Department | Social Technology and Digital Citizenship (STC)
UNESCO
CODES:
Social
Observatory
COORDINATION
.... open call MEMBERS | Provisional assignment
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Attached to the
Department of EuroMed: Social
Technology and Digital Citizenship are considered the
Professors and researchers of the corresponding Departments of the
Consortium Universities that undertake teaching and research
responsability in any of the EMUI programmes.
Department Goals and
Objectives:
Introduction
Modern societies are shored up by fundamental
principles that legitimate every system claiming the appellative of
democratic,
and pursue to set the conditions for the instauration and stability of
a
welfare society. These aims are not possible without the referent of
the
“knowledge society”, which is expected to count with agents of the
proper or
generated resources. This management must not only meet the profile of
the
users, but also be assisted by educational policies, which disseminate
the
resources and promote their rational administration. A political
program of
this nature is, at the same time, impossible without recurrent
academic-research
programs.
Observatory
“Euro-Med: Social Technology And Digital
Citizenship”
The
Euro-Mediterranean University Institute
of Malta, in cooperation with
the Complutense University of Madrid and under the patronage of the
Anna Lindh
Euro-Mediterranean Foundation, sets up the Project “Euro-Med: Social
Technology and
Digital Citizenship”, a
digital monitoring observatory available for public and private
institutions
interested in the area. The University Department emerges with a triple
goal:
promoting the social ownership of the technology in order to contribute
to the
eradication of the gap in the Mediterranean area and to foster the
development
of a digital citizenship within the framework of the construction of
the
concept of Europe.
This initiative complements the theoretical-practical training of
those attending the Master “Information and Knowledge Society”, an
academic
program offered by the institutions mentioned above, which is an
equally valid
complementary training for professionals coming from adjacent areas.
The
observatory aims at analyzing
different initiatives focused on studying the concept of digital
citizenship in
order to build a Euro-Mediterranean common space, going further euro
centrism
temptations. This
concept is an
essential issue to integrate a community in which the digital gap finds
itself
at the same time with other cultural, racial, economic and territorial
long
standing gaps, which undermine the attempts to carry out a deep
modernization
of the idea of Europe
and a cultural and political harmonization between the borders of the
Mediterranean.
This specific Euro-Mediterranean citizenship is
based on the social ownership of the technology, and the consequent
impact on
democracy, the Human Rights fourth generation, the digital inclusive
policies
and the electronic governance development.
Based
on descriptors such as
"Citizenship and new technologies", "Citizenship and
information", "Digital monitoring" the Observatory, on a
specific need and descriptor ("Information Society and Globalization
Cosmopolitan") is divided into the following sub-departments: 1 "Media
Lab", 2 "Digital Gap", 3 "Digital Diaspora", 4
"Knowledge and Free Software" and 5 "Digital Citizenship and
Digital Gap"
Given
the fact that this Department
operates inside the structure of the Euro-Mediterranean University
Institute,
all the work and research will be mainly focused on the Mediterranean
area. To
this end, we pretend to cover the following activities:
1. A
Media Lab dealing with the research on social
networks and production of free knowledge.
2. A
specific research area about the digital gap, in
order to generate useful indicators showing and comparing the current
situation
of our focus area with other areas in the world.
3. A
research area dealing with the “digital Diaspora”,
having in account that this concept implies the use of new technologies
such as
mobiles, laptops and different communication systems that allow social
cohesion
among the migrants communities.
4. A
software and free knowledge Observatory focused on
the Mediterranean area, which will be in charged on producing reports
about the
developments and implementation of the new technologies in the region,
as well
as the recommendations on these issues, especially those concerning the
integration of these technologies in the public administration and the
e-governance.
5. An
advising department dealing with the digital
citizenship, as a tool to fight against the digital gap, to foment the
cohesion
among the different communities that live in the area and providing
their own
technology to the developing countries in the area.
Goals |
As
we have indicated the specific
objectives are:
1)
forming and informing the public
and governments in the area,
2)
establishing a stable track
digital observatory serving citizens and institutions,
3)
making a new generation of
academics lead the project and giving them the opportunity,
4)
achieving greater involvement of
politicians and businessmen in the proposed objectives,
5)
and implementing the mechanisms
for similar programs recommended by the European Commission.
Supporting
Educational Program
As
mentioned above, in the framework
of the EMUI post-graduate educational program, we offer the on-line
Master Information and Knowledge Society,
which is a force that must complement the main objective of the
project: the
creation of a digital tracking observatory. Together with this program,
the
EMUI offers as well the Master European Union and Mediterranean:
Historical, Cultural, Political, Economic and Social
Bases.
These
courses are the result of an integration
process of academic networks which work on European and Mediterranean
issues. It is aimed at educating professionals with a
specific vision, with the capacity to foment the integration among
Europe,
the South and the East
Mediterranean.
Therefore, the priority lines are: the evolution of
the European integration and the operation of its institutions, the
development
of the legal and economic infrastructures, the development cooperation,
the
socio-economic European culture, the community policies and especially
their
Euro-Mediterranean projection. Thus it is offered a postgraduate course
of
excellence, which permits the acquisition of theoretical and practical
knowledge and the expertness of its students in European Union issues.
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