This project is part of the research programme 'Connecting in Times of Duress' in which the relation between new ICTs, regions in conflict or political oppression, socio-political change are central. The project has as one of its mayor qualitative methodologies the biographical method. This method is combined in an amalgam of ethnographic methodologies.
The V4T project takes biographies of engaged people as its starting point. The portraits of these persons are an entrance point into their lives, their environment, and the problematics as the research CTD puts central, but this time through the eyes of the V4T. The Voice and Thoughts of the V4T are often multiple, and an interesting reflection on his or her society. These voices make us rethink our premises and ideas about Africa.
The project enables researchers of the CTD project (and outside the project, in the future also outside of Africa) to disseminate their knowledge in an alternative way and accessible for a large audience. The combination of academic work and the presentation in an artistic way is at the core of this project.
The V4T come from different domains of governance in society: politics, government, arts, religion, academics, Journalism, the social; fields that are often blurred in one person. These alternative government fields are the moving forces of which the V4T are part.