5.3.4 Civil society and international-mindedness
Content
- Geographic inquiry and concept(s)
- The varying power of local places and actors to resist or accept change.
- Geographic knowledge and understanding
- The role of civil society in promoting international-mindedness and participating in global interactions, including social media use and campaigning for internet freedom
- Case study or detailed examples
- Two detailed examples of places where restricted freedoms have been challenged
- Aims of this lesson
- To have knowledge and understanding of the role of civil society in promoting international-mindedness and participating in global interactions.
- To have knowledge and understanding of two detailed examples of places where restricted freedoms have been challenged.
Base knowledge and understanding
News article
US funding for global internet freedom ‘effectively gutted’
Programme that funds groups building tech to evade oppressive government controls under serious threat
The Guardian · 19 February 2026
Key terms
- Civil society
- The aggregate of non-governmental organisations and institutions that manifest interests and will of citizens.
- International-mindedness
- A view of the world in which people see themselves connected to the global community and assume a sense of responsibility to its members. It is an awareness of the inter-relatedness of all nations and peoples, and a recognition of the complexity of these relationships.
- Internet freedom
- An umbrella term that encompasses digital rights, freedom of information, the right to Internet access, freedom from Internet censorship, and net neutrality.
- Restricted freedoms
- Limitations imposed by governments or other powerful actors on individuals' ability to participate in various aspects of global interactions.
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Review
- Using examples, analyse the ways in which government and militia controls restrict individual participation in global networks. [12]
- National governments have lost the ability to control global interactions. To what extent do you agree with this statement? [16]
This lesson, like the rest of this course, is made in collaboration with AI. The judgement is mine, built on many years of teaching this course: what belongs here, what is true, what order it comes in, and what is worth your time. AI helps me draft, question, and keep hundreds of pages consistent; anything wrong is my responsibility, not the machine's. I ask my students to be honest about how they work with AI, and this is me doing the same. More on how we think about that: Using AI in your learning.
