The Foundation Open Society-Macedonia, Open Society-US and Latin America Program, in cooperation with Topos Partnership, will be implementing the project “Redefining the Anti-Corruption Narratives” during October 2019 and August 2020. The purpose of this initiative is to identify and apply effective public narratives that disclose corruption but at the same time cultivate civic participation, action and hope. The project includes comparative case studies in three countries: North Macedonia, Brazil and the United States.
Academic research suggests that traditional communication approaches to corruption can often have disproportionate consequences for those advocated by CSOs. So the result may be reduced civic engagement, and encouraging environment for populism, uncontrolled privatization, or a simplistic understanding of the problem.
Thus, this project aims to explore alternative approaches to concealing anti-corruption narratives by conducting ethnographic research in the three countries in order to test different communication approaches, but also to provide expert assistance to selected CSOs in evaluating and enhancing their corruption-related communication practices.
CSOs from North Macedonia participating in the project are:
- Association for Emancipation, Solidarity and Equality of Women;
- Institute for Democracy Societas Civilis;
- Youth Educational Forum;
- Multiculture;
- Coalition All for Fair Trials.
The first meeting between partner organizations and Joe Grady of Topos, a former professor of linguistics at Georgetown University and the University of Maryland, took place on 19 November in the FOSM premises. In early December, a Topos representative is expected to visit the organizations and meet with researchers who will conduct the research in North Macedonia.
—————————————————
25 November 2019