Organizational Resilience between Competing Networks of Infomediaries: A Case Study in Civil Society Resilience in Hong Kong

TL;DR

This paper examines how NGOs in Hong Kong act as infomediaries to support migrant domestic workers' resilience, highlighting challenges due to fragmented technology use and competition among NGOs.

Contribution

It identifies the role of NGOs as infomediaries in fostering resilience among MDWs and offers recommendations to improve ICT integration and collaboration within existing community networks.

Findings

Fragmented technology use hampers NGO support efforts.

NGOs' competition for funding limits resilience-building.

Aligning ICT tools with community needs can enhance resilience.

Abstract

This study explores how non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Hong Kong can be considered as 'infomediaries' (UNDP, 2003) in their use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to support resilience-building across a growing population of migrant domestic workers (MDWs). It also acknowledges MDWs effective existing self-organizing community networks, including religious groups and labour unions. This study maps how NGO infomediaries are currently supporting MDW communities. It posits that NGOs are uniquely capable of developing ICTs grounded in local legal, psychological, and cultural contexts to improve MDW community resilience. The study finds that the fragmented nature of technology use between NGO infomediaries and the competition between NGOs for funding hinders NGO infomediaries' ability to support building lasting resilience within the MDW community. Recommendations from this study seek to align NGO infomediary tool development more closely with the MDW community in Hong Kong's existing communicative ecologies. It considers NGOs as infomediaries capable of adapting and streamlining various linkages across grassroots MDW social organizations, local community leaders, and governments that impact the MDW community. This study is a tool for NGO infomediaries to understand the types of resilience networks that they are uniquely capable of building with MDWs in Hong Kong.