Sixteenth International Conference on Technology, Knowledge & Society

Abstract

While much attention has been given to assessing the success of transitional justice and reparation processes, understanding the role of information systems as a media for representing aspects of human conflict remains mostly unstudied. Most of the available literature focuses on the intersection of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and development, and conflict reparation is treated in a mostly circumstantial manner. At the same time, growing literature indicates that digital media ranging from databases to web resources interact with–and more significantly, portray–collective memory formation processes, in which the representation of conflict is inescapable. Representations of conflict connected to elements in the collective memory play a significant role by priming agents to questions involving the subjects of reparation and transitional justice. This paper raises questions on “mediatization of memory,” demanding new perspectives into how information systems have been used as media for conflict remembrance in transitional justice processes, which voices have been captured and which ones have been left aside. An increasingly digital world, information systems (e.g., victim tracking and location systems, official and community websites, survey tools) transcend their expected pragmatic uses into media supporting narratives. Given the growing penetration of ICTs and the likely persistence of conflict across the globe, we believe this subject requires extensive treatment.