Rising authoritarianism, spreading conflicts, and the increasing availability of tools that make it easy to bend the truth are among the factors shifting the ground on which civil society organizations operate. The heightened sense of insecurity and a broadened perception of threats further limit the room that CSOs have worked on carving for themselves. As such, CSOs are finding themselves in a position to get their voices heard and have their actions matter in contexts where anything ranging from human rights and environment to communication and health gets reframed as a security threat and (tried to be) moved out of the public discussion. This workshop invites participants to collectively brainstorm the roles that CSOs play and strategies they can engage or leave behind in such contexts.
Şirin Duygulu’s research focuses on the dynamics and processes of international politics. She primarily studies the role of unlikely actors in shaping various issues areas in international politics (such as security, environment, migration, and human rights) and the role of technology in transforming agendas, institutions, and policies at the global level. Şirin has a PhD in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is an Assist. Prof at Istanbul Medipol University and currently teaches at King’s College London.