanzhyra as a historical framework. This initiative is valuable for its preservation of historical, cultural, and genealogical heritage in rural mountain regions of Kyrgyzstan, and it creates rich new sources for future research.