I am generally interested in understanding what governments have done against those under their charge/protection/care and what civilians have done to improve their lives and protect themselves (generally from governments). Signaling which side we are on and/or how we feel about it, we call the respective activities different things. The behavior of governments are called "political domination", "repression", "human rights violation", "law and order" or "domestic spying"; The activities of civilians are called "rebellion", "resistance", "terrorism", "protest" or "seeking freedom". Broadly conceived, the two together are referred to as "conflict processes" (more commonly in political science) or "contentious politics" (more commonly in sociology).
All of my efforts to understand as well as improve conflict processes/contentious politics in a more peaceful direction would normally begin with a conversation. I would meet someone and then they would suggest that there is someone else that I should meet. I connect with the other person (generally in some remote part of the world and/or in some seedy dive) and then we start talking about some project they are interested in trying to pull off: e..g., to understand a form of discrimination, to eliminate human rights violations and/or to record them more efficiently, to identify and monitor the size and location of an at risk population or to understand and improve the structure of a social movement organization. I say "trying to pull off" because normally there was usually no money for anything and/or little interest from those with resources to fund what the organization wanted to do - at least, initially. All of the projects involved a little hustling - especially in the beginning.
This webpage is dedicated to many of the projects that I was engaged in to document and understand the contentious interactions identified above. Some of these efforts involved eyewitness testimony, some involved archival research of government records, some involved evaluations of traditional or social media, some involved surveys and some involved creating event catalogs. The work here is explicitly committed to compiling the most accurate information possible through whatever sources and methods were most appropriate for the task at hand.
Note: I say "many of the projects that I was engaged in" because some did not turn out well and I have not felt comfortable discussing them in detail - projects in the Middle East, Zimbabwe, Mexico, the Dominican Republic (in order of attempt/failure). This may change in the future but for the time being, enjoy what is here.
Sincerely
[Christian]
Director - The Radical Information Project
All of my efforts to understand as well as improve conflict processes/contentious politics in a more peaceful direction would normally begin with a conversation. I would meet someone and then they would suggest that there is someone else that I should meet. I connect with the other person (generally in some remote part of the world and/or in some seedy dive) and then we start talking about some project they are interested in trying to pull off: e..g., to understand a form of discrimination, to eliminate human rights violations and/or to record them more efficiently, to identify and monitor the size and location of an at risk population or to understand and improve the structure of a social movement organization. I say "trying to pull off" because normally there was usually no money for anything and/or little interest from those with resources to fund what the organization wanted to do - at least, initially. All of the projects involved a little hustling - especially in the beginning.
This webpage is dedicated to many of the projects that I was engaged in to document and understand the contentious interactions identified above. Some of these efforts involved eyewitness testimony, some involved archival research of government records, some involved evaluations of traditional or social media, some involved surveys and some involved creating event catalogs. The work here is explicitly committed to compiling the most accurate information possible through whatever sources and methods were most appropriate for the task at hand.
Note: I say "many of the projects that I was engaged in" because some did not turn out well and I have not felt comfortable discussing them in detail - projects in the Middle East, Zimbabwe, Mexico, the Dominican Republic (in order of attempt/failure). This may change in the future but for the time being, enjoy what is here.
Sincerely
[Christian]
Director - The Radical Information Project