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This book focuses on the surprising generative possibilities which digital and smart technologies offer media consumers, citizens, institutions and governments in making publics and places, across topics as diverse as Twitter audiences, . ; Mary Griffiths

The article describes a case study: the design and delivery of a university media course on the changing forms of communication and mediated political participation in liberal democracies. The course takes a heuristic, immersive and authentic assessment approach to professional media education. It works from the premise that participation in scenario-driven simulated public events, with students in the roles of journalists, politicians, support staff and civil society actors, deepens professional and democratic understandings about what is at stake for democracy in digital culture's acceleration of political and public communication. The role-play, set in a fictional Westminster-style democracy, occurs at a time when access to public information has broadened, and Web 2.0 technologies have impacted on the speed, transparency and accountability in journalism and political practices. The aim is to replicate the quickening flows of political information and their viral nature; and to understand significant media-political relationships; the ideologies and affiliations of opposed news institutions; and political networks' competition for influence. Course features include a theoretical preparation and writing praxis period, augmented by guest lectures from media and political representatives. Students then enter the Digital Information Flows Scenario (DIFS) in a fictional polity, Incognita, and act within their role and group affiliations, circulating and responding to texts in various formats for different readerships. What can be achieved using this approach? ; Mary Griffiths

Civic hackathons have become a popular, experimental process through which to promote public access to open government data and enable innovative civic uses for the information. The International Space Apps Challenge, led by NASA, is a high-profile event, promoting the use of space-derived data with the aim of contributing solutions to 'grand challenges' such as environmental sustainability. Central to the civic hackathons are the concepts of 'stewardship,' and 'usefulness'. The study explores the promises and realities of civic hacking through analysis of the aims of the organisers, perspectives of participants and the event's outcomes, concluding that hackathon peer processes promote networks for knowledge transfer. ; Sumen Rai, Mary Griffiths

In einer Fallstudie aus Botswana in einem Themenschwerpunkt über Frauen, Sprache und Recht analysiert die Autorin genderspezifische Ausprägungen eines Erbschaftsstreits, in dem Männer grundsätzlich bessere Chancen des Zugangs zu Ressourcen haben als Frauen. Frauen müssten immer noch um ihren Status und die Durchsetzung gleicher Rechtsansprüche kämpfen. (DÜI-Kör)

The collection of papers in this volume is an introduction of legal problems facing women in the Southern African region. The position of women in Southern Africa is closely linked with the whole socio-economic fabric of the society. This book is a contribution to a process of change