Maja Van der Velden
Bio
"My name is Maja van der Velden. I am an activist and researcher interested in global justice, communication, and gender issues. From the Amsterdam squatter movement via tamwa.or.tz and utopia.hacktic.nl to baraka.org in Palestine, and around the world with apc.org and other organisations and networks.
Home is a woodlot next to the Alfred Bog wetland in rural Ontario, Canada - a place with beautiful dragonflies - as well as Oslo, Norway. I now live in Norway after living in Tanzania, the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Canada.
I was born and educated in the Netherlands. My formal education is in Arab Languages and Cultures (M.A.) mixed with Political Science and Medical Anthropology. At the moment I am a research fellow at Intermedia, Bergen, pursuing a PhD in Information and Media Studies at the University of Bergen in Norway.
My research interests come forth out of my practical experiences as a trainer and activist, promoting and using ICT for global justice and social change. I experienced in practice the homogenising and standardising aspects of ICT, limiting our possibilities for representation, communication and creation. On the other hand, ICT seems to sustain networks and "meshworks", facilitating and even increasing diversity, heterogeneity and self-organisation. Always on the look-out for the "spaces of vulnerability in the networks of flows", I am interested in alternative and dissident design and use of ICTs." (http://www.globalagenda.org/index.php?topic=profile&style_id=0)