2019:Advocacy/Non-Partisan vs. Normalisation - Should we interact with elected extremists?

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Advocacy/Non-Partisan vs. Normalisation - Should we interact with elected extremists?

Title

Non-Partisan vs. Normalisation - (How) Should we interact with elected extremists?

Description

In several corners of the world, extremists get elected into parliaments, which makes it inevitable to ask ourselves: (How) Should we interact with elected extremist parliamentarians and governments?

Depending on the local or regional political situation, this can be a complex issue. On the one hand, talking to extremists might normalise their stance in the eyes of society and the media and thereby help them in mainstreaming their agenda. On the other, excluding them might validate their narrative of being “the only true opposition” and also NPOV, tolerance and basic principles of democracy might demand that we interact with them on some (which?) level.

In this session we want to collect experiences from around the world, discuss that against the respective political status quo on the ground and try to figure out what to do and what to avoid. This might prompt difficult debates about definitions of extremism, about the role of advocating for Free Knowledge and about other exciting things.

Relationship to the theme

This session will address the conference theme — Wikimedia, Free Knowledge and the Sustainable Development Goals — in the following manner:

With whom and how to interact in advocacy does not relate to an of the UN's SDGs in particular, but to the basics of Wikimedian public policy efforts, and thus at least to all SDGs identified on the Space's info space.

Session outcomes

At the end of the session, the following will have been achieved:

• Participants will have an impression about the situation in other parts of the world regarding extremist views and the political system this plays out in.
• They also will have an overview of how others deal with extremist groups / parliamentarians in their region.
• (Hopefully) Some basic agreement can be documented about our role as Wikimedians advocating for Free Knowledge projects and their needs, about what constitutes extremists views in the light of the Wikimedian philosophy and more.
• Ideally some consensus or general understanding has been found about good or even best practices around extremist views.

Session leader(s)

• John Weitzmann

Usernames

• John Weitzmann (WMDE)

Affiliation/country (if any)

• Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. (German Chapter)

E-mail contact (optional)

• john.weitzmann@wikimedia.de

Session type

Each Space at Wikimania 2019 will have specific format requests. The program design prioritises submissions which are future-oriented and directly engage the audience. The format of this submission is a:

• Workshop to identify and try to solve problem
• Roundtable discussion forum

Requirements

The session will work best with these conditions:

• Room:

small to medium room with workshoppable setup or round-table seating

• Audience:

not more than 20 probably (?)

• Recording:

as this quite a delicate topic, recording might impede people's feeling comfortable to discuss this, so: rather not