5.Solidarity and Sustainability

Do you know about non-profits and/or advocacy groups focused on the social and ecological impacts of religious patriarchies?


CURRENT ISSUE:

Solidarity & Sustainability ~ Volume 2, Number 6, June 2006


This is the third issue in the series, "Mimetic Violence in Patriarchal Religions." Rene Girard's mimetic theory is applied to a relatively recent episode in the Roman Catholic Church. Specifically, this case example pertains to the male-only priesthood, and the manner in which the discernment process on the ordination of women was "terminated" (at least temporarily) by the Vatican. The analysis includes the five Girardian phases: mimetic desire, mimetic rivalry, skandalon,scapegoating, and sacred violence.

There is no implication of intentional wrongdoing by anyone at the Vatican or elsewhere. However, a radical renunciation of violence is postulated as indispensable to make progress toward human solidarity and environmental sustainability. Religious institutions must show the way by renouncing the triple patriarchal addiction to wealth accumulation,absolute power, and worldly honors; thereby renouncing violence.If religious institutions really want to be instruments of peace, they better practice non-violence in their own internal affairs.

Any feedback is gratefully received.

P.S. The July 2006 issue is in preparation. Please forward this notice to people who might be interested on the impact of patriarchal religions to global issues of solidarity, sustainability, and gender equity.

4.venture philanthropy

Social entrepreneur offers blueprint
for social change through IT

As the Internet boom was gaining momentum in boardrooms across the
United States, an entirely different technology revolution was quietly taking place on the other side of the world: The “venture philanthropy” movement supported social change through technology in Eastern European countries and others emerging from generations of authoritarian rule.

Author Jonathan Peizer chronicles his years on the front lines of that
revolution in his new book “The Dynamics of Technology for Social Change.” With this book, Peizer offers a blueprint for philanthropists, social entrepreneurs, corporate responsibility programs and academics trying to enact social change through Internet Communications Technology.

In 1993, Peizer joined philanthropist George Soros’ foundation to
create an Internet program for the foundation’s Open Society Institute. Over the next seven years, Peizer helped launch 250 projects in more than 30 countries with the goal of facilitating social change and sustainable economic development through technology.

Using his firsthand experience, Peizer offers strategies for using ICT
to facilitate change in NGOs, understanding the culture of nonprofits, and promoting relationships between nonprofits, foundations, government entities and private companies to achieve a mutual mission. “The Dynamics of Technology for Social Change” is an important resource for understanding program
sustainability, implementation and evaluation, as well as the unique
challenges facing open source methodology in the nonprofit environment and the importance of donor support conferences.

Peizer catalogs the history of venture philanthropy projects — from
Estonia to Albania, from the Czech Republic to Azerbaijan, and from Mongolia to South Africa and Haiti — along with their unique challenges, including civil war, political upheaval and even the threat of NATO bombings. While Americans were just starting to use ponderous dial-up modem service, Peizer was helping
implement alternative Internet service using satellites, spread-spectrum radio modems, ham radios, cable TV, microwaves and asynchronous satellite technology for
nonprofits around the globe.

With more than 20 years of experience in ICT consulting, Peizer directed the Internet program for the Soros Foundation’s Open Society Network from 1993 to 2000 and continued to support and develop projects promoting social change through technology as its Chief Technology Officer from 2001 through 2005. He continues his work in the field of venture philanthropy as founder of Internaut Consulting, Greentealovers.com and capaciteria.org.

Eileen Garvin

3.The Dynamics of Technology for Social Change

The Dynamics of Technology for Social Change” by social entrepreneur Jonathan Peizer.

The book offers a blueprint for venture philanthropists, academics,
social entrepreneurs, nonprofits and government agencies seeking to improve people’s lives through technology.

In this new book, author Jonathan Peizer chronicles the venture
philanthropy projects that took him to more than 30 countries in a seven-year period as director of the Soros Foundation’s Internet program. Peizer helped implement technology for the sake of social change in tumultuous times for Europe, Asia and other parts of the world at a time when the use of the Internet for these
purposes and the concept of venture philanthropy were in their infancy.

Jonathan Peizer lectures frequently on this subject.

2.Will segmentation work for charities?

Market segmentation is an important tool in marketing.Wikipedia lists the requirements of succesful segmentation strategy as follows.

homogeneity within the segment
heterogeneity between segments
segments are measurable and identifiable
segments are accessible and actionable
segment is large enough to be profitable.

Why do we segment markets?Its because different people respond in a different way to the 4 p's(1,2,3,4) in marketing.Segments ensure that the marketer spends his resources in a judicial way.

Will segmentation stragetegies work for non-profit marketing firms?Obviously they are working.That's why we see soo many charities targeting different types of segments.But what segmentation stragegies work what strategies dont work?

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I refined this question further and did a study.I cant talk about the specific hypotheses and findings,but I can talk about the statistical techniques I used in this study.I used regression and manova.To conclude, this story has a happy ending.The paper got accepted in a conference.

But the million $ question is(well actually it's not a million dollar question:-) will this paper turn out into a good journal article?

I am an eternal optimist.:-)

1.Philosophy of Research

The philosophy of research interests me a lot.In this blog I will mostly write about epistemology and pragmatism,i.e the underlying philosophies of science.But I wouldnt keep this blog so dry and will often write about applied philosophy and social sciences like business,marketing and statistics.

I hope that I can build a network of researchers through this blog.Initially I hope to gain by practicing my creative skills by writing in this blog.As days go on I hope that I will upgrade the quality of my writing through this blog.

I thank the moderators of blogdesam who enlisted this in their portal.

with regards
selvan