Using Digital Tools to Challenge Xenophobia and Support International Development in South Africa

该项目将与南非豪登省的年轻人团体合作，挑战当今该国日益高涨的仇外情绪，支持国际发展非政府组织“西蒙主教信托基金”（BST）及其在该地区服务的20个社区组织（cbo）的工作。该项目将与BST和约翰内斯堡大屠杀与种族灭绝中心（JHGC）合作，利用JHGC的展览、档案和其他资源，制作一套数字教育材料，探索今天南非可以从大屠杀和卢旺达种族灭绝的种族暴力中吸取的教训。该项目将借鉴Cooke的AHRC项目“体验数字世界：数字参与遗产的文化价值”的研究成果，在时间和资源允许的情况下，数字遗产资产的共同生产可以真正将基层社区与遗产机构联系起来，从而实现两者之间关系的根本转变。在项目过程中，该团队将共同努力制作一系列数字资源，其确切性质将通过知识交流和合作生产的过程来决定。据设想，该项目将制作短片、视频和摄影文章，策划小型数字展览，研究家族史或制作创意写作，所有这些都将以这样一种方式呈现，即提出问题，与南非当代仇外暴力的兴起进行比较，并引发讨论。然后，这些资源将作为一项教育方案的一部分，在所有基层组织更广泛的教育活动中推广并纳入其中。通过这样做，该项目将使BST有机会进一步加强社区组织，并探索建立受支持的儿童和青少年的信心和复原力的新方法。它将为探讨围绕仇外心理的高度敏感问题提供一个安全空间，并使年轻人能够在自己的社区内考虑根源、后果和解决办法。这将有助于在社区一级挑战偏见，使社区领导人更加优先考虑仇外心理，并有助于确定长期和可持续的社区主导的解决办法。该项目还将使JHGC有机会与cbo进行持续的合作，这些cbo的人口结构比他们迄今为止合作过的游客要多样化得多。该中心将发展在该中心工作的同事的数字技能基础，使他们能够承担未来的数字合作制作项目，探索数字工具如何提供新的和更好的方式，以实现其更广泛的使命，“利用大屠杀和卢旺达种族灭绝的历史，直接干预当代关于侵犯人权、仇外心理、种族主义和偏见的辩论”。制作的材料将被纳入该中心的在线提供，并将免费提供给所有人。精选的材料也将作为数字装置在中心本身展出。因此，该项目响应了“国际发展重点通知”。它将“促进文化组织和不同社区团体之间的知识交流、共享学习和能力发展”，并“探索艺术和人文科学研究如何为官方发展援助受援国的包容性参与性决策、社区参与、合作制作、社会创新和用户主导的服务设计提供信息”，具体而言，是为了“为联合国2030年可持续发展议程做出重大贡献”。目标16：通过“挑战歧视”和支持“各级参与性和代表性决策”，“促进公正、和平和包容的社会”。

The project will work with groups of young people across the Gauteng province of South Africa to challenge the rising tide of xenophobia to be found in the country today, supporting the work of the international development NGO The Bishop Simeon Trust (BST) and the 20 Community Based Organisations (CBOs) it services in the region. Working in partnership with BST and the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre (JHGC), the project will use the exhibitions, archive and other resources of JHGC to create a set of digital educational materials that will explore the lessons that can be learnt for South Africa today from the ethnic violence of the Holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide. The project will draw on the research findings of Cooke's AHRC project 'Experiencing the Digital World: the Cultural Value of Digital Engagement with Heritage' on the ways in which the co-production of digital heritage assets can, when time and resources permit, genuinely connect grassroots communities with heritage institutions, effecting a fundamental shift in the relationship between the two. Over the course of the project, the group will work together to make a range of digital resources, the precise nature of which will be decided via a process of knowledge exchange and co-produduction. It is envisaged that the project will produce short films, video and photographic essays, curate small digital exhibitions, research family histories or produce creative writing, all of which will be presented in such a way as to raise questions, draw comparisons with, and prompt discussion about the rise of contemporary xenophobic violence in South Africa. These resources will then be used as part of an educational programme to be rolled out across, and embedded within, the wider educational activities of all the CBOs. In so doing, the project will give BST the opportunity to further strengthen the CBOs, as well as explore new means of building the confidence and resilience of the children and young people supported. It will provide a safe space for the exploration of the highly sensitive issues around xenophobia and empower young people to consider root causes, consequences and means of resolution within their own communities. This will have the impact of helping to challenge prejudice at community level, leading to greater prioritization of xenophobia by community leaders and help identify long term and sustainable community-led solutions. The project will also give JHGC the opportunity to undertake a sustained period of work with CBOs that have a far more diverse demographic than the visitors they have worked with hitherto. It will develop the digital skill-base of colleagues working at the centre, allowing them to undertake future digital co-production projects, exploring how digital tools can provide new and better ways to deliver its broader mission 'to use the history of the Holocaust and Rwandan genocide to intervene directly in contemporary debates on human rights abuses, xenophobia, racism and bigotry'. The material produced will be incorporated into the centre's online offering and will be freely available to all. A selection of the materials will also be exhibited as a digital installation at the centre itself. Thus, the project responds to the 'Highlight Notice for International Development'. It will 'catalyse knowledge exchange, shared learning and capability development' between cultural organisations and diverse community groups and 'explore ways that arts and humanities research can inform approaches to inclusive participatory decision-making, community engagement, co-production, social innovation and user-led service design in an ODA recipient country', in order to make 'a significant contribution to the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development', specifically, Goal 16 to 'promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies', by 'challenging discrimination' and supporting 'participatory and representative decision-making at all levels.